John the OFM | 06 Apr 2014 8:05 a.m. PST |
Not the funny books, not the games, not the movies. Do not bother to justify them, or explain them. You won't convince me, and my mind is made up. Consider this a rant, pure and simple. Oh, sure I read Superman when I was a kid, but
. 1 Corinthians 13:11
Pretending to be George Washington is SO much more grown up! |
Lupulus | 06 Apr 2014 8:32 a.m. PST |
"I dislike this thing but I will not say why, and I will not listen to you trying to convince me otherwise" Ok then, got it. |
Inari7 | 06 Apr 2014 8:35 a.m. PST |
For some people its a type of escapism, its not for all people. After all not all people what to be George Washington. |
Moonbeast | 06 Apr 2014 8:39 a.m. PST |
"After all not all people what to be George Washington." No kidding, I like having real teeth.:) |
Bashytubits | 06 Apr 2014 9:06 a.m. PST |
Where else can you get away with BOOM, THWOP, VROOSH as dialogue sans effects? |
Rapier Miniatures | 06 Apr 2014 9:08 a.m. PST |
That's ok, was talking to Clarke (Kent) and Tony (Stark) the other day and they said they don't get John the OFM, so fair is fair. |
Parzival | 06 Apr 2014 9:16 a.m. PST |
"Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."— C.S. Lewis So in other words, maybe when you do grow up, you'll get it. |
By John 54 | 06 Apr 2014 9:33 a.m. PST |
Well, that's you told! John |
Rrobbyrobot | 06 Apr 2014 9:55 a.m. PST |
I'm not a big fan of super heroes myself. But my Son and my Wife find them entertaining. So they're around the house. They're OK, I guess. I like toy soldiers. To my mind, we need heroes. They just don't need to be super. Real humans like Gen. Lee, Gen. Washington or Lt. Audie Murphy are just fine. Though some may see them as super. |
piper909 | 06 Apr 2014 9:56 a.m. PST |
Great CS Lewis quote. There is something to be said about retaining a sense of wonder and imagination and the ability to be thrilled by "childish" things. I periodically return to my favorite comics and characters because of this. At their best, they're our equivalent of ancient myths and legends. The ancient Greeks would have loved tales of Superman, for example, since they already have his progenitor in Heracles. Batman is sort of an Orestes figure
.while the escapades of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are pure slapstick, screwball comedy. That said, I do find 90% of comic books and spinoff movies today extremely tiresome and lacking imagination, wit, or depth; and energy blasts, mutants, cyborgs, giant robots, and CGI bore me beyond tears. My heart lies mainly in the Silver Age and things with those sensibilities. |
Cadian 7th | 06 Apr 2014 10:58 a.m. PST |
I'd much rather do historical, near future, or SciFi; but my kid's like cowboys, zombies, and Supers and will often combine the three! It's too much fun to play with my kids so I can't complain. I am beginning to enjoy crafting new fiendish, overly complicated plots for Dr Dread anyway! ;) |
Rhoderic III and counting | 06 Apr 2014 10:59 a.m. PST |
I never cared for the American superhero genre of comics or graphic novels. Hardly read anything of that sort as a kid. And yet the Japanese equivalents thereof (everything from giant robots to the frilly girly stuff) have a special place in my heart. Couldn't explain or justify it if I tried. Don't feel the need to try, either. I just know what makes me smile. |
Extra Crispy | 06 Apr 2014 11:01 a.m. PST |
I'm with the OFM here. Big fat men. |
John D Salt | 06 Apr 2014 11:32 a.m. PST |
I have a certain fondness for some of the classic Marvel superchaps and chapesses, and I thought the film "Avengers Assemble" was jolly well done. But I have never really understood the mechanism by which, for example, being bitten by a radioactive sloth is supposed to give me sloth-like superpowers. I have no sympathy with sympathetic magic. All the best, John. |
Cerdic | 06 Apr 2014 11:43 a.m. PST |
I've never really been interested in Superheroes either. But I don't get the connection between Superman and a rugby club??? |
GildasFacit | 06 Apr 2014 11:44 a.m. PST |
We had better looking Avengers here in the UK – all Steed's lasses were worth a second look. |
Ed Mohrmann | 06 Apr 2014 12:07 p.m. PST |
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Dynaman8789 | 06 Apr 2014 12:28 p.m. PST |
Could be worse, reality shows for example. Or Jerry Springer? Who actually wants to watch that stuff? |
morrigan | 06 Apr 2014 12:32 p.m. PST |
Not for me either. Didn't even like the comics that much when I was a kid. I liked Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos. :) |
Space Monkey | 06 Apr 2014 12:45 p.m. PST |
I love comics but have never much been into superheros
though I like some of the low-powered ones, like Plastic Man. The movie versions are much less interesting to me, they don't have the same ability to suspend my disbelief and generally don't move as fast. I did very much enjoy playing the MMO City of Heroes, where all the players are relatively low-powered supers. It was very pulp in its setting, lots of weird cultists, zombies, neo-Nazis (with vampires and werewolf troops!). It never got too heavy into the melodrama. |
nazrat | 06 Apr 2014 12:48 p.m. PST |
Well done, Goober! I'm with you!! |
Dogged | 06 Apr 2014 1:24 p.m. PST |
I do get with supers, when well done, except for dumb plots, XPatrol jumble and the likes. I do get with religion, except for the horrible (IMO) judeochristian (including muslim of course) mishmash. I don't get offense that other people thinks different, and hope others don't get offense from my likings, even if they're professor Xavier's fanboys or Christ's/Mohammed's ones. |
Brian Smaller | 06 Apr 2014 1:47 p.m. PST |
I am not a big Super Hero fan myself as far as comics and movies go, but I actually liked doing Superhero RPG games – using Champions/Hero naturally enough. |
Lupulus | 06 Apr 2014 2:06 p.m. PST |
I do not get people. Not the funny books, not the games, not the movies. Do not bother to justify them, or explain them. You won't convince me, and my mind is made up. Consider this a rant, pure and simple. Oh, sure I ate Laketown when I was a hatchling, but
. Singed, Smaug |
War Artisan | 06 Apr 2014 3:06 p.m. PST |
"But genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed. To this deep and joyful curiosity must be attributed that stare, animal-like in its ecstasy, which all children have when confronted with something new . . . " Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life |
Korvessa | 06 Apr 2014 3:11 p.m. PST |
I think it was in Calvin & Hobbes that said the real superpower is to get "that" figure into "that" suit. |
OldGrenadier | 06 Apr 2014 3:36 p.m. PST |
I do not get this thread. Not the funny books, not the games, not the movies. Do not bother to justify it, or explain it. You won't convince me, and my mind is made up. Consider this a rant, pure and simple. Oh, sure I read John the OFM's other threads when I was a kid, but
. ;) |
Ed Mohrmann | 06 Apr 2014 4:02 p.m. PST |
'Druther think about Mrs. Peel
|
Frederick | 06 Apr 2014 4:18 p.m. PST |
I read a lot of comics when I was a kid and I really do like to go to the recent Superhero movies (except for Superman – never really liked Superman for some reason) but I view it as amusing light entertainment Would not game superheros though – for me, that's like gaming zombies (which I really do not get) |
Jeff Ewing | 06 Apr 2014 4:31 p.m. PST |
I won't try and convince you, since I share some of your skepticism, but
if you're in a comic shop that lets you read freely, take a look at Kurt Busiek's _Astro City_. It's a very interesting take on superheroes, from, for example, the perspective of normal people caught up in the midst of a superhero smack down. You might enjoy it. Disclaimer: read X-Men throughout my youth -- still love them. |
D A THB | 06 Apr 2014 5:27 p.m. PST |
I am with you John, except I do get Linda Carter, oops I mean Wonder Woman. |
gamedad25 | 06 Apr 2014 5:35 p.m. PST |
+1 for Astro City. Marvel Comics had a mini-series called 'Marvels' which had a similar take. big events in story lines from the comics as seen through the eyes of a regular person. |
gamedad25 | 06 Apr 2014 5:38 p.m. PST |
However, I gave up most my comics too build my wargaming hobby, if you want to call that growing up. |
Fergal | 06 Apr 2014 5:39 p.m. PST |
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Shagnasty | 06 Apr 2014 7:55 p.m. PST |
Not a fan of comics, especially Japanese. I'll watch superhero movies but don't get excited or look forward to them. History is a different matter. |
Garand | 06 Apr 2014 8:31 p.m. PST |
I like supers comics, actively collect several titles in fact
:) Damon. |
basileus66 | 06 Apr 2014 10:49 p.m. PST |
I do like them since I read The Iliad as a child. |
Mac1638 | 07 Apr 2014 2:33 a.m. PST |
I have never been into the super hero thing, My wife and I enjoy most of the films (at the Cinema), I do have friends how carve them up in the same way I would carve up Historical films, Inconsistencies in characters,plot and powers etc, and can not see how we could have possible enjoyed it when it was so wrong! In this case ignorance is bliss. |
OSchmidt | 07 Apr 2014 6:12 a.m. PST |
Dear Johh Never liked them myself. I never trusted them. A super hero is a creature who has some power over and beyond that of normal men. This means they are NOT normal men. That means they can all too easily use their super power for evil, as some do. If I require super-heroes to protect me from super-heroes thar are malevolent, then I am as far below them as the mice or worms are to us. There is another dimension to this. If normal men cannot govern and protect themselves from other normal men who are devoted to creating evil, to the extent that super-heroes are required to protect us from such men, then that is a VERY anti-democratic idea, and it means we cannot govern ourselves and protect ourselves, and the man who really pushed the idea of "supermen" in the mid 20th century was right. My own take on this is simple. Children invest adoration and emotional content into super-heroes because they are EXACTLY in that position, being the butt of the bigger kids and more sociopathic kids in school. They want super powers to protect themselves against the bullies, or hope by cozying up to a bigger kid on the school ground, they will protect them. |
Great War Ace | 07 Apr 2014 8:52 a.m. PST |
"Unbreakable", now there is a superhero I can understand. A Deus ex Machina pure and simple, defying scientific explanation
. |
Bob Runnicles | 07 Apr 2014 11:58 a.m. PST |
"Play? As advanced as you obviously are, you still play?" "Yes, Mr. Sulu, play. The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play." I've used this one before myself to explain my gaming lol. Not especially relevant to superheroes but it popped into my head after reading the C.S. Lewis quote :) |
piper909 | 07 Apr 2014 11:14 p.m. PST |
MMMMmmmmm, Lynda Carter/Wonder Woman! |
piper909 | 07 Apr 2014 11:18 p.m. PST |
A well-done superhero comic or game doesn't need to be that much different from Pulp or even Victorian Sci-Fi or High Fantasy. I think the boundaries between genres are not as broad as some might think. The traditional comic book super-people mainly evolved from Pulp characters or early sci-fi, after all. Things didn't get really gonzo until more modern eras, when mutants and bizarre super-powers became too common for anyone to really stand out, which is when melodrama and foolishness took over. My favorite comic book characters remain those with very limited special abilities or "powers." It's hard for me to relate to the rest. And even harder for anyone but the most talented scripters to capture my interest as a reader. I think that like a lot of modern art forms, the comics are suffering from degeneration -- they're played out, there's not much left to mine that's original. We're on the fourth or fifth generation now of people copying what came before, so most everything seems diluted or derivative. "Seen this all before, " I yawn. "And done better, too." |
jwebster | 12 Apr 2014 8:41 p.m. PST |
@John the Original Poster I am with you – have always found superheroes a bit silly, even from the point of view of someone who plays with toy soldiers The main superhero theme is that of the existential conflict between a superpower and normal life. This reflects a very real human conflict between wanting to be special and wanting to fit in. This is a great theme. The first time. After that it gets repetitive. Despite all that I thoroughly enjoyed the batman movie from the 80s and "The Incredibles". I also remember buying "the Avengers" #1 and enjoying that. Probably worth a bob or two if i had kept it. Incidentally I could watch the Black Widow all day long, but can't remember whether there was any character development John |
11th ACR | 14 Apr 2014 6:49 a.m. PST |
"I do not get Superheroes" Never have, not even when I was a kid that read Archie or Sgt Rock and Easy Company on occasion. But someone introduced me to these when I was a Private in the Army early 1980's. Pretty funny and very true. comixjoint.com/dopindan.html
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