The Importance Of The Superhero Sub-Genre.

"The Superhero genre should die!."

Above is a quote I've heard and seen pretty frequently online on places like youtube and Reddit, also within plenty of articles. I believe the section be very hyperbolic, but I can visualize a level of understanding toward it.

As the popularity of the modern superhero has risen, so has the annoyance toward the superhero sub-genre, in general.

This large amount of irritation spread and carried along by such things as blatant overexposure and the many cliches it has collected over the years, along with the trigger-happy nature of studios excited to adapt whatever rights they hold.

Superheroes have maintained existence for a long time, longer than I have lived my own life. Decades of superheroic content have flowed through this subgenre. So, of course, it comes across like every possible narrative already exists through every medium. It's taken many forms comics, animation, tv shows, films, video games.

But in the recent few years, the sub-genre has gained a lot of steam due to several things. The rise of the internet may be one because more people have access to content old and new; the marvel cinematic universe is, of course, one it feels like the entire franchise pretty much forced the hero into the mainstream.

Like I had said earlier, eagerness to adapt whatever property rights belong to whatever big studio is because they want to cash into the trend. The modern superhero was racing to become a trend.

Superheroes to many people outside of the fandoms are cliched, view the general concept as dumb, childish, and a flawed and unrealistic idea.

Within the fandoms, they tend to overpraise a lot of mediocre media or get over defensive. That tends to make people not want to touch anything superhero-related at all. A lot of younger fans also tend to adopt it as a dominant personality trait.

So it's two extreme sides of a coin, both filled with a lot of hatred and annoyance. It creates this certain uncomfortable sense of alienation.

Because of that, I tend to feel kind of awkward toward liking it. Ultimately despite all of that, I still have an infatuation toward superheroes and will likely continue to as my life draws forward. My entire personal history is full of a myriad of superheroic content. It's been a fair mixture of good, not good; a decent amount has been pretty, eh. Nevertheless, I always manage to dig through more, like a freegan going dumpster diving.

My reasoning as to why I'm so infatuated with superheroes is that I believe that a lot of the characters if written correctly. Despite how mythical and god-like they are usually presented. Can wield this sense of human likability and relatability. Popular heroes like a spider-man come to mind. He has inhuman strength and can perform a spider's actions but still has horrible luck with life, trying to balance everything within his daily routine. Of course, again, when written correctly, each character has their struggles and problems that I think allow them to be fascinating. Take a batman, for example. He's not quite as relatable as a Spider-Man, but he is attractive due to how layered he can be.

Batman is a character filled with conflict and intrigue. He's a detective full of trauma but is trying to fulfill an extreme purpose in protecting his city. A lot of superhero characters, to me, have this colorful sense of robust variety, you could put a name like a batman into any genre, and it would likely work very well. But of course, it's not always the case. It still needs a competent writer. The subgenre itself, I think, could also be mixed up with any other genre and, if written amazingly, can be this cohesive story with emotion and intrigue. A solid superhero story has a lot of power to it, and it's able to inspire and change cause to erupt inside the brain. It can also display an incredible sense of social understanding toward the real world, allowing an important message to get out there. At least it has for me, and along with that, it inspired a passion for writing. To me, superheroes can speak to every type of person in a thoughtful and inspiring way. I admire how silly, dark, severe, and wonderfully insane a good superhero story can be. It makes it feel like there's a boundless sense of imagination. But even with that, the sub-genre still suffers a few shortcomings due to very greedy studios who don't care for their talent, bad groups of fans, and a fair amount of misunderstanding. It's not all just marvel and DC or just film, it's a whole lot more, but like every genre that's spawned over the years, it has its problems. I don't think it should just die off but be allowed to become better over time. But maybe it should at least slow down a bit with the adaptations to give people some breathing room or even new grander stories.

It is a shame how much media in this sub-genre goes underappreciated, so if you want to check out the good stuff in this subgenre, here are a few recommendations.

Superman Smashes The Klan: A book I had the pleasure of reviewing; it's engaging and has a strong sense of social commentary and fun and easy to read!.

Urban Animal: is a good webtoon full of exciting artwork and a lot of energy; please go and give it a read.

Batman Arkham Origins: I honestly believe this game is criminally underrated when it comes to the game series as a whole. It's a fun and straightforward batman story with pretty fantastic gameplay; if you got some extra time, please play it.

Black Hammer: This is a comic from the comic book publisher dark horse, written by Jeff Lemire, well also illustrated by Dean Ormston. That forms a world using superhero tropes and makes it creative. Please put some eyes on it.

Thor Ragnarok: It is a marvel movie that is honestly really well acted and funny. It's an ideal marvel film. Give it a watch if you got some time to kill.

Batman Vs. TMNT: It was a massive surprise; it's a cross-over that works very well and is just a fun, bloody film. Give it a watch if you got some time on your hands!.

The Death Of Superman animated film: This film was another surprise, taking an old, frankly boring storyline and adapting it into something incredible. Again please give it a watch!.

The Static Shock Cartoon: It's a bit dated but full of charm and wonder. A few of the old cartoon episodes contain a surprising amount of very relevant social commentary.

Rat Man: This is an underrated manga with fantastic but straightforward artwork and a very engaging, fun, captivating plot. Please drop a read on it.

The Tick Amazon show: The Tick was a show on excellent prime that was short-lived and a fantastic show that took the superhero's goofy aspects and fascinatingly presented them. Well, it was even poking fun at them at the same time.

Please check all these out; some of them are pretty fun and just entertaining, and some of them help elevate the genre a good bit.

Hi! I hope you got something out of reading this; please avoid these two extremes and try to enjoy whatever you enjoy. It's also okay not to like something, but please don't only base your entire being on it. I have wanted to write this one for a while and hope you gained something from reading or just enjoyed it; if you did, please share it around. Help get the number of reads up!.