Superheroes

I think I've finally figured out why I like superheroes. Aside from the dope powers, I mean. And specifically the reason I enjoy the superhero multiverses of Marvel and DC. It's the same reason I love reading through the various works of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (even though they're not canon anymore. Thanks, Disney) and Tolkien's seemingly endless Middle-Earth mythology. It's why there are so many fanfictions written for the Marauders from Harry Potter. It's what makes Butler's flowcharts and Sutton's lectures so oddly compelling. ANd it's why the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be one of the most financially successful ventures in the history of cinema.

We love lore. Huge, fantastical threads, reaching back for centuries that trace to today. Stories are so much better, so much more substantive, when they have history. When the story does not truly begin where it begins, but when there are eons that have built up to this one point. Imagine if The Force Awakens was the first Star Wars movie ever released. It would still be a great movie, no doubt (if anyone ever tells you it's "just A New Hope recycled," cut that person out of your life.) But picture the final scene with Luke and Rey. The audience on opening night (which I attended 😎 ) wouldn't have erupted into uproarious applause. But because they have forty years of knowledge on Luke Skywalker, because he's built up this image as a cultural icon, because he is more than a character limited to this one movie, the scene hits hard. But, at the same time, A New Hope was still a great film.  And while the audience wouldn't have erupted into applause had The Force Awakens been a standalone film, there still would have been a sense of awe: "This is the historical figure there's been so much talk about this entire movie. That-- that's the guy! Whoa." Because we inherently love lore. There may be individual preferences when it comes to implied versus explicit history, but having a history at all makes it so that no action stands alone.

If, like me, you occasionally act, you know how deeply relieving it is to have a character history, whether it's canon or something you develop on your own. The more extensive the better. Every action, every verbal tic, every slight lean, every syllable of every word, is conscious. They are motivated by years and years of development and history. Each action carries with it the energy of that person's entire life up to that point and then some. And such is the case with stories themselves.

That's why I find superhero universes and superhero team-ups so fun. The Avengers would not have been the cultural and cinematic watershed that it was, had Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor (three cheers for white dudes!) not been released prior. Everyone of their choices hits with so much more impact and all have the potential to make you go, "Ooh! Ooh! That's because of X that happened in their other movie!" Same goes for The Defenders, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it was an utterly trash movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy, which had a team of characters that hadn't been introduced prior, was by no means unexciting (overrated, but that's a different discussion), but who are the raccoon, the green lady, the tree, and the white dude? Why should I care? And what I thought was the worst part about Guardians and, indeed, every team-up movie that didn't do what Avengers did, is how clunkily exposited each character's personal history is shoved into the plot. They literally have a scene where a guy lists out each member's rap sheet during a police lineup, one after the other. I am by no means a thorough (or professional for that matter) writer myself, but introducing your characters via lineup is like Chapter 2 in Lazy Screenwriting 101. C'mon James Gunn.

Superheroes are particularly fun because as opposed to Tolkien's or Lucas' tales, they take place in a world that's largely identical to ours. This means less room for intricate character histories, because Middle-Earth and the galaxy far far away have to be developed extensively before they can get to that. (Though the histories of worlds and universes are fun in their own right and the endlessness of the worlds adds a sort of spatial parallel to lore's temporal endlessness.) But superheroes get to put humanity on display at the individual level. You watch personal histories, personal conflicts and threads, which is far easier to connect to than the history of a nation-state or a planet. And since this is an industry that's been riding high for half a century, these histories reach way back.

These far-reaching histories get even more interesting once these separate threads have interacted for a while. Seeing Captain America and Iron Man interact in Avengers is awesome, but it's even more awesome in Captain America: Civil War Now, instead of just being motivated by their distinct histories, they're also motivated by their connected histories. "Ooh! Ooh! This conflict has been building up since The Avengers, when it was clear there would be a struggle in the power dynamic between the two, supplemented by their contrary values of protection and freedom which also caused conflict in Age of Ultron!"

It's kinda like having an inside joke with the stories you're consuming. A little wink and nod to something you both know happened. And while it doesn't define the quality of a work, it makes it pretty damn fun.