[...] again: I’m impressed by the real-world connections (something I’ve been looking for in comics), and it’s thoughtful of them to donate an ad page. I’m not sure, given the [...]

[...] I opened Brightest Day #5 to see that Aquaman and Mera were heading off to stop an oil spill, as I suggested in May. Taken from the DC preview available at the first link, here are the first two [...]

He stood up for the little man and was not afraid to intervene in world events. He knew his limits and restrained from becoming a dictator. Thus to me showed true heroism.

Plenty of people have commanded great power. Only to give it up to the ‘people’. Look at George Washington, he managed to secure a victory and left office after eight years. He didn’t turn out as a dictator, rather the opposite.

My point is, I wish we had a Superhero who was shown to strive for this ideal. We have plenty of heroes who seem to spread their pessimistic messages, go around killing innocent people or ignore global threats and problems.

To me Superman, the guy I routed for is no more. Admittedly I don’t read enough Superman comics. But I am follower of the cartoons, films, tv shows and the odd comic issue here and there.

A Superman who continues to help feed the needy, despite the opposition and blackmail? yes please

A Superman who decides to give up and resort to just ‘inspiring’ people? no thanks

What message do we aim to put out there. When we can’t have a person with great powers act responsible? As if our generation will feel any less empowered if they say a Superman trying to handle the issue of world conflict, poverty, terrorism.

To answer the charge that such topics could risk being corny. I argue, what superhero film, book or show is not corny? fighting a character named Doctor doom with a metal mask, is less corny than fighting global terrorism.

http://www.audioshocker.com/2010/05/05/a-podcast-with-ross-and-nick-47-get-real

[...] Comics Worth Reading’s Johanna Draper Carlson has some ideas for how to make super-hero comics interesting again [...]

Awaiting the counter-arguments…

“…who are acceptable enemies for real-world allegories in superhero comics? even Bru’s had this problem when he made a Tea Party-esque group in a recent issue of Cap,[...]”

Of course, Bru did not create the group. It originated during Gruenwald’s run, 15 – 20 years ago.

cite>darrylayo
“In the superhero world of, let’s say, Marvel Comics, any one of sixty fellas in tights could have prevented 9/11 in the first five pages of an issue [...]”

And that did not prevent a Spiderman issue (or a Cap storyline, for that matter) from dealing with the issue even though such an event happens practically every day in the Marvel U. Yet both stories worked fine.

I think having real world events occur in fictional universes is just part of the suspension of disbelief ; the internal continuity just don’t have to be that tight.

There is lots of SF that have histories completely divorced from reality, so that works as well. But those would be very different kinds of worlds than the tradditional Marvel and DC universes.

Jim

In real life, that attack changed the entire world. Without 9/11, the last ten years of our real reality basically didn’t happen. So then you basically have breaking-off points for a fantasy world that can’t help but spiral further and further from our world.

:-/

On the other hand, I would definitely echo the point others have made that there are relatively few writers today who I would trust to do such stories in a way that didn’t come across as over the top and corny.

Side note: I would LOVE to see a writer on Daredevil deal with the fact that Hell’s Kitchen is now a safe, wealthy neighborhood full of young professionals instead of the grim hellhole that it used to be and as it’s still portrayed in the comics.

[...] hates fun, Nick hates Rambo: First Blood, Johanna Draper Carlson wants real superheroics, Ross proposes metaphors instead, Nick is wary of the notion of “real” villains, Peter [...]

“I want superhero comics that do ‘ripped from the headlines’ stories. I want to see Aquaman respond to the environmental disaster of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I want to see Daredevil try and track down the Times Square car bomber. I want Green Arrow, fed up with transportation costs, hunting oil profiteers (or maybe Batman, since he’s got more vehicles). I want every superhero in New York to avenge themselves on fat-cat Wall Street criminals…”

Cool, but a feasibility problem could be how these stories work as backstories further down the line. Outside superhero comics, I’ve noticed most have one of two primary kinds of serial story format:

#1) Standalone storylines that stay internally consistent and mostly linear instead of crossing over with other storylines, rebooting, being part of “one big story” with other series, and/or whatever. For Better or for Worse has no more than 1 origin for April Patterson, Kyra Davis’s mystery series doesn’t have any characters visiting from Jennifer Sturman’s mystery series and vice versa, etc.

Of course, it’s too late to do this with anything involving Aquaman, Daredevil, the Green Arrow, Batman, and/or whomever.

However, this could work for a new (again, new as in not a spinoff, not sharing a milieu with any of DC’s existing series, not even a cameo role for Spider-Man or whomever else Marvel already has, etc.) superhero storyline. Even if a new fan might want to start at the beginning and catch up in order to see how plot twists ripped from previous headlines affect the main characters and their approach to the plot ripped from the latest-as-of-the-deadline headlines, it wouldn’t be as awkward for him or her to find and keep track of. For example, there wouldn’t be more than one issue #1 that a fan would need to read in order to get all the available backstory of all the characters.

Canaan summed up how this would still have drawbacks:

Canaan Says:

“I completely agree with this. I’ve been saying it in various places over the net for a while now, since I started losing all interest in the superhero books, but the more you think about it, the harder it would become to maintain, and the more you would eventually lose your parallels to our reality.

“Superhuman solutions to real problems would change the world as we know it. Each time something was tackled, the comic world it takes place in would become less and less like our own…”

#2) Standalone episodes that don’t depend on or even refer to previous ones. Lisa Simpson is always 8 and her sister is always a baby in The Simpsons, Paige Fox is always 14 and her younger brother is always a fan of the latest SF/fantasy franchise instead of preferring any older one in Fox Trot, etc. No retcons required. ;)

Now this could actually work even better for the “ripped from the headlines” storytelling you’d like to see. Of course, it’s still too late to do this with anything involving Aquaman, Daredevil, the Green Arrow, Batman, and/or whomever.

Meanwhile, if a new (again, new as in not a spinoff, not sharing a milieu with any of DC’s existing series, not even a cameo role for Spider-Man or whomever else Marvel already has, etc.) superhero storyline would have its characters always stays the same age and you wouldn’t need to read any previous issues about him or her to understand the latest issue, then it could stay even more focused on plots ripped from the latest-as-of-the-deadline headlines. Each time something was tackled, the comic world it takes place in would be back to the status quo at the beginning of the next issue. Even when 2 of these kinds of serials cross over for an episode, the audience of 1 wouldn’t need to look up any backstory from the other to understand what’s happening.

Some non-superhero cartoons have already proven that this can work. :) For example, each time Jason Fox earns straight As in Fox Trot, he goes back to the same grade at the beginning of the next school year instead of eventually making it into high school. For another example, the writers for The Simpsons don’t need to add any arrested-development backstory for Maggie even though the show started in 1989 and she’s still a baby now. Fans who do want to see Jason in graduate school or Maggie in the office can turn to fan fiction instead of pressuring the creators to convolute the sources. :)

cite>Nick Marino Says:

“…who are acceptable enemies for real-world allegories in superhero comics? even Bru’s had this problem when he made a Tea Party-esque group in a recent issue of Cap, and party members caught onto the story. they were infuriated because Bru portrayed many members as racist. what if a group you aligned yourself with was the villain of some comic and you found the depiction of said group to be deplorable? would you still want more stories like that?…”

That doesn’t stop writers of plain-text fiction, so why should it stop writers of fiction with pictures?

Mike Joffe Says:

“…What I’d like to see is super heroes tackle themes ripped from the headlines rather than specific stories. I think the better comic writers already do this (or did at least). The majority of writers use outdated or alienating themes and stories because they try too hard to tell the same stories over and over again. While if you have Superman get involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it doesn’t solve anything or give the sense that we can solve anything, if you do a story that incorporates the themes and issues raised by the conflict and ends on a hopeful note, then maybe smarter readers will pick things up and affect change when they get older. Does Aquaman have to tackle this specific Gulf Coast crisis or could he tackle a fictional oil spill and take the fictional oil drilling to task? That way we still get our justice porn without dating the comic or reminding us how powerless our fantasies really are…”

Yeah, that makes sense too.

Johanna Says:

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t want an entire line — the idea that all the books a publisher puts out have to share an approach is one of the things I DISlike about today’s market. Different titles with different appeal makes for a healthier company and a wider customer base.”

Hear ye, hear ye! :)

I’m not sure what would be the modern day equivalent of his alter-ego ; probably a Ted Turner style media mogul.

But overall, I think this general approach can be done with some characters, but I don’t think an entire line could be sustained by it.

Mike, you have great points about the downsides. My proposal was just a brainstorm, and I’m sure there would be issues to face in actually implementing it. I’m not looking for actual solutions in the stories, but inspiration and getting people to think about the issues with hope, even if it’s totally fantasy hope. And yeah, I’d be ok with a similar-but-different major oil spill; that would probably be easier to handle while still addressing my desires.

Scott, I think all comics would be improved with more intelligence and subtlety.

Chris G., cheap shot, but funny.

Cole, I’d forgotten about that, good reminder, thanks.

http://www.comics.org/issue/129796/cover/4/?style=default

Joe Casey did an arc in Adventures of Superman years ago exploring how the original conception of the character could never work today, but of course it could–it’s just that DC would never publish it.