Friday, June 20, 2014

100+ Definitions 20



Invincible # 20

The Low-Frequency Listener (L-FL): This June’s Friday brings forth the twentieth issue of the superhero comic Invincible for consideration of its offerings in defining “superhero.”

Invincible #20 (I#20): In my issue, Atom Eve decides to apply her powers in ways other than being a superhero.  Mark has dinner with his Mom about the recent events in their lives.  Late in the issue, Mark moves into college, has his first day of classes, and defeats another zombie robot that last appeared in issue six.  Amber, finally fed up with Mark’s lateness and absences, Amber leaves Mark.

L-FL: In “Superheroes and the Modern(ist) Age” by Hallmark editor and professor of American literature at the University of Central Missouri, Alex Boney puts forth his own ideas about the “superhero.”  Boney states “The superhero comic book, replete with mad scientists, crooks, and murderers, also accepts the fallen state and difficulties of the modern world.  If a form of despair emerged from those early stories, it was the same sense of despair that emerged from modernist literature as a whole—a fear that the modern world was moving too quickly and that too many fundamental parts of humanity were being lost in the process.  The superhero was intended to provide a remedy to this fear…the superhero creators tried to forge characters who could transcend the limitations of contemporary existence and stave off the chaos of the modern world.”

I#20: That relates to the definition that comes from my pages; an individual who employs extra-ordinary powers individually on their own terms rather than a more pragmatic greatest good for the greatest number of people.

L-FL: Would you say this approach contains some nobility?

I#20: It does in these dead pages, but let’s see what happens when I use a live subject.

No comments:

Post a Comment