A post I made over on the sci-fi board that I thought some folks here would like to read:
I've frequently heard the comment about some of the heroes on this year's Superhero show that they are too "silly" to be compelling characters, and to frivolous and satirical to make a good comic book. In particular, I have heard this about Hygena, Ms. Limelight, Basura, and Mr. Mitzvah, and I even heard it a couple of times about Parthenon. Last year of course we heard it about a lot of the heroes, like Fat Mama (and even Feedback to a certain extent).
I disagree with that notion, but I have been trying for a while to articulate why I find that to be a shortsighted opinion. This is my attempt to substantiate my opinion that these hero concepts are just as valid as the more "modern" concepts.
In the comic book world, I think you can sort of divide superheroes into two "types", which I will call Modern and Post-Modern.
"Modern" superheroes are, in my mind, the kind you found in the Golden Age of comics. Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, the original Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and those kinds of heroes. Great heroes all, who started around the 1940s.
"Post-Modern" superheroes were started, for the most part, by Stan Lee and Marvel Comics in the Silver Age. They include Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, and those kinds of comics. Also great heroes, who started around the 1960s.
Modern Comics usually took people who were already extraordinary, and made them even more extraordinary. They were already heroes to begin with, and they were just made into "Super" heroes. Superman was an alien (and extraordinary thing), and made into a Super alien. Wonder Woman was an Amazon, made into a Super Amazon. Captain America was a soldier, made into a Super Soldier. The original human torch was an android, made into a Super android. The Sub-Mariner was a noble water-breathing "man" who ruled an underwater kingdom, who gained power even on land. In every case, the character started out already as a supernatural or extraordinary being of some kind. They were already people that could have been in novels and television shows and movies at the time as heroes, and becoming superheroes just amped up their existing greatness to a new level. Modern comics didn't change the context of the character when they made them superheroes, it just amplified the context they were already in.
Post-Modern comics did something different. They entirely changed the context of the individual from one thing to an entirely new other thing. Spider-Man went from a nerdy weak high school kid to a super powered athlete. Hulk took a brilliant scientist and made him into a mindless beast. The X-Men took ordinary awkward but accepted teenagers and made them into super-powered beings suddenly shunned by society. Iron Man took a healthy, wealthy man and gave him a weak heart and alcoholism. The Fantastic Four took a private family and made them super, and the focus of the attention of the world. In each case, someone (or a group) was taken out of one situation, often an ordinary one, and placed into a new extraordinary context.
There are of course exceptions to this description (like Batman in some respects), but I think it makes for a fairly accurate general rule.
Current comics are a mix of modern and post-modern superheroes. Some new heroes are, in my opinion, throw-backs to the golden-age modernist style. For example, there is a string of sort of anti-heroes that have achieved some popularity: Punisher, Ghost Rider, Deadpool, and others. However, to me, these are usually just a sub-set of modern heroes, but with an anti-hero twist. Punisher and Deadpool were both special forces extraordinary men who became even more extraordinary. Ghost Rider was a famous stunt rider who became an extraordinary stunt rider (in addition to the supernatural aspect of the character). Heck, even Spawn was a top CIA agent who draws on what he learned in the CIA to further what he does. To me they are just the old type of modern comics (special into super-special), but with the twist of being more in the line of vigilantes than particularly law-abiding. Mind you, I don't think that makes them uninteresting, just not new a new type (more of a vigilante sub-type of modern heroes).
So now we finally come to the point of this post. Much like current comics, the current crop of Superheroes on the show are a mix of modern and post-modern heroes.
On the one hand you have some modern heroes who start as extraordinary people and become even more extraordinary: Defuser is a police officer who becomes an extraordinary police officer; Hyper-Strike is a martial arts expert and acrobat who becomes a super martial arts expert and acrobat; Mindset is a man with all the knowledge of the future who comes back in time as an even more powerful present-day being. All three characters start as something already special (from our perspective), and they become something even more special.
On the other hand you have some post-modern heroes: Hygena is an ordinary orphan maid who is magically changed to a super crime fighter; Basura is an ordinary woman with nothing on the streets who becomes someone that can communicate with insects and transform garbage into tools; Ms. Limelight is an ordinary teen who likes movies who gets the powers of characters in the movies she watches. All three characters start as something ordinary, and they are transformed into something special. Rather than amplifying their existing lives, the context of their lives is entirely changed into something new.
Post-Modern is not, in my opinion, "better" than modern, just different. However, there is a distinction usually present between the two types that is often overlooked: explaining a post-modern hero can be much more complicated than explaining a modern hero, due to the necessity of focusing on both the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of the character.
For example, If you had never heard of the concept of Spider-Man, and I told you this short summary of the character, how would you honestly feel: "High school nerd gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets spider superpowers to go on to fight his arch villain, the Green Goblin, who throws explosive pumpkins at him." To me, that’s a pretty silly premise for a character, told as that short summary.
However, once you get to know the details of the Spider-Man character, his personality, the contours of his powers and the universe he lives in, his background, the contrast between his ordinary life and extraordinary life and the problems that can cause, and other surrounding information, only then does Spider-Man really become a compelling character. And because the story depends on both the ordinary and the extraordinary to explain it, it doesn't lend itself to a compelling quick summary of the character. Modern characters tend to be easier to explain in a short period of time ("Special Forces Soldier becomes Super Soldier") than some post-modern heroes.
And that is why I think some folks are selling the post-modern characters on this Superhero season a bit short when they dismiss certain characters as too "silly" to make for compelling comic book stories. These types of characters on the show are not intended as satire, but as real post-modern heroes. When explained in a short summary, they often sound silly (just like Spider-Man). But if you give them a chance, if you get into the character and the world they live in and the contrast between their ordinary lives and their super-lives and the problems that come with that change, I think you would find any of the post-modern characters just as compelling as the modern characters.
So I'd ask that people give all the types of heroes on this show a chance, and not dismiss any of them as too silly to make a compelling comic book series. There is a lot more to all the heroes than the shallow summary you might get from the show (due to time constraints). You never know what quirky-sounding idea ends up as the most compelling kind of tale, and I think that is where Stan Lee has always been coming from when he chooses his super-heroes, in both comic books and on this show. Trust that Stan Lee knows a bit about what he is doing when he selects superhero concepts - he helped invent some very compelling superheroes that sell in the top 10 comics even to this day, may of which sounded fairly silly in short summary to begin with. Give them all a chance, and I think you will be surprised how three dimensional and deep any of these characters can be.
