Week 13: Reconsidering the Superhero

Honestly, superhero comics are pretty much the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind as soon as the word ‘comics’ is brought up. At this point, it’s pretty much inevitable due to the sheer amount of superhero comics there are. That isn’t even mentioning the even greater number of superheroes that star in those aforementioned comics.

When it comes to superhero comics, Marvel and DC are naturally the first two names that pop up. As the two leading companies in the comic industry, both Marvel and DC have achieved astonishing success in marketing their characters. As a child I was more familiarly acquainted with DC as they were marketed more in Asia. I would see cartoons of Batman and Superman (though I recall that my favorite had always been Robin) on television, but not so much of Marvel characters.

I am glad to see Marvel making a resurgence in other mainstream media these days however. I think a lot of its success can largely be attributed to the popularity of Marvel movies these days. With titles such as Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man hitting movie theaters left and right, each earning critical box office success every time, it is no wonder that there is a new interest in Marvel characters once again. When I was younger, the in-thing on Cartoon Network was Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans. Now, I’m seeing more and more spin-offs of the Avengers appearing on just about every medium possible.

I’ve also heard of Watchmen before, naturally, though I’ve never actually read it. It wasn’t a DC title I was familiar with as it wasn’t as mainstream as, say, Batman or Superman. I did hear good things about it when it was brought up, however, and I know for a fact my dad liked the movie they produced for it, but I never got around to actually reading them. The first thing that struck me when reading it was that Watchmen  had clearly been intended to be a deconstruction of whole superhero trope, which was fascinating to me because Watchmen was also very clearly a superhero comic. I liked the spin of superheroes being used as propaganda for wars and later being sanctioned as government soldiers because I believe a scenario like that is actually a more realistic portrayal of how a superhero would behave like in a world like ours.

I’ve always liked superhero comics for the sense of escapism they gave. It’s always fun to read about amazing people doing amazing things, and it gives me a personal sense of catharsis living vicariously through them.