There is an obvious problem about the super-hero genre of films and comics, especially those films and comics drawn from the DC and Marvel character universes.
The super-hero is not really at any risk, and you know it.
The well-known costumed hero is going to survive. As such there can be a lack of tension in the story.
There is usually no real doubt about who will be left standing.
Most stories now told of well-known characters have no plot worth the name.
One way of dealing with this problem is to concentrate on great artwork (in comics) or special effects (in films). Indeed, the general standard of comic artwork is higher than that of the over-rated (but inexplicably popular with poseurs) Roy Lichtenstein. There is nothing wrong this: there is more to super-heroics than narrative.
Another way is characterization – as Alan Moore asked implicitly in The Killing Joke and Watchmen - what makes someone want to put on a costume and beat up wrong-doers? Then there is related question, which Moore addressed in Watchmen and elsewhere: what would be the actual effect on the world if people did have super-powers? And what would be the effect on the super-powered people themselves?
(By the way, both The Killing Joke and Watchmen contain more decent art in a single frame than in the entire work of Lichtenstein.)
In both special effects and characterization, the new Avengers Assemble film is a triumph. The film has effectively no plot (something about Loki and space aliens and a portal and something called Tesseract and whatever, but nothing turns on any of it).
But it does have superb special effects – not just the fairly static CGI one would expect, but wonderful dynamic scenes, such as when Hulk stops a charging monstrosity with a single punch.
And it has engaging characterization: you could see why Stark enjoys being Iron Man, and how Banner copes on a daily basis with the other fellow. Thor and Captain were less complex, which is perhaps right given their natures, but the balance between all the characters throughout the film is nothing less than masterful.
Of course, the Avengers were going to win, but the lack of any plot tension was not a problem for this film.
One enjoys the action and interaction all the same.
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7 Responses to Review of Avengers Assemble
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Only a man who is totally in love with his girlfriend would fail to mention Black Widow and her costume as one of the main attractions of the film.
@Ben – or a man who was nauseated at the prospect of a gifted actress like Johansson being reduced to the status of a sexual fantasy for overgrown adolescents.
The role of women, and their rather sexualised portrayal in comics has long been discussed. Men are usually muscle bound giants with perfect bodies and unnatural attractiveness, the same is true of the women.
I think lots of people agree that having large breasted women in skimpy suits with super powers is a rather out dated concept. There is a similar problem with ethnic heroes, there are precious few black or asian heroes in western culture and even fewer openly gay characters.
Comics are slow to change, in my opinion because they have had some tricky times with sales over the years and do not want to risk losing the audience they have.
Let’s hope that the success of this and other comic based films inspires future artists and writers to divert from this path.
- Just my opinion, obv.
Um. Ben. Gay men like superhero films too.
Be fair, Joss Whedon actually makes sure that she has a decent part.
Bob – gay men, I’m sure are perfectly capable of appreciating Black Widow’s costume.
Seriously though, every time I go on Facebook, there’s a message from David saying how much he loves his girlfriend. I find it very romantic and heart-warming, and I wanted to celebrate that.
Lichtenstein’s appropriations of comic book panels are demonstrably aesthetically inferior to their source material. This misrepresentation serves an ideological function, assuming it is not merely due to incompetence (I find Lichtenstein’s later work much more competent). It creates a false opportunity for the addition of [aesthetic] value through management of resources, and in this it is a perfect reflection of the managerial ego.
I’d point out that in Alan Moore’s superhero stories death is very possible for the heroes. And that Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons produced the art for Killing Joke and Watchmen respectively.