Yet another "superheroes are dark and gritty and mature" product that follows in the steps of Watchmen, and yet has nothing interesting of its own to say.
— MadCapMunchkin (@MadCapMunchkin) February 9, 2021
People say the MCU has ruined comic book fandom, but I'd argue that it's shit like this. Shows and movies like this or like https://t.co/jVUmGblKOl
So, here's something that's been bugging me immensely for a while now, and I really just wanted to get my thoughts down on text. If this one seems particularly rambly, then I'm sorry.
This all said, if you'll look at the above tweet, I'll get started. In short, CW has ordered a pilot episode of a new Powerpuff Girls series. The solicitation for it describes it as starring "disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting".
I am absolutely, positively, and without a single bit of hyperbole, exhausted by this.
A dark and gritty take on superheroes isn't new. We've seen it all over the place since Batman hit mainstream popularity...that is, mainstream popularity in his post The Dark Knight Returns incarnation rather than the Adam West, shark-repellant using version. We also have seen it, most noteably, in Watchmen, where the dark and gritty take on things was much more deliberate and purposeful. True, The Dark Knight Returns set Batman on the course that he's been following literally to this day, but Watchmen came out at around the same time and was actually intended as a pastiche of the superhero genre in general.
This is the only two instances of this actually working. The only two.
I say this, because pretty much every other variation of this draws from these two. They're both very good stories on their own, but unfortunately led to some terrible, terrible things...namely (since they came out in 1986-87), the early 90's as Twitter user @Gamahdude92 was insightful enough to point out.
it lead to the dark age of comics in the 90s which filled with edge stories and forgettable characters besides spawn, cable, whichblade etc.
— OMEG∆92 Creator of the Omega Dimension podcast (@Gamahdude92) February 9, 2021
So, we have these stories to thank for the EXTREMEEEEEEEEEEE garbage we saw in the 90s during the Dark Ages. That's a bit like blaming Gary Gygax for Wizards of the Coast being a gigantic bag of dicks to Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, but there is a clear line of progression in this case. Those stories were popular, and the comic book industry took all the wrong lessons from them and here we are in the present...still suffering from the after-effects. How do I know? Look up at the first tweet I quoted. Pretty sure that makes it clear.
It isn't just comics, of course, it also goes to adaptations. Again, as we see above with the new Powerpuff Girls reboot/continuation or shows like The Boys. Whereas the 90's were taking the wrong lesson that things like Watchmen were popular because they were dark and gritty and more extreme than your standard comic books...modern day products tend go for the analytical approach that Watchmen did instead. There's just one problem with this...and it's a problem that resonates through every variation of this that I have seen.
THEY DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY.
. . .and that's kind of a massively glaring flaw in the whole thing.
Alan Moore? Frank Miller? They actually had something to say. There was genuine commentary from them about the medium. The 90's used the dark and gritty edge of that and tried to push the EXTREMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE angle, and they failed. The 90's are considered a terrible age in comics that is mostly looked back at with a mocking smile at best. The only characters that really had any longevity from that era are ones like Cable or Spawn as Gamahdude92 was so kind to point out, and it's a very true and telling statement. Those characters who garnered fanbases and were able to stand on their own as stories of their own.
That's the real kicker here, but we'll get to that in a bit.
Modern retellings, as I said before, for the analytical or "deconstruction" of superheroes, both the figures themselves as well as the genre. They also, as I said before, don't have anything interesting to say, so have so little that there's really no point. One of the most recent examples I can think of is The Boys.
I know it's popular, I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for it, but I really, really don't care. Screaming "HEY! SUPERHEROES CAN BE FUCKED UP!" isn't new. It isn't groundbreaking. It isn't insightful. It's BORING. Yes, we are well aware that people with powers who use them for means that aren't serving truth, justice, and the American way are bad people. We've had many good examples of them since 1931 - THEY'RE GENERALLY CALLED SUPERVILLAINS.
What? The Superman expy has a breastfeeding fetish? The speedster is a druggie? OOOH! LET'S SEE HIM RUN THROUGH SOMEONE AT SUPER SPEED! SO EDGY!
It's all just...so unpleasant and jarring and it's simply doing it for the sake of being unpleasant and jarring. There's nothing to say, it's just shock and awe pretending to be grown up and sophisticated and yes, these are the same people who berate comic book fans and insist that the medium needs to become more mature and sophisticated and cater to whatever group is trying to fight whatever "ism" that they're upset about this week. All of this ignores the simple truth that comic books are...escapist fiction.
That isn't to say that comic books can't have a message, and they often do. You have things like the X-Men, which were originally inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's and could genuinely be stand-ins for any oppressed minority. I know there are folks that will go "cOmIc BoOkS hAvE aLwAyS bEeN pOlItIcAl!", and they're right...to a certain extent. Another glaring problem, and I know I've brought this up before, the story has to come first. The message is second to the fact that this is supported to be entertainment.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby understood that, writing and drawing every comic book issue that they did, that the story had to come before the message. Comic books are, and should always be, first and foremost a form of entertainment. When I pick up Doctor Strange or Blue Beetle or something of the like, I'm not looking to be lectured about whatever issue is pissing the writer off at the moment. You wanna vent about something that's troubling you? Get a fucking blog, you have a job to do.
Again, this isn't to say that comic book stories shouldn't or can't be inspired by real-life events, but focusing on the message is only going to drag your work down and possibly destroy any quality it might have had entirely. This is the reason why the X-Men storyline God Loves, Man Kills is remembered fondly decades later (even to the point of serving as the basis for X2: X-Men United) and Kamala Khan hasn't been able to float a solo series for more than twenty-issues.
That and I'm still convinced Marvel is scared of any number over 25, but that's a whole other can of worms.
The final word on it is this: yes, comic books can have a message. They can be very insightful and informative and make us think about superheroes and the medium in a way we've never considered before. They can even show us darker sides in the world of being more than a human. It's been done, and it's been done well...however, the latter category is a far more exclusive one than the former.
Say what you will about Alan Moore being a whacky old fella, but he had a vision and he had insight into the world of superheroes...his views on comic books being just a medium for the kiddies aside. Watchmen is beloved and well-remembered for that reason. Not that it was dark and gritty or that it was a deconstruction of the genre, but that it was a good story, well-told, and it had something to say. The Boys does not. Most of modern comics does not.
I am more than willing to bet that the CW-produced Powerpuff Girls will also not have anything to say.
It's just so terribly tiresome to see this tried over and over and over again...and it means nothing. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. If comic books do need to mature as a medium, if they have any chance of doing so, then the first thing they need to do is remove from creative positions anyone who claims that they need to mature as a medium, because they are the ones doing the most to hold it back. Adaptations that push this angle are doing the most to hold it back.
Say what you will about the MCU, at least they remember that comic books can be fun and that superheroes can be bright and cheery and silly on occasion, even if they go too far in the other direction with it sometimes (a subject for another ranting someday). This has all been tried, it's been tested, and it's been found wanting all but two of the times it's been tried. It needs to go. The dark and gritty reboots/retellings/continuations/whatever of the superhero genre need to do what most of the characters of the 90's did after their time ran out - disappear and fade into obscurity.
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