Dark and epic and crappy

Occasional Superheroine nailed it pretty damned well. This saddens me. As much as I wish the whole dark and epic fad would sod off to it's little emo corner and peacefully take a razor to it's tradgic little wrist and leave me well enough alone, it seems to be making buckets of money, so I guess we're going to have to deal with it.

We've got WATCHMEN barreling towards the theaters, and those who have read the book know what a sunny trip to the beach that thing is going to be. Even THE SPIRIT is looking grimmer and grittier than usual. Marvel's got another PUNISHER movie coming out. Now we get to hear about Warner Brother's wanting to give the same treatment to other DC comics heroes, likely starting with SUPERMAN.

This is easily the stupidest thing they could possibly do.

Sure that depressing piece of psuedo-terrorist porn that is THE DARK KNIGHT is making enough money to make the producers giddy, but what works for Batman does not work for Superman. These two characters really are on the opposite ends of the superhero spectrum. Batman uses fear as a weapon and with that gives the readers a rush. People who are scared fantacizing about being that which causes fear, and everyone has been afraid sometime in their life. Superman represents that very best that people hope to aspire to. He's powerful enough to do almost anything he wants and moral enough to do what's right.

Superman is not a dark character. He's the light in the darkness that gives those around him hope. In THE DARK KNIGHT we see the heroes drug down into chaos, compromise and failure. Batman submerges into darkness where he is hunted like the villains he faces. He failed to find a better way. That's always been my main gripe about that movie. I'm in the seat wanting to see my hero overcome the odds. I want to see him rise above the darkness, chaos and dispair. That didn't happen.

Superman rises above, because that's what he does. He's powerful enough to do amazing things. He faces impossible challenges and he rises to them because he is a hero. If they want to do a Superman movie with darkness, fine. Surround the character with darkness. Make it so all seems lost, and have our hero come through. That's why SUPERMAN RETURNS did so miserably. The movie was all about threatening Superman and doing away with him, and yet again it was Lex Luthor and a bunch of green rocks as the threat. We were told time and again in that movie how important Superman was to the world. They needed to show us. They needed a threat that would decimate the world, and give us a hero willing to lay his life down to defend the world. Bring on Darkseid, or Brainiac. Something that's more of a threat than a smart guy who wants to cash in.

Darkness in our heroes is not the answer. What does it say about a culture that wants to see it's heroes compromised? I don't want to be entertained when I could be inspired. I watched SPIDER-MAN 2 last night. At the time when it was released I had heard Aunt May's Hero monologue to the point of being nauseous. It was in nearly every trailer and advertisement. Last night, I heard it again and I think I finally got it. After subjecting myself to THE DARK KNIGHT, I needed my palet cleansed. That monologue speaks eloquently of the importance of having heroes. Of believing in those who stand for something important, decent and greater than themselves. Rosemary Harris delivered that speech so very well.

Like the song LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS TIME by the Barenaked Ladies says, "Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight."

Time to kick something.