The Super Hero Genre

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Everyone has their favourites. Superman, Spiderman, the Hulk, Captain America or maybe even Flash from The Incredibles. We all have our ideal or preferred superhero. Even though if it’s not Spiderman, I will have to call you wrong. 

The films that portray these individuals can be described as films that are focused on the actions of one or more beings with supernatural powers that have committed their lives to protecting society.

This Superhero genre had its debut when these little Saturday cartoons were created sometime before the 1970s. What had been happening in the society that caused this genre to emerge is the popularity of comic books. The writers noticed this and immediately set out to form the shows that they know would be a success. The events that brought the genre into the film world was the Adventures of Spiderman and the Batman movies which were big screen extensions of the television series. In 1978 to the 1990s there was an extreme amount of success of Star Wars. Shortly followed by Superman which was the first big budget superhero film. In the 2000s there became a renewed popularity for the genre. Starting with Marvel’s X-Men film series which started in 2000. Then the Spiderman movie released in 2002 due to its perfect storyline and casting by Sam Raimi. Raimi also made the second film even more appealing in 2004 when he included Spiderman’s arch nemesis Doctor Octopus. Other films released in the next 10 years consisted of Hulk, Batman Begins, `, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Ironman and the Incredible Hulk. These are said to have a popular up rise due to the social and political atmosphere in Western society. Some people may say it was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that caused the wanting to watch the films while others may say it was just the fact that there was a large expansion in special effects technology.

This type of film is focused on the actions of one or more superheroes. These superheroes have supernatural abilities and are committed to protecting society. The movies usually focus on the origin of the heroes powers. At least in the first movie, if there are more to be made. There is often the hero and the villain. The villain being the enemy with often a plan to take over the world. The climax in the movie is usually when these two characters have a big battle and there’s flashes and sparks and booms and pows and the good guy comes out victorious.   The hero usually has a respectable, humble and smart personality. They also will have a strong will to fight. AKA they have to be like Spiderman.

There are many other genres found within this genre, it possesses a lot of attributes from action, fantasy and science fiction, there may sometimes even be a Romance thrown in there, like Spiderman and Mary Jane.

Since almost all the cartoons and movies were based on books there are many. many creators that I could say have had a huge impact on the creation of this genre. For the sake of myself though, let’s start with the fabulous people who created Spiderman. Their names were Stan Lee and Steve Ditko whom were both writer/ editors. They wrote Peter Parker as an orphan and as a teenager leaving him to the regular struggles of a high school student and a costumed saviour. They contradicted the rules of a hero needing a young teenage sidekick by making the hero the teenager himself. Their idea started an evolution of fantastic movies, including the best and most previous one The Amazing Spiderman. Well, that’s just my opinion I mean, how can you not love Andrew Garfield just looks at him, he’s so fantastic.

The next writer I would like to mention is the one that created the movie with the supernatural Pixar family The Incredibles. His name is Brad Bird. I find him very significant because he is the first one I can find that actually created a whole family of super heroes. Where each member of a real family might actually be able to relate to. I just think his idea was so unique and he leaves me with this constant wish in the back of mind to be able to turn invisible. Because every time I watched Violet do it in the movie I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking of all the spectacular ruckuses I could cause.

So, I did want to mention a third one here. But, for some reason google doesn’t seem to know what the first superhero comic was and who wrote it. So that left me perplexed. But whoever they are, I just wanted to say about them that they have created a fantastic phenomenon that have brought us into a magical world of fiction and I think I would just like to thank them for that. Applause to you unknown old, probably dead person.

So that is the Superhero genre. It is amazing in it? I mean the creators of these incredible figures must have such cool minds. They must live their lives sifting through their imagination and creating beings that would actually be able to keep our world safe and at peace. I think all these heroes are kind of like Jesus in a way. They are created to bring hope and security to the people in their world. I actually find that spectacular. Our world needs heroes and a something that they can be assured safety through. That’s why I think people like them so much. Because what everyone’s hope is, is that one day there will come a time for peace and change. But let’s be honest, the initiation of it has to come from one individual and if they are able to bring that difference they must have some sort of supernatural power.