>>130137517>These days, superhero comics think the audience is certainly not nine to 13, it's nothing to do with them. It's an audience largely of 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-year old men, usually men, treating this stuff as if it was some kind of religionIt’s true and I’m glad he said it. I’m so tired of media franchises being treated like a religion and borderline worshipped; if it’s not Marvel/DC superheroes, it’s Star Wars, Disney Princess films, Avatar the Last Airbender, Harry Potter etc etc.
It’s OK to like fantasy pulp escapism, it’s OK to like media originally aimed at children.
But the problem comes in when viewers start to think that these are the best works ever created, the pinnacle of artistic achievement, or some kind of profound treatise on life itself. When they project on these works, far more than what they are.
That’s the problem with modern superhero comics fandom, they start treating them as modern epic poems, mythologies, or psychological dramas; they want these silly pulp stories to tackle deep issues like genocide, childhood trauma, systemic racism, abuse of government power, etc. etc.
The maturity and nuance required to convey these topics in a non-hamfisted way is far beyond the ability of most capeshit writers to execute, and yet they keep insisting on doing them.
When you have to keep making excuses and justifications as to why you’re silly pop fantasy is actually “mature and deep and realistic“ maybe it’s time to pick up another genre.
