latest developments in superhero evolution

Dan Kois speaks up eloquently in Slate today in Men without Tights: comics that reinvent the superhero genre. He dives into the subject of superhero evolution from the springboard of the NBC series Heroes. (I tried Heroes but couldn't get through one episode. I found it grim, slow-moving and emotionally gratuitious in the vein of many popular TV shows today, and it left my propensity for the superhero genre bored and weak with hunger. But I was forged in the '70s -- 'nough said.)

"Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes, admits to enjoying comic-book storytelling without having a deep background in the genre. He's proudly declared that his series diverges from comic books by presenting character-driven stories in which superpowers merely play a supporting role. But starting in the 1980s, many comic books embedded superpowers in recognizably real people and their superheroes in the real world. The progenitor of the trend is generally considered to be Alan Moore, whose Watchmen, written in 1986, was one of the first comics to seriously consider the dilemmas caped crusaders might face. In the 1990s and 2000s, comics creators have been even freer with the superhero tradition, doing away entirely with capes and tights, or mashing up the hero genre with comedy, coming-of-age, or romance. Heroes doesn't have a monopoly on humanizing the superhero story, or wrestling with the practical and ethical quandaries of superpowers; many contemporary comics are doing the same."


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