Superhero was part of Patrick Wilsons security force at the Sunscreen Film festival. In return he was kind enough to take questions from the Real Superhero community. He had just played Night Owl II in the Watchmen & was well versed on the subject. He had done his homework & was facinated by us as well.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzd7Iv3NPck
Originally posted: http://mysterio.startlogic.com/WordPress/?p=556
By Brad
As a lifelong reader of comics, I feel like an aging punk rocker, horrified at how my private subculture has been appropriated by the mainstream media. Like an indy music hipster, —dude, I heard it first on vinyl, I don’t even own a cd player— aging comic book readers like myself disdain comic book movies. I read that when I was in high school. The movie totally ruined it.
Comics have become an accepted part, if not the most accepted part, of the American entertainment landscape. Mainstream comics, particularly as depicted in movies, are always dark and gritty. But it’s important to remember that transition didn’t happen until the mid-1980s with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. Superheroes before that period, who were sometimes wanted by the law à la Spiderman, were never seen breaking the law, but were depicted as trying to uphold it as private citizens. The genius of Watchmen and the Dark Knight is that they follow the thinking process of the classic superhero with two different conclusions. I liked the Watchmen movie, but it glossed over the main point of the comic: the corrosive effects of vigilantism on a society.
I’ve discovered people who are wearing garish costumes and trying to fight crime, but without the benefit of superscience, superstrength or really anything. This is so absurd and charming that one can’t help but support these costumed crusaders. Superbarrio is my favorite of the Real Life Superheroes. It’s hard not to like this over-weight gentleman who puts on a Lucha Libre wrestling mask and has sworn to protect the poor people of Mexico.
These Real Life Superheroes hearken back to another age of comics when morality was presented in simpler terms. We can chuckle at these people and wonder if they’re doing this in earnest or as a form of cosplay. However, the sentiment of the superhero, to go beyond the rule of law and rid the streets of crime, has had expression in the Real World, that isn’t so wonderful.
Bob Kane’s Batman chose his costume and persona in an effort to frighten criminals, who he called a “superstitious and cowardly lot.” The Ku Klux Klan wore their hoods and white sheets to appear as ghosts, to frighten and terrorize Blacks. Placing burning crosses on the property of Blacks was originally an affront to the deeply Christian beliefs of rural Blacks, whose religion and spirituality was their only real possession. It was only later that cross burning was rationalized as a some kind of internal Christian ritual.
The Klan’s illegal actions were applauded and celebrated in D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. It’s hard to imagine a film about the KKK being presented as the “good guys”, but the film was a blockbuster success. It was the Batman of its day. After his private screening at the White House, Woodrow Wilson even commented, “it is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true”.
At roughly the same time as the Ku Klux Klan, there was another costumed group, although this time not dedicated to racism, that decided to take the law into their own hands. On paper, the early Bald Knobbers sound like a decent bunch, similar in concept to Curtis Sliwa’s neighborhood watch group,The Guardian Angels. The Bald Knobbers were a secret society of men, who wore an odd, masked and horned costume, and were trying to uphold the peace. The Bald Knobbers were Missouri Republicans, who were loyal to the Union during the Civil War. In the lawless environment of post-war Missouri, they acted like an unaccountable police force. Unfortunately this group that was formed to protect the people of Missouri, drunk with power, applied brutality and murder not only to criminals, but those they felt who were immoral. They later attacked and murdered people for what they believed to be licentious and anti-Christian behavior.
During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, more Americans got in on the illegal vigilante act, but this time with governmental approval. The American Protective League, which had around 300,000 members, was not a bunch of costumed crusaders, but a large snitch group, dedicated to disrupting Unions, Wobblies, anarchists, anti-war advocates, and other undesirables. These characters opened private mail, broke into people’s houses, riffling through desks and drawers and found 3 million cases of “disloyalty.” There was even a kid-friendly junior version with the Our Gang title, Anti Yellow Dog League.
I thought of these things after watching the recent Batman movie. It does have an explicit desire to go beyond the perceived limits of law. Bruce Wayne uses technology to spy on every single person in Gotham city. He knows it’s illegal and unethical — it’s clearly an unreasonable search and seizure — but does it anyway. The ends justify the means. Many people saw a connection between the Patriot Act and other erosion of civil liberties with the viewpoint of Batman. When the Soviets had a massive domestic spying network, complimented by legions of snitches, they probably thought they were doing the right thing too.
The graffiti in The Watchmen comic reads, “Who Watches the Watchmen?” Something to think about in these times.
Originally published: http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/9752/was-there-life-before-kick-ass.html
By Tom Huddleston
The USP of Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Kick-Ass’ is that it’s about real life superheroes. But what about Mystery Men?
For the next month or so, you won’t be able to leave the house without hearing the words ‘Kick-Ass’. Matthew Vaughn’s teen superhero epic is fast, funny and extremely violent, but it also seems to be labouring under a misapprehension: that the concept of normal, everyday superheroes is somehow original. The film even opens with our hero Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) complaining that, in the real world, no one but the police dresses up and fights crime.
In fact, they do. A few years ago, a film played at the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival called ‘Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero’. This wise and very amusing doc followed the exploits of four real-life costumed avengers – known only as Superhero, Master Legend, Mr Silent and Hardware – as they plied their trade on the suburban streets where they lived. Their exploits were relatively tame – none of them took down a major crime ring or foiled a villain in his underground lair – but, like Kick-Ass, they were dedicated ordinary Joes intent on remaking society in their own image.
Even in the realm of fiction the concept of normal folks with no special talents teaming up to fight forces of evil is nothing new. Alan Moore’s graphic novel ‘Watchmen’ was perhaps the first to imagine what would happen if society was suddenly overrun with masked heroes – his conclusion being that they’d become fascistic, sexually perverse social outcasts. Last year’s film version of Moore’s book turned the idea on its head by becoming exactly the kind of ultraviolent bonanza of special effects which Moore was satirising in the first place.
A decade ago, ‘Mystery Men‘ brought the very same concept which fuels ‘Kick-Ass’ – give or take a few vaguely supernatural elements – into cinemas, and was largely ignored by the ticket-buying public. It’s a shame, because Kinka Usher’s film was a smart, original and hilarious subversion of the superhero genre which deserves a second look.
Just check out the cast list for ‘Mystery Men‘: Ben Stiller plays Mr Furious, an ordinary guy convinced that his boundless inner rage makes him in some way special. Hank Azaria plays The Blue Raja, master of cutlery, while William H Macy brings his customary hapless warmth to the role of family man The Shoveller. There’s also room for Greg Kinnear as preening playboy Captain Amazing, Geoffrey Rush as master villain Casanova Frankenstein, Eddie Izzard as his sidekick Tony P, Janeane Garofalo as hipster hero The Bowler and the great Tom Waits as madcap inventor Doc Heller.
Sure, ‘Mystery Men’ plays things a lot broader and wackier than ‘Kick-Ass’. But it’s also sharper, more inventive and a lot funnier, taking the time to round out its lovingly drawn characters rather than just chucking them into another limb-slicing action sequence.
We’ve no doubt that ‘Kick-Ass’ is going to be a big box-office success. It’s got all the wisecracking, foul language and manic, intense violence that fanboys go nuts for. But once you’ve paid your money and got your kicks, give ‘Mystery Men’ a go: it would be a shame if this big-hearted, anarchic anti-blockbuster got lost in the shadow of its slicker but somehow less loveable offspring.
Written by JJ on Jul-20-09 3:52am
The Real Life Superhero (RLS) pheneomenon has steadily picked up steam over the last decade. Just like in Alan Moore’s comic classic Watchmen, otherwise normal people are suiting up and fighting crime.
Some have attributed the rise of the RLS to the recent popularity of comic book heroes, while others have interpreted it as a cultural response to the national tragedy of 9/11.
Whatever the case, these Real Life Superheroes walk the streets of cities throughout the world (though many are based in the United States) working for the good of their communities. From Rolling Stone to the Associated Press, their adventures have been documented. And while many ridicule the grown men and women who wander the streets in outlandish costumes, it’s undeniable that many are serious about giving back to the community.
Here are 10 Real Life Superheroes who have actually made a difference:
#10 Alain Robert, the Human Spider
Born: August 7, 1962
Location: Worldwide (Based in Paris)
Special Ability: To climb up the sides of skyscrapers
Nemisis: Police
Means of Transport: Climbing shoes
Everyone on this list has made a difference in some way, but not everyone on this list actually possesses some superhuman power over the physical world.
While Alain Robert‘s ability is no mutant power, it doesn’t even seem possible that a human should be able to climb like he climbs. Robert has climbed many of the world’s tallest structures. He climbed the Sears Tower (recently renamed Willis Tower) in 1999, completing the climb even after heavy fog made the surface dangerously slick. In all, Robert has climbed more than 85 skyscrapers.
And how has he made a difference? By furthering his political goals of course. Robert is an outspoken activist who has taken up the banner of environmentalism in the fight against global warming. In February, 2009, when Robert climbed the Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong, he first unfurled a banner directing people to the global warming Web site onehundredmonths.org. Then in April of 2009, he climbedthe Lloyd’s building in London and unfurled a similar banner.
But the grandaddy was his June, 2008 climbing of the New York Times building. Upon reaching the top of the building, Robert let fly a banner declaring, “Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week.” That’s a ballsy way to get a message across in New York. At least the man stays on point.
#9 Citizen Prime
Location:Arizona
Purpose: To educate children and the public at large on safety and preparedness
True Identity: Jim, an executive at an unnamed financial institution
Means of Transport: Xterra
Cost of Costume: $4,000
Not all caped crusaders are losers with nothing better to do, and Citizen Prime is proof.
A financial executive by day, Citizen Prime donns his $4,000 costume, which includes custom-made breast plate armor, and patrols the streets. Citizen Prime separates himself from other neighborhood watch style “superheroes” by distributing literature on how to help in the community and making appearances to talk to children about drugs and crime.
While Citizen Prime has said he respects the work of other superheroes, like the Black Monday Society in Salt Lake City, he takes a different approach by focusing on community involvement. He says the most useful tool at his disposal is a keen sense of humor for diffusing awkward situations.
#8 Polar Man
Location:Iqaluit, Nunavet; Canada
Notable For: Shoveling snow from driveways
Mode of Transport: Not a polar bear
Special Ability: Resistance to cold and isolation
Clad all in black and white with his trusty shovel, nary a snow-covered driveway stands a chance when Polar Man is on the case.
While a snow-shoveling hero from an isolated Canadian town of less than 7,000 might seem laughable, Polar Man has truly made a difference. Not only does he clear walkways for the elderly, he also tidies playgrounds in the summer and takes a keen interest in participating in community events.
Most of the heroes on this list come from major metropolitan areas, which sort of makes Polar Man more valuable. After all, what better way is there to make a sleepy town more interesting than by patrolling the streets and calling yourself a superhero?
Polar Man models himself on an Inuit legend where an unknown white man riding a polar bear brings food and clothing to people in need. It’s just too bad no one has figured out how to use polar bears as a means of transportation, because a snow shoveler on a polar bear would be truly awesome.
#7 Superhero
Born:c. 1969
Location: Clearwater, Florida
Mode of Transport: 1975 Corvette Stingray
Qualifications: Navy veteran; Police Academy training; professional bodyguard; training in wrestling and boxing
Personal Style: Loud and proud
True Identity: Dale Pople
It’s a tad redundant to be a superhero named Superhero, but what this Florida crimefighter lacks in creativity, he makes up for in style.
Superhero has made a difference not only by showing up at events and showing off his Corvette and bright red Spandex. Sure that tends to leave an impression on people (and not always the good kind), but Superhero’s real contribution is patrolling the roads and helping people in need of assistance — like people who need a flat tire changed.
“I don’t really know when I made the transition, but just all of a sudden one day it seemed like a good idea to put on my costume and go out and help people with roadside assistance.”
Patrick Wilson (left) played Nite Owl in Watchmen. Superhero (right) worked his security detail in civilian clothes. (From MySpace)
Superhero has proven socially adept enough to find himself a Lady Hero, a fellow superhero in training and girlfriend who he says he met in a gym, where he taught her how to do squat thrusts.
Whether you think Superhero is awesome or ridiculous, (there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground), he does get points for having the coolest mode of transport, and being an actual bodyguard. When Watchmen and Little Children star Patrick Wilson showed up in Florida for the Sunscreen Film Festival, Superhero was on hand to work security.
#6 Troy Hurtubise
Born:November 23, 1963
Location: Hamilton, Ontario; Canada
Nemisis: Grizzly Bears
Purpose: To invent ground-breaking safety gear and body armor
You May Know Him From: The Discovery Channel, Project Grizzly
Not a superhero in the traditional sense of the word, think of Troy Hurtubise as the poor man’s Tony Stark (that’s Iron Man for all you non-nerds).
Like those traditional heroes, Troy does have an origin story. Back in 1984, while hiking near Humidity Creek in British Colum
bia, Troy was attacked by a grizzly bear. He defied the odds by surviving the attack, but was soon consumed with his desire to know more about the fearsome juggernaut of the natural world. But to get close enough to really learn about grizzly bears, he’d have to get close… really really close. Like close enough that he might be attacked again.
Troy’s epiphany came while watching Robocop in his college dorm room in 1987. While most of us would probably disregard any epiphany brought on by a Paul Vanderhoeven film about a half-machine supercop, Troy spent the next 7 years, and most of his money, on developing a bear-proof suit.
The various iterations of Troy’s suit have been the subject of television shows, pop culture references, and even the documentary Project Grizzly. He tests them himself to prove that his suits can withstand being slammed by a swinging log, beaten with baseball bats and even hit by a car.
Troy is currently trying to make a difference by creating body armor for use in combat situations. His most recent suit was based on the Halo videogame and features an air conditioned helmet, a magnetic holster, and a built-in canister of heavy-duty bearspray for use in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately for Troy, no military or security organizations have shown interest in mass producing the ballistics suits. That might have something to do with the over-the-top nature of the inventor himself. Watch the video at left to see what I mean.
#5 Terrifica
Born:c. 1975
Location: New York City
Reason for Fighting: To protect drunk girls from being taken advantage of by opportunistic men
Nemisis: Fantastico
Means of Transport: Red High-heeled boots
Status: Retired
Though she’s hung up the ruby red cape, Terrifica is remembered as a New York City superhero with a very practical goal. Keeping vulnerable girls safe from predatory guys.
Terrifica, later revealed to be a New York artist named Sarah, patrolled New York City bars and clubs where she would try to prevent women from making decisions they would regret by going home with guys who just wanted to get laid. Armed with, among other things, pepper spray, a cell phone, and Smarties candy (for energy), Terrifica said she would try to distract men, who were often intrigued by the sexy, masked girl in a red cape, to give women a chance to get away.
“I protect the single girl living in the big city,” Terrifica told ABC in 2002. “I do this because women are weak. They are easily manipulated, and they need to be protected from themselves and most certainly from men and their ill intentions toward them.”
Interestingly enough, Terrifica did have a nemesis. A player named Fantastico whose attempts to take home women were thwarted several times by Terrifica. Obviously he was not terribly impressed with Terrifica, who, to be honest, does seem to have some issues with guys.
“She seems to have it in for men,” he said. “I’m convinced she is loveless and would love to have the rest of the city as loveless and miserable as she is.”
#4 Master Legend
Born: June 27, 1966
Location: Orlando area
Team: Justice Force
Fighting Style: Way of the Diamond Spirit
Means of Transport: Battle Truck, Legend Cycle
Signature Weapon: Master Blaster personal cannon (modified potato gun)
Sort of the grandaddy of American Real Life Superheroes, Master Legend is based in the Orlando suburb of Winter Park, and has been active for the better part of the decade.
Master Legend received national recognition in December, 2008, when Rolling Stone ran a feature story and pictorial on the superhero clad in a silver and black uniform with a German World War II helmet. Though Legend is little more than a middle-aged man in a costume, he’s garnered the support of his community by patrolling the streets, fighting for causes he deems worthy, and working for charity.
His shining moment came in 2004, when he received a commendation from the sheriff’s office for helping to save people in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley.
Though many have called into doubt Master Legend’s bombastic stories, one police sergeant, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to ROLLING STONE that Legend had helped bust real criminals.
From Rolling Stone:
Based on the neighborhood, [the sergeant] figured, Master Legend might be a good local contact. “And sure enough,” the Sergeant tells me, “I start getting calls from Master Legend with information. And it checks out. Master Legend has helped put away a few criminals.”
#3 Zetaman
Location:Portland, OR
Purpose: To protect and serve the community
True Identity: Illya King
Superhero Team: Formerly of The Alternates
Cost of Costume: $4,000
Zetaman is the epitome of the comic book nerd turned Real Life Superhero.
Zetaman, who draws and writes comic books in his spare time, patrols in a costume inspired by his favorite heroes. He carries a collapsible baton, a stun gun, an air horn, a cell phone, and perhaps most importantly, gloves and sandwiches.
While Zetaman patrols the seediest parts of Portland ready for anything, he told the Willamette Week that he’s never had to apprehend any criminals. More often than not, Zetaman spends his nights handing out gloves, sandwiches and other useful items to Portland’s less fortunate residents. And while this altruistic action is par for Zetaman’s course, he’s clashed with some other Real Life Superheroes who believe vigilante justice is their true calling.
“I guess it sounds kind of less heroic, but I don’t want to die,” he said. “I wish I had a million dollars, like Batman. But I’m just one guy out there. I’m not strong enough.”
Zetaman also helped organize the Alternates, a Portland-based group of Real Life Superheroes who banded together to raise money for the March for Babies, a fundraiser that grew from the March of Dimes to help ensure infant health. But unfortunately, Zetaman has recently split from the Alternates, stating on his MySpace blog that he can no longer “look past misdeeds on the behalf of friendship.”
But never fear. Zetaman is still out there doing good. His latest project is to raise $500 for the Race for the Cure breast cancer fundraising event in Portland. While the Alternates won’t be working together anymore, Zetaman has put together the Zeta-Corps, which is open to anyone who wants to help.
“I want to get as many Portlanders to join my team, the Zeta-Corps. My plan is to get involved with different charties and have the good citizen of Portland to join me,” he said on his blog.
#2 Angle-Grinder Man
Location:London
Fighting: Overzealous parking authorities
Secret Weapon: Angle Grinder
True Identity: Unknown
Not all superheroes work within the bounds of the law. Angle-Grinder Man specifically works against the law where he deems it is being enforced too strictly.
Wheel clamps are a common sight on London’s crowded streets. Parking spaces are a valuable commodity, and their protection has given rise to an entire industry of private businesses whose sole purpose is to go around placing wheel clamps on illegally parked cars. Enter Angle-Grinder Man.
If you were to find yourself one of the many hapless victims of London clampers, you could call Angle-Grinder Man to come by with a big, mean angle grinder and cut right through the clamp. Whether or not you agree with his purpose, you have to agree that’s one way to make a difference.
“I may not be able to single-handedly and totally cast off the repressive shackles of a corrupt government – but I can cut off your wheel-clamps for you,” he said in 2002.
Unfortunately Angle-Grinder Man hasn’t been active for a couple of years, but his anti-clamping message lives on in the common complaints of Londoners.
#1 Superbarrio
Born:Unknown, but likely in the late 1950s
Location: Mexico City
Reason for Fighting: To protect poor people’s right to housing
Nemisis: Greedy landlords and inept beureaucrats
Means of Transport: Barriomobile
Hidden beneath a red and gold luchadore mask is a Mexico City man who has gone to great lengths to keep poor tenants in their homes. Superbarrio is regarded in some circles with the same sort of awe children reserve for Batman or Spider-Man. And while he isn’t as fit as either of them, he is very effective.
In 1985, an 8.2 earthquake rocked Mexico City, destroying thousands of homes and taking more than 10,000 lives. In the wake of this crushing tragedy, the demand for homes rocketed, leaving many of Mexico City’s poverty-stricken denizens unable to find a place to live. That’s when Superbarrio Gomez (real name unknown), found his calling.
“One day when I was in my room, I was enveloped in a brilliant red and yellow light, and when it dissipated, I was dressed this way,” he explained in 1988. “Then a voice said to me, ‘You are Super Barrio, defender of tenants and scourge of greedy landlords.'”
Superbarrio ended up running for President of Mexico in 1988, and while he wasn’t ever a serious contender, he made his tenants’ and squatters’ rights platform a serious issue.
While Superbarrio is still a folk hero in Mexico City, where dolls and T-shirts with his image are common, he keeps a lower profile these days. Even though he isn’t as active, his spirit and cause lives on.
http://www.zimbio.com/10+Real+Life+Superheroes+Who+Have+Actually+Made+a+Differenc
The expertly managed hullabaloo around Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of the Watchmen comic series (it opens in cinemas today), sees superheroes move ever closer to the centre of our shared culture.
Just as readers of Shakespeare, Byron or P.G. Wodehouse swam in a rich soup of biblical and classical references that informed their understanding of every sentence, so modern readers and moviegoers have unconsciously assimilated a common vocabulary of superheroics. If T.S. Eliot were writing today, he would pepper his poems not with allusions to the heroes of Greek myth but to the adventures of the Justice League of America. These gaudily dressed commercial demigods may be the closest thing we have to a pantheon.
Once confined to the “funny papers”, costumed adventurers broke through into the adult world in 1986 with the publication of Frank Miller’s iconoclastic The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s daring Watchmen. Before those two series there had been attempts to bring the masked vigilantes from their fantasy milieu into a world a little more like our own. But it wasn’t until Watchmen, set in a parallel mid-Eighties America on the brink of nuclear war, that the effect of costumed adventurers on the society they inhabit was considered.
Comics publishers were overjoyed that a new, older, wealthier demographic was buying comic books and responded by publishing bound collections of story arcs from their monthly comics and branding them “graphic novels”. A few genuine long-form comics expressly written for the format were also attempted, but only a few came close to achieving the commercial and critical impact of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. Too many writers thought that the “darkness” was the selling point, and produced comic books not much different from the Silver Age comics of the 1960s and 70s but with added violence.
To achieve much more is difficult: the relentless momentum of the graphic format leaves little time left for characterisation or introspection. By slowing the action down, inserting additional material such as mock autobiographies by the characters, Moore was the first comics writer to create rounded, flawed, believable supermen. It was that, more than the artwork, that propelled Watchmen onto Time magazine’s 100 greatest novels list.
The mixture of introspection, political subversion and old-fashioned derring-do established by Moore is still, a quarter of a century later, the template for most modern comics writers. If you are looking for the most interesting of the new superhero comics today, try The Authority, a superhero team story where, rather than just scrapping with mad scientists and purse-snatchers, the heroes try to use their powers to change the world. In Ex Machina, the technologically enhanced hero settles for running New York and almost averts 9/11 but spends as much time defusing controversy over public art funding as chasing supervillains.
Perhaps the most interesting fruit of Watchmen – and a sign of how mainstream superheroes have become – came in a pair of books that dispensed with illustrations altogether. Although Batman-themed young-adult easy readers and the film spin-off “novelisations” had appeared before, Tom DeHaven’s It’s Superman was something entirely different. Set in the 1930s, it retells the story of the origins of Superman. Although still a pacy read, it has a rich sense of period that invites comparison with Steinbeck. For pop-culture students there are little nods to the Max Fleischer Superman animations and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
Austin Grossman’s 2007 novel Soon I will be Invincible was an even more knowing and playful examination of superhero archetypes played out through a pair of beautifully crafted internal monologues. Like many of today’s writers, Grossman has a native fluency in classic superhero lore, resulting in a book studded with pop-culture detail. The humour of films such as The Incredibles and Mystery Men rely on audiences being steeped in superhero culture. Watchmen too is dependent on cinemagoers understanding exactly which conventions are being subverted. And of course nowadays most moviegoers do: the mythic history of superheroes pervades our culture in the same way that the tales of Asgard or Olympus once did. We are all, wittingly or unwittingly, aware of the mechanics of secret identities, hidden lairs, radiation accidents that empower rather than disable and miraculous flying machines that are the staples of the genre, whether we are talking about classic heroes like The Fantastic Four or Moore’s dysfunctional superteam.
Superheroes are big business: Dark Knight raked in a billion dollars at the box office, Iron Man took more than $500 million in 2008 and the third instalment in Sam Raimi’s Spiderman franchise netted an impressive $890 million.
It is no surprise then that publishers are keen to find new superhero properties. DC Comics’ big hitters, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, all appeared first before the end of the Second World War. Marvel’s heroes are a little younger, but their biggest-earning heroes all still date from the early 1960s. There are dozens, perhaps scores, of new superhero-themed movies in the works: of all of them Mark Millar’s Kick Ass is the one most likely to offer something genuinely novel and exciting.
Superheroes have conquered more than the entertainment media. Two or three nights a week Citizen Prime patrols the streets of Salt Lake City in his mask and cape armed with stun guns and a police baton. He is not the only one. There are at least 30 real-life “superheroes”, of varying levels of effectiveness and seriousness, scattered across America, with odd examples popping up as far afield as Tunbridge Wells. With no powers other than idealism, and with no supercriminals to battle, they are something between a fancy dress party and the Neighbourhood Watch.
That may not always be the case, though: the technology to create armoured exoskeletons like that of Marvel’s Iron Man is under development by the US military and may only be a decade away from coming to fruition. Implantable enhancements will probably come a generation later. Assuming that they do deliver the promised combat advantage, the enhanced strength and senses of military supersoldier programmes will find their way into the hands of the criminal element – and, of course, once we have supervillains then superheroes, or at least superpolice, won’t be far behind. You will need to be ready. Better buy some comics.
Michael Moran writes the Times Blockbuster Buzz blog