![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Deconstruction of Heroes
Jul. 11th, 2007 09:32 pmThere has been an increasing plethora of story arcs and such that have been what could best be called the deconstruction of superheroes. It's been going on for a while, perhaps starting with the groundbreaking The Watchmen and the amazing, visually beautiful Kingdom Come and but it really picked up steam with the infamous 'Identity Crisis' series from DC. It's continuing, and perhaps has reached it's zenith with The Boys, once published by DC and since sold off to Dynamite.
The Boys is about a CIA operation which keeps the burgeoning superhero population in check. And boy, do these 'heroes' need to be kept in check. The Boys are antiheroes, but the 'superheroes' are anything but heroes; by the end of the first several pages you start to really root for the Boys. The superheores they go out to take down by blackmail, extortion, and sometimes old-fashioned kneecapping, are some of the least-deserving of that moniker.
However, there is a world of difference between Watchmen and The Boys. Watchmen' heroes are flawed human beings, but they each have their deep motivations for what they are doing; they are doing their best in a world that is turning hostile and uncompromising. In The Boys, though, the heroes are, frankly, scum. They're careless, callous, and really don't give much of a damn except for their image. The simple fact of the matter is that they have superpowers, but little or no training in the proper use of those powers. As Butcher, the leader of The Boys, puts it, SWAT teams are considered to be doing 'okay' with twenty percent casualties amongst bystanders and hostages; superheroes are given a sixty percent leeway. Why? Because the governments fear the superheroes.
Likewise, the heroes of Kingdom Come aren't so much deconstructed as reconstructed, starting out rather lowly and flawed and becoming something even more than the superheroes they began as. The 'heroes' of The Boys start out even lower than that state at the beginning of Kingdom Come and the more you learn of them, the worse they become. Most of it is done for shock value, I'm sure. There seems to be a bit of homophobia in the writing, as well, since most of the heroes seem to be portrayed as being homosexual or bisexual.
So, why am I discussing this? I'm curious as to peoples' reactions to this increasing trend in deconstruction of heroes. It ranges from portraying heroes as flawed humans (as in The Watchmen) to being fallible and pragmatic (Identity Crisis) to almost dehumanizing them (The Boys.) Now, Kingdom Come underscored the 'otherness' of superheroes, but it also portrayed them in both sides overcoming that otherness to reach a new middle ground. But The Boys.... There's something visceral;y satiisfying about seeing such really despicable people get their comeuppance, but it's a manufactured despicableness, a manufactured 'dehumanizing;' you're not supposed to have any sympathy for any of the 'superheroes' in The Boys. A much more interesting story would be what a group such as the Boys would be like sicced on B-list heroes.
As another topic for discussion, is there too much deconstruction going on? I'm not talking about modernizing heroes' origin stories, making them more mundane. I mean making heroes more vulnerable, flawed, 'just people,' and more, making them verge on antiheroes. What do you folks think?
The Boys is about a CIA operation which keeps the burgeoning superhero population in check. And boy, do these 'heroes' need to be kept in check. The Boys are antiheroes, but the 'superheroes' are anything but heroes; by the end of the first several pages you start to really root for the Boys. The superheores they go out to take down by blackmail, extortion, and sometimes old-fashioned kneecapping, are some of the least-deserving of that moniker.
However, there is a world of difference between Watchmen and The Boys. Watchmen' heroes are flawed human beings, but they each have their deep motivations for what they are doing; they are doing their best in a world that is turning hostile and uncompromising. In The Boys, though, the heroes are, frankly, scum. They're careless, callous, and really don't give much of a damn except for their image. The simple fact of the matter is that they have superpowers, but little or no training in the proper use of those powers. As Butcher, the leader of The Boys, puts it, SWAT teams are considered to be doing 'okay' with twenty percent casualties amongst bystanders and hostages; superheroes are given a sixty percent leeway. Why? Because the governments fear the superheroes.
Likewise, the heroes of Kingdom Come aren't so much deconstructed as reconstructed, starting out rather lowly and flawed and becoming something even more than the superheroes they began as. The 'heroes' of The Boys start out even lower than that state at the beginning of Kingdom Come and the more you learn of them, the worse they become. Most of it is done for shock value, I'm sure. There seems to be a bit of homophobia in the writing, as well, since most of the heroes seem to be portrayed as being homosexual or bisexual.
So, why am I discussing this? I'm curious as to peoples' reactions to this increasing trend in deconstruction of heroes. It ranges from portraying heroes as flawed humans (as in The Watchmen) to being fallible and pragmatic (Identity Crisis) to almost dehumanizing them (The Boys.) Now, Kingdom Come underscored the 'otherness' of superheroes, but it also portrayed them in both sides overcoming that otherness to reach a new middle ground. But The Boys.... There's something visceral;y satiisfying about seeing such really despicable people get their comeuppance, but it's a manufactured despicableness, a manufactured 'dehumanizing;' you're not supposed to have any sympathy for any of the 'superheroes' in The Boys. A much more interesting story would be what a group such as the Boys would be like sicced on B-list heroes.
As another topic for discussion, is there too much deconstruction going on? I'm not talking about modernizing heroes' origin stories, making them more mundane. I mean making heroes more vulnerable, flawed, 'just people,' and more, making them verge on antiheroes. What do you folks think?
