A new superhero: possible?

[Admiral2]

Hancock was probably the biggest effort to create a "new superhero" in recent memory, it cost a ton, and its hook (a generic superhero, except he starts off a drunkard!) just wasn't enough to grab people.

Hancock made $624.3 million worldwide and was the fourth highest grossing film of 2008. It grabbed people just fine.

D'oh! That's more than I thought. Still, just because they saw it doesn't necessarily mean they liked it, or ever remember it one bit.

Like me. I saw it and thought it was pretty meh. It alternated between being funny and being insightful and wasn't enough of either.

That said, creating a new hero's easy. The trick is in the writing. He or she can be as unique as all get out but if you don't have the plot and story to go with, it's pointless.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

What about Buffy? That was a fairly recent and original franchise that was pretty successful, though no longer current. Doesn't she count as a superhero?

Absolutely. When I finally watched Buffy about a year ago, I was surprised to discover that what I had always thought was a horror-genre bender was actually a superhero story. By far the genre Buffy best fits into is the superhero one.

There's plenty of new superhero stories - they just don't do the costumes any more. Nor should they - the costumes were a necessary convention of small panel, cheap print from the early days of comics. Even venerable old superheroes are finding it hard to justify the outfits these days.

 

[Silent_Bob]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

 

[Admiral2]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

What new superheros? Kick-Ass boils down to a couple of kids in costumes maiming criminals, some of whom are also in costumes.

 

[Silent_Bob]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

What new superheros? Kick-Ass boils down to a couple of kids in costumes maiming criminals, some of whom are also in costumes.

If a man who dresses up as a bat to scare criminals counts as a superhero, so does a guy wearing a crappy suit beating up criminals.

 

[backstept]

NBC tried with The Cape. It flopped pretty badly.

And rightfully so. Horrible show on all counts.

-Jamman

best thing about it was Bear McCreary's music

oh and Summer Glau . . . just barely

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The Enterprise J gets stuck in the 21st century in an alternative timeline cloaked in an orbit around the Earth, and they decide to break the temporal prime directive en masse, while still hiding themselves.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Incredibles
Or the Power Puff girls

Since someone's gotta be first, I guess it was you guys.

I enjoyed the Powerpuff Girls, but methinks their day is over. The film more or less bombed, and that pretty much spelled the end for its future beyond the end of the show.

The Incredibles is of course wildly successful, and deservedly so. Whether the franchise will continue beyond the first film and the extras associated with that still remains to be seen, though.

Kick-Ass 2 is on its way [linky]. I think it qualifies for superhero genre.

 

[Ethros]

I would have mentioned Kick Ass, which while I did enjoy, I enjoyed the choices made in the comic a lot more than those in the movie (ie. Dave and his 'girlfriend')


Therefore I find Super to be a far superior film. And funnier. "Shut up, crime!"

"Don't steal! Don't deal drugs! Don't molest kids!"

 

[RoJoHen]

I do suppose any new superhero has the possibility of becoming iconic down the road. Buffy and Harry Potter are certainly very popular, but will they stand the test of time? Will we see remake upon remake of them decades down the road?

 

[Gaith]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

There have been lots and lots of superhero spoofs over the past decade. Which is all well and good, but spoofs very rarely create enduring characters. When was the last time you wondered what Austin D. Powers has been up to?

 

[RJDiogenes]

New superheroes are created all the time. The chances of them becoming as iconic as the primary DC and Marvel characters are extremely small. It would be nice to see. We could use a new wave of creativity.

 

[Silent_Bob]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

There have been lots and lots of superhero spoofs over the past decade. Which is all well and good, but spoofs very rarely create enduring characters. When was the last time you wondered what Austin D. Powers has been up to?

Good point, except Kick-Ass wasn't a spoof. It may have featured dark comedy, but it wasn't a send up of existing superhero cliches and tropes.

 

[Admiral2]

Am i the only person who saw 'Kick-Ass'? I'm amazed no one has mentioned it in 2 pages of discussion about new superheroes.

There have been lots and lots of superhero spoofs over the past decade. Which is all well and good, but spoofs very rarely create enduring characters. When was the last time you wondered what Austin D. Powers has been up to?

Good point, except Kick-Ass wasn't a spoof. It may have featured dark comedy, but it wasn't a send up of existing superhero cliches and tropes.

No, it was a commentary on why the the stuff in superhero comics would never work in the real world. It was an anti-superhero comic, more about the people behind the costumes than the costumes themselves. Batman is a superhero. Kick-Ass is a goofy kid in a wetsuit who spent most of his time pissing off people stronger and more violent than himself.