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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 8693144" data-attributes="member: 467">I think you might be starting from a bit of a false premise. The Boys and Invincible are both nearly 20 years old. they are coming at the end of reclamation of the super-hero after the deconstructive phase that began in the late Bronze Age, peaked with Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, and then spiraled into leather and chains clad silliness in the 90s. The Boys is a parody of that tradition, while Invincible is an honest attempt to crawl out of it.As to your broader question: we have always expected our heroes to be better than us, within the context of the society at large. The first super hero, Gilgamesh, was punished because he was a depraved king who forced married girls to lay with him on their wedding night. Heroes are punished for their flaunting of the rules and avoiding their responsibilities (Achilles, anyone). So I think, yes, well written super hero stories are continuation of the heroic myth tradition.In the context of D&amp;D, it might be interesting to do similar stories where you start with high level characters that are not the nice guys, and get themselves in trouble with whatever powers rule morality in the multiverse. I just don't know if D&amp;D is the best vehicle for that (it is baked into Exalted, for example) nor do I know if it would be easy to find a group of players who would be excited to tell that story.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 8693144, member: 467"] I think you might be starting from a bit of a false premise. The Boys and Invincible are both nearly 20 years old. they are coming at the end of reclamation of the super-hero after the deconstructive phase that began in the late Bronze Age, peaked with Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, and then spiraled into leather and chains clad silliness in the 90s. The Boys is a parody of that tradition, while Invincible is an honest attempt to crawl out of it. As to your broader question: we have always expected our heroes to be better than us, within the context of the society at large. The first super hero, Gilgamesh, was punished because he was a depraved king who forced married girls to lay with him on their wedding night. Heroes are punished for their flaunting of the rules and avoiding their responsibilities (Achilles, anyone). So I think, yes, well written super hero stories are continuation of the heroic myth tradition. In the context of D&D, it might be interesting to do similar stories where you start with high level characters that are not the nice guys, and get themselves in trouble with whatever powers rule morality in the multiverse. I just don't know if D&D is the best vehicle for that (it is baked into Exalted, for example) nor do I know if it would be easy to find a group of players who would be excited to tell that story. [/QUOTE]

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