Wednesday 16 April 2014

The Best Takes On Superheroes

Every time I reread something like The Ultimates, I ask what would be a definitive multi-volume collection of the most authoritative restatements of the superhero idea and come up with:

(i)-(iii) certain carefully selected works featuring Superman, the Batman and Green Arrow;
(iv)-(v) Moore's Miracleman and Watchmen;
(vi)-(vii) Millar's The Ultimates and Kick-Ass;
(viii)-(ix) Morrison's Zenith and Animal Man;
(x)-(xi) Busiek's Marvels and Astro City;
(xii) Ennis' The Boys.

Screen Versions
The Smallville TV series;
the Batman/Dark Knight film trilogy;
the Marvel Movieverse.

I have said all this before but each reiteration feels like a new iteration.

I think that Kick-Ass cheats on its premise - what would happen if an ordinary guy donned a costume and patrolled the streets at night? - because Hit Girl is extraordinary and implausible. Millar addresses the same question well in the Defenders issue of The Ultimates.

Should Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen be on the list? It is unquestionably a literary equivalent of the Justice League but has more literary references than comic book superheroics.

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