Anti-heroes come and go in phases that correspond to societal trends and moods. Not just with superhero films and comic, but in all kinds of print media, television, radio and film. I learned this in Sociology back in College.
"The Power of the Dark Side: Creating Great Villains, Dangerous Situations, & Dramatic Conflict" by Pamela Smith
"Writing for Comics" by Peter David
are two books I highly recommend.
I've been using them for my Creative Writing Diploma that I'm currently working through.
The atypical hero tends to hit that dark place, finds the strength to work through this phase, and comes through it stronger, wiser, and more sober or sadder. But they move on.
The anti-hero hits the dark place and clings to it. Sure they have flickers of humanity, a skewed sense of justice, and an very strict or somewhat ambiguous moral code, but they remain chained physically or psychologically to an event or incident. Wolverine, Punisher and Batman will never move on. And if something happy or upbeat comes along, the writers will always have it turn sour when readership drops.
All superheroes will be dark from now on. Thank you.
http://afk2pee.com/blog/?p=372
Wall Street Journal reported:
[INDENT]Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.
“‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”
[/INDENT] Did I not fucking say this? Ok well not here but on www.theangrycrayon.com . I said, ‘Movies like Batman Begins where there is no happy ending, no ‘I got to kiss the girl’, no true “hero” archetypal plots have breathed life into otherwise cheeseball movies. Damn, even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was dark and that shit rocked.’
Ok that wasn’t word for word, but I think this is ultimately an ideal that pop culture can embrace. Wanted, The Dark Knight, Punisher (08’s, not the crappy 3 hr long John Travolta movie) are all about the “anti hero”. I learned this shit back in 11th grade in Mr. Dickson’s class that the anti-hero is held in higher regard than the true “Superman” golden boy hero.
No one likes a pretty boy hero.
Everyone likes a down, dirty and fucked up anti-hero.
Four Winds
17 years ago