Who IS that masked man?

Superheroes. A concept that has been tackled in so many ways over so many years that I figured no original work can ever come of it again. Until tonight.


Okay, that might be a bit dramatic since all I'm gonna talk about is Kick-Ass. Yeah, the movie. I'm fresh from the theater right now. But think about it--the superhero genre has gone almost every direction imaginable since its conception in the early twentieth century. Let's start with the classics: we got an orphaned alien humanoid who works as a journalist, some geeky kid bit by a radioactive spider, a billionaire fighting crime on the side with a glorified tool belt, a blind dude seeking justice for his father's murder, a science-experiment victim who goes nuts and turns green when his pulse rate goes too high, a group of scientists who got too close to some mysterious space dust... I could go on. 

Then some people tried to philosophize the genre and voila! We have the Watchmen. A commentary-type tale of two generations of men and women who devoted the prime of their lives to becoming "real-life superheroes." The graphic novel tackles the idea of regular people putting on masks and fighting crime in the streets, minus any super-powers. Just the next-door neighbor trying to fight for the good and right, albeit in a costume. Is it possible? Can it be tolerated? What does such a choice do to a person? Deep shit, I know.

So we got all these different views of the superhero...then Hollywood took it to another level (as it so often does). Movies, sequels, prequels, trilogies, remakes, revivals, spin-offs. There came TV series, films based on the novels and further novels based on the films. Out came websites and fan sites and forums. Merchandising. Enough of all of this and, lo and behold, the superhero--or rather, The Superhero--has now become cliche. The modern superhero is anything and everything: a vampire, a werewolf, a kid with a wand and a knack for getting in and out of trouble. 

So what I loved about Kick-Ass (and at long last I get to my point) is that it didn't pretentiously jump into the fray. Most other depictions of the superhero take themselves so seriously: I am the legitimate superhero, the best, the original; this is what a superhero is supposed to be, they all seem to say. Kick-Ass was a combination of a good action plot and the real, sort of ridiculous kind of lives we all live. It makes fun of other, serious superhero portrayals and at the same time really looks at what keeps The Superhero alive today...

...which really isn't much more than that desire we all have to do what's right and good, to fight the good fight, and to do it all while looking really awesome and kicking some major ass. It's just that it's all a lot harder than it looks, and goes against our usually overwhelming sense of wanting to blend in, of being normal. 

And so while I could go on endlessly about the superhero genre, do some research on the myths and archetypes involved, the different histories behind each surviving character, I think I'll just stop here. I will leave you with a thought for the day, though, and here I quote Kick-Ass himself: "With no power comes no responsibility."

Wala lang. :)