Revamping the Superhero

Like anything else in life, we have to keep modifying it to keep it appealing to the newest generation. Comics and their superheroes are no exception. Wandtke point out that comics have been around since the days of our grandparents and probably even before. Now let’s use fashion as an example, it’s highly unlikely that people nowadays are going to be wearing what their grandparents wore, so why should we read about their superheroes? That’s one reason that Wandtke points out as to why superheroes are put under the microscope and go under a revisionist process to keep drawing in readers (Wandtke 5). This idea of the revisionist can be taken from an individual superhero and applied to the entire genre.

In film there are four periods to any genre Primitive, Classical, Revisionist and Parodic. Kick-Ass falls under both the revisionist and the parodic. It finds parody in its self-reflexive nature. As Dave becomes Kick-Ass he acknowledges he survived the entire ordeal, he doesn’t have any supernatural powers and doesn’t have his mother’s death to avenge. He’s just a regular guy trying to do something decent. However the other superheroes in the film make it seem more like a revisionist film. A father teaching his 13 year old daughter how to fight crime, buying Gatling guns and shooting her so she knows what to expect when she is shot...all elements that are not apparent in primitive or classical superhero films.

There are many genres that have recently gone though this phase such as dance films, romantic comedies and the latest vampire craze. Dance Flick came out in 2009. It’s a parody of the latest dance movies such as Step Up, Stomp the Yard, Save the Last Dance and many more. Date Movie this is a parody of the exhausted romantic comedy genre including movies likeBridgette Jones’ Diary, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers and others. As far as the vampire craze in concerned in 2010 the film Vampires Suck came out and was mainly a parody of the Twilight saga but it also pokes fun at how obsessed the newest generation is with vampires with the creation of things of Vampire Diaries.

Wandtke, Terrence. “Introduction: Once upon a time again.” The amazing transforming superhero! : essays on the revision of characters in comic books, film and television. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., 2007. P. 5-32