Tag Incredibles

Originally posted: http://www.geekosystem.com/sharon-lamb-superheroes/
by Susana Polo | 4:48 pm, August 19th, 2010
Psychologist Sharon Lamb thinks that todays superheroes send the wrong messages to young boys.

There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday… Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman[sic], exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns.
The comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals, she said, “but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities,” she said.

In response to her statement, you could ask “Have superheroes really changed over time?” (Yes, everything does.) “Is there something about movies that requires superheroes to become more violent?” (No, they’re just as violent if not more in current comics.) and even “Why is it a problem that superheroes are no longer clear cut examples of heroism?” (Who knows.)
But all of those questions allow Dr. Lamb to stand unopposed on one fundamental assertion: that all superheroes are for children.
But first, a tangent: “real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities,” who speak “to the virtue of doing good for humanity.”  Has anyone seen Batman Begins or The Dark Knight?  The first two X-Men movies?  Spider-Man?  Hancock? Even Iron Man 2, the only superhero movie that fits her description, does a pretty good job of showing that Tony Stark is a man with a serious problem, and not a hero we should take a face value.
Back To My Point
While the superhero genre has well established tropes and rules, any genre can accommodate tonal shifts.  No one would imply that Animal Farm represents a corruption of the talking animal genre of children’s literature.  Fantasy doesn’t get called out for telling morally ambiguous stories.
There are comic book superheroes for kids, yes.  Captain Marvel has had a kid oriented series lately, and then there’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and others.  But the majority of comic book superheroes haven’t been written for small children for twenty years now.
When good, they are full of morally ambiguous heroes and villains, tricky ethical situations, and hot button issues like gay rights and global politics; when bad, they’re still full of violence and questionable depictions of both sexes. Today’s movie superhero is something decidedly different from today’s comic book superhero, which makes comparing comics of the past to movies of today particularly fruitless.
To Sum Up
Anyone who still thinks that our depiction of superheroes in the mainstream adult media (like Iron Man) should be held to the same standards of unobjectionable content as superheroes in children’s movies (like The Incredibles) doesn’t really understand what it is they are talking about.
In the interest of full disclosure, it seems like Dr. Lamb does have some legitimate things to say about how we market products to young boys and what that does to them.  I just can’t get past her assertions about a single genre of storytelling.
(via Wired.)

Originally posted: http://www.aolnews.com/article/superheroes-need-super-support-groups/19544385
By David Moye
July 8) — Being a superhero used to be a specialized field. You either had to be the victim of a bizarre accident, like being bit by a radioactive spider, or suffer a tragic incident, i.e. being the sole survivor, blasted into outer space, from a distant planet as it was being destroyed.
But now things are different. Despite the contention of films like “The Incredibles” that some people are born super compared with the rest of us, being a superhero is a more egalitarian prospect than ever.
Yes, whereas folks used to dress up like Superman or Thor on Halloween, these days, people want to be superheroes all year long. Also, rather than piggybacking on some comic book hero, folks would rather become their own superheroes, with powers of their own choosing.

Superhero groups are popping up in cities like San Francisco; Portland, Ore.; and New York City, which is the headquarters of Superheroes Anonymous (SA), a support group of caped crusaders who run around the city doing small acts of good, like dispensing toiletries to the homeless while dressed in superhero costumes.
SA is modeled after 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, but rather than meet to help one another recover from being super, this offbeat organization tries to inspire people to become their own superheroes.
The organization has been around four years, and co-founder Ben Goldman — whose superhero identity is “Camera Man,” a documentarian to all the organization’s good works — says self-empowerment is the key to understanding the group’s mission.
“People become superheroes because they want to engage a certain degree of control in making the world a better place,” Goldman said.
Goldman’s group has been around four years and now has chapters in Portland and New Bedford, Mass.
In addition, two event organizers in San Francisco have created an annual festival designed to honor “heroes” who are doing things in their communities and to inspire people to become the heroes they’ve always been inside.
The second annual Superhero Street Fair takes place Saturday in the Bayview neighborhood and will have a few hundred folks dressed up as superheroes.
According to FlashNews, regular Joes and Janes are encouraged to wear their very own made-up superhero outfits and show off their unique superpowers, which organizer Joegh Bullock says could include singing, dancing, painting or even kissing, if that’s their forte.
Bullock says that by embracing their own special powers and looking deep inside themselves, people will realize how super they really are and “hopefully feel those powers in them throughout the year.”
He and his fellow organizer came up with the idea awhile back when they realized they wanted an event where everyone would wear the same type of costume.
“We wanted something where you wouldn’t have one person be a clown and another be a fairy,” Bullock said. “We also wanted to take the superpowers out of ‘Hollywood’ and make them things ordinary people can do.”
Bullock expects as many as 3,000 people will attend, and many of those will be coming out of the superhero closet for the first time. For those people, he offers this advice: Believe in your power. A costume isn’t just a costume, it’s an attitude.”
As Bullock sees it, everyone has an alter ego that should be embraced.
“Superman had his secret identity, but we all have a superpower we can call on at anytime. For instance, I call myself ‘Tape Man.’ It came up recently when I was putting up posters for the event at the same time other people were posting things around town. I had strips of tape all over my body and people were grabbing it off me.”
One woman who is embracing her super side Saturday is professional costume designer Sarah Boll.
Last year, she wore a magenta wig and purple bodysuit and revealed herself as Ultra Violet, whose “super sparkling powers can dazzle any enemy away.”
This year, Boll is transitioning into a “punk robot” hero but admits she is still working on the powers (“But I do like color,” she adds).
It’s fun for her, but Boll also is inspired to use her costume to help the community. She also believes that dressing up as a hero helps her connect with her inner hero.
“I do feel more like myself when I’m in costume,” she said. “Plus, it’s great whenever people embrace what they’re enthusiastic about and share it.”
Compared with Superheroes Anonymous, the Superhero Street Fair emphasizes fun and whimsy. However, Bullock sees the homemade hero trend as a very powerful one.
“People want something to believe in and empower themselves,” he said. “I know I want to live this way all the time.”

The group has maybe 30 to 40 members, and each one agrees to adopt a 12-point code that includes the following steps:

• Choosing to be better people and becoming a force of good.
• Discovering the source of one’s inner superhero.
• Opening one’s eyes to the environment without shying away from injustice and despair.
• Giving the inner superhero a name.

Because the laws of physics prevent a person from having heat-ray vision like Superman or the ability to run around Earth in a second like the Flash, SA members have to define superpowers more loosely than their comic-book counterparts.
“We believe that you should take something you love to do and transform that into an identity,” Goldman said. “For instance, I love to make documentaries, so I am the group’s historian. That comes in handy when you have a hero like Dark Guardian, who approaches drug dealers in parks and gets them to leave.”
Superheroes Anonymous – Dark Guardian confronts a drug dealer from Ben Goldman on Vimeo.
As far as the costumes are concerned, Goldman says there are two schools of thought.

“Batman created his costume to invoke fear, whereas Superman assumed his in order to be a symbol,” Goldman said. “That’s what we aspire to. It’s one thing to hand out toiletries to the homeless, but when you’re doing it wearing a costume, people are more likely to stop and ask what you’re doing and maybe get involved themselves.”
Comic books like “The Dark Knight” and “Watchmen” suggest that the negative side of being a superhero is the vigilante aspect, and that is something Goldman stresses is not allowed in his group,
“We don’t endorse vigilantism,” he said. “We don’t live in Gotham City where there is a bank robbery every weekend or supervillains trying to destroy the city. We leave those matters in the hands of the police. There are enough things to do such as dropping off toys at Children’s Hospital.”
Goldman’s group has been around four years and now has chapters in Portland and New Bedford, Mass.
In addition, two event organizers in San Francisco have created an annual festival designed to honor “heroes” who are doing things in their communities and to inspire people to become the heroes they’ve always been inside.
The second annual Superhero Street Fair takes place Saturday in the Bayview neighborhood and will have a few hundred folks dressed up as superheroes.
According to FlashNews, regular Joes and Janes are encouraged to wear their very own made-up superhero outfits and show off their unique superpowers, which organizer Joegh Bullock says could include singing, dancing, painting or even kissing, if that’s their forte.
Bullock says that by embracing their own special powers and looking deep inside themselves, people will realize how super they really are and “hopefully feel those powers in them throughout the year.”
He and his fellow organizer came up with the idea awhile back when they realized they wanted an event where everyone would wear the same type of costume.
“We wanted something where you wouldn’t have one person be a clown and another be a fairy,” Bullock said. “We also wanted to take the superpowers out of ‘Hollywood’ and make them things ordinary people can do.”
Bullock expects as many as 3,000 people will attend, and many of those will be coming out of the superhero closet for the first time. For those people, he offers this advice: Believe in your power. A costume isn’t just a costume, it’s an attitude.”
As Bullock sees it, everyone has an alter ego that should be embraced.
“Superman had his secret identity, but we all have a superpower we can call on at anytime. For instance, I call myself ‘Tape Man.’ It came up recently when I was putting up posters for the event at the same time other people were posting things around town. I had strips of tape all over my body and people were grabbing it off me.”
One woman who is embracing her super side Saturday is professional costume designer Sarah Boll.
Last year, she wore a magenta wig and purple bodysuit and revealed herself as Ultra Violet, whose “super sparkling powers can dazzle any enemy away.”
This year, Boll is transitioning into a “punk robot” hero but admits she is still working on the powers (“But I do like color,” she adds).
It’s fun for her, but Boll also is inspired to use her costume to help the community. She also believes that dressing up as a hero helps her connect with her inner hero.
“I do feel more like myself when I’m in costume,” she said. “Plus, it’s great whenever people embrace what they’re enthusiastic about and share it.”
Compared with Superheroes Anonymous, the Superhero Street Fair emphasizes fun and whimsy. However, Bullock sees the homemade hero trend as a very powerful one.
“People want something to believe in and empower themselves,” he said. “I know I want to live this way all the time.”
Filed under: Weird News, Entertainment, Crime