Once Upon a Readathon is here and I...am backing out. I feel like doing a readalong and the mandatory posts that go with it, coupled with readathon posts, would make this blog a mass of uninterestingness for those not involved in either, and I CARE ABOUT YOU PEOPLE AND YOUR BOREDOM.
I saw Spider-Man this past weekend, and since I hadn't wanted to see it and was dragged by my younger brother, my final reaction was something along the lines of:
Not NEARLY as stupid as the shitstorm of misogynistic suck that was Spider-Man 3, but stupid in the sense of "Rahhhh and now I'm a giant lizard man and I WILL DESTROY YOU" and you're like "...wait, am I watching a lizard man? Didn't this cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make?"
And then you go home and wikipedia Spider-Man history and find out that yes, there was indeed a lizard man enemy, and he was named "Lizard," because back in 1964 they just didn't have to try very hard. And at least the screenwriter didn't go with "Mister Negative," however awesome that would've been to hear punned, or "the Burglar," which...really? Really?
Comic books are reading material, so just go with me on this tangent, people. So they first became big during the Cold War, right? Because "rawwwr Russians, if only we had some dudes who would be all invincible and shit," and yeah, they didn't seem to fight Russians very often, but NEITHER DID ROCKY EXCEPT THAT ONE TIME AND IT WAS AWESOME. But they were there to instill confidence into the American citizen and show us how much the individual can rock it.
I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff with that, but, y'know. I don't read comics.
HOWEVER. My point being that for the past decade, we've had a major resurgence of interest in superheroes. It's like during the Great Depression, they had musicals, and now, our escapism is people with superhuman abilities (but NO tap skills, apparently). And the most popular hero seems to be Batman. Who is a dick. So what does this say about us as a people? I was going to say "as a country," but 1) not all of you are Americans, and 2) the superhero craze is not confined to our borders.
I believe some pondering is necessary.
I saw Spider-Man this past weekend, and since I hadn't wanted to see it and was dragged by my younger brother, my final reaction was something along the lines of:
Not NEARLY as stupid as the shitstorm of misogynistic suck that was Spider-Man 3, but stupid in the sense of "Rahhhh and now I'm a giant lizard man and I WILL DESTROY YOU" and you're like "...wait, am I watching a lizard man? Didn't this cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make?"
And then you go home and wikipedia Spider-Man history and find out that yes, there was indeed a lizard man enemy, and he was named "Lizard," because back in 1964 they just didn't have to try very hard. And at least the screenwriter didn't go with "Mister Negative," however awesome that would've been to hear punned, or "the Burglar," which...really? Really?
Anyway. A lot's being made of Gwen Stacy being kind of the antithesis of Mary Jane (the movie version of MJ, anyway) because she's not just there to be saved. Which, yes, is very nice, but it's also pissing off a lot of comic fans (*cough*onTumblr*cough*) because in the comics, MJ is kind of a badass. But also, c'mon, Emma Stone is awesome, so it's not really a fair comparison.
Comic books are reading material, so just go with me on this tangent, people. So they first became big during the Cold War, right? Because "rawwwr Russians, if only we had some dudes who would be all invincible and shit," and yeah, they didn't seem to fight Russians very often, but NEITHER DID ROCKY EXCEPT THAT ONE TIME AND IT WAS AWESOME. But they were there to instill confidence into the American citizen and show us how much the individual can rock it.
I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff with that, but, y'know. I don't read comics.
HOWEVER. My point being that for the past decade, we've had a major resurgence of interest in superheroes. It's like during the Great Depression, they had musicals, and now, our escapism is people with superhuman abilities (but NO tap skills, apparently). And the most popular hero seems to be Batman. Who is a dick. So what does this say about us as a people? I was going to say "as a country," but 1) not all of you are Americans, and 2) the superhero craze is not confined to our borders.
I believe some pondering is necessary.
Comments
Post a Comment