Week 13: Reconsidering the Superhero

This week we looked into reconsidering the status of the superhero.  It’s hard to stay relevant.  Many things; genres, objects, traditions; have become things of the past through the years.  In the comics industry, the relevance of a character is only equal to his/her/or it’s (if it’s an otherworldly being) popularity.   There is a surplus of superheroes from past decades that did not last too much time in print.  For whatever reason people just lost interest.  It has taken the efforts of talented artists, and in most cases the help from financially sound publishers, to keep reviving and reinventing superheroes.  Bringing an adult atmosphere to the stories of these superheroes served to appeal to the young adults and older collectors that have grown up through time with them.

One of the artists in recent history to bring a cinematic feel to his comic book stories is Frank Miller.  Along with Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and others, Frank Miller was very influential and distinct in his work, something which granted him a huge following, and the ability to transition into other genres such as film making.  With a very distinct style, Miller draws a lot from pulp fictions and film-noir type of stories which had a dark black/white quality to them, using dramatic lighting.  His original style brought popularity back to the Daredevil, Batman, among other characters, and was able to propel the success of his own independent work through Dark Horse comics with Sin City and 300.  He also wrote scripts for two Robocop movies, and all of the titles mentioned above enjoyed success in the box office.

As part of my reading I looked into Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One this week. Definitely one of the best Batman stories ever published.  Even though I enjoyed the last series of Batman movies, I wish they would have based one off of this comic book. He makes it feel more like a biographical story rather than a fictional superhero.  He brings a lot of grittiness and realness to his characters.  Not to mention with the help of David Mazzuchelli illustrating it, this is definitely one of Miller’s best works, and a great example of the modern revival of superheroes.  The fact that there are few heroes coming out today with the same popularity and personality as those in the past says a lot about the work put in by these artists.  We’ll see how many icons the early 2000’s will produce for the years ahead.