Sunday, May 9, 2010

Are Superheros really Super?

I recently watched Superman Returns with friends (Home Video) and noticed the stricking resemblance the superman story had with spiderman. Superman Returns was such a boring movie that I lost interest after the first 30 minuts and went back to playing games on my mobile phone while my friends watched the rest of the movie. After that incident, I don't think I will ever be able to watch another superhero movie.

And most of the superhero movies have a similar story line as well. The hero has some sort of superpower due to which he is a super hero, he leads a normal life like others but when there is a problem he'll chage into this extensively complicated and uncomfortable outfit and go out to save the world. No one shows how long a superhero takes to put on or strip down to the super suit and take off. Towards the end of the movie the villan always overpowers the superhero and either someone comes for the superhero's rescue or he takes some time off to regain all his super powers. And then there will be a lengthy climax stunt sequence afterwhich the superhero either kills the villan or the villan is sent out of the world or under water depending on whether the director wants him in the next sequel or not. Most of all, all superheros maintain their secret identity in such a way that no one will know that its the same guy who hangs around normal people actually turns into a superhero. The shameless IronMan is exempted from the secret identity rule as he shamelessly called for a press meet and told them that he is IronMan in the very first movie.

The more I thought about these superheros, I started to notice something. All the superheros we have today have a superpower which is uniques to that hero, we don't see a super hero who has all the superpowers combined that we have come across. This might not sound strange but what is actually strange is that the problems that each superhero faces. Each problem that a superhero faces is verymuch within the limits of that particular superhero's super powers. For example:

Spiderman:
  • In a spiderman movies / comics all the problems will happen in downtown most of the time, especially around sky scrappers, bridges or places where spiderman can stick his web and keep swinging around.
  • Even if the villan has to create trouble for the general public or for sipderman, he will ensure that he is hanging around sky scrappers or bridges.
  • You never see a spiderman stunt sequence by the country side or in a farm or in the middle of the ocean.


Superman:
  •  In superman movies / comics all problems will occur high up in the skies or under water.
  • Same rule applies to the villan as well. if he is creating chaos, he has to do it way up in the sky or under water.
  • If Superman had to fly through downtown, he will bang into every other sky scrapper and eventually die.


Phantom:
  • All the problems in a Phantom movie or comics has to happen around the forest he lives in most of the time.
  • The villans can never posses highly sophisticated weapons to fight the superhero instead they are allowed to use handguns provided they stand at an arms distance from the hero to fight him. Only then Phantom can deliver his signature punch. 


Batman:
  • The Villans in a Batman movie / comics have to be tech savy and keep inventing new gadgets that could destroy the world or Gotham city the least, otherwise all the gadgets that batman invents will never be put to use.
  • Most of the problems that occur or that is created by the villan in batman movies / comics have to happen in places that the batmobile or any other of batman's gadgets could access.


Robin:
  • This guy is the most ridiculous intern any superhero has ever had.
  • Even after years of internship he still hangs around with Batman, I can't think of any speciality that this guy has.
  • This guy keeps falling for every second woman he sees and everytime batman has to save him.



So Moral of the Story: These superheros are only superheros as long as the villans & the venues where the problems occur remain the same. If you have to simply interchange the villans, these superheros will cease to exist in less than 15 minutes. Superheros aren't really that super....

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