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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories 'Guitar Player' book recalls the heady days of the '70s and '80s Ashland budget proposal says solar power could attract investment Ashland High School water polo club seeks yard sale donations Final Ashland Middle School band concert of the school year set for May 20 Nashville singer/songwriter with Ashland ties dies of cancer Education Ashland Middle School students put their Spanish-speaking skills to the test Grizzlies claim speech championship Levy backers eye final push Neal Simon: This is a test Grade-school philanthropist Environment Ashland publisher offers prize for environmental book Ashland water bills could go up to fund watershed protection Stopping fire in its tracks Some trails, roads remain closed due to controlled burn Earth Day: Hope for our 'pale blue dot' Business Ride & Drive: 2015 BMW 428i Gran Coupe Ashland Safeway closes Thursday, to reopen as Haggen on Sunday Cars We Remember: Car enthusiast wishes new model designs were ‘more different’ Ride & Drive: 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Silvio Calabi: Taxis and traffic in the olde worlde Politics and elections Ashland water bills could go up to fund watershed protection BREAKING: Baltimore prosecutor charges officers in Gray's death Arthur I. 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Guest Opinion: Ambrose spins a conservative fantasy ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: The courage to ask ... Ashland Calendar, Saturday, May 9 ... Guest Opinion: Ambrose spins a conservative fantasy ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: The courage to ask ... Victor D. Infante: 'Avengers' begs the questions, 'Why superheroes, and why now?' By Victor D. Infante The Telegram & Gazette DailyTidings.com By Victor D. Infante The Telegram & Gazette Posted May. 4, 2015 @ 2:23 pm By Victor D. Infante The Telegram & Gazette Posted May. 4, 2015 @ 2:23 pm » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2324,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> The Avengers started a fist fight on my Facebook wall the other day. No, they weren’t punching out bad guys such as Loki, Ultron or the Red Skull, but rather they were the epicenter of a rather heated discussion on superheroes, and why they seem to increasingly dominate our media. The Avengers — who will star in the movie “Avengers: The Age of Ultron,” appearing in theaters now — are the big guns, considering several of the team’s members have had their own films. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk are all pretty big franchises on their own, and that doesn’t even account for the likes of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Agent Carter” and “Daredevil,” or the Marvel-ous “X-Men,” “Spider-Man,” “Fantastic Four” and “Big Hero 6,” who all have movies produced outside Marvel Studios. As to Marvel’s distinguished competition, D.C. Comics is about to make some big noise with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” as well as a TV presence that includes “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Gotham,” “Constantine” and the forthcoming “Supergirl.” That’s a lot of superheroes, all of whom originate from two comic book companies. But the question remains: Why superheroes, and why now? There’s probably no single reason for the phenomenon, so much as a perfect storm of cultural cross currents. Here are a few of the likely reasons: Technology: Let’s start with the basic. When Richard Donner’s “Superman” film came out in 1980, the tag line was “You’ll believe a man can fly.” But those were relatively easy effects. CGI and special effects have finally caught up to the point where multiple superpowers and otherworldly settings can appear on the screen at a relatively affordable cost. Licenses: Disney owns Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios, and Warner Bros. owns D.C. Comics, which saves some money when it comes to licensing characters and stories. Marvel in the ‘80s sold the rights to Spider-Man to Sony Pictures, and to the X-Men and Fantastic Four to 21st Century Fox, which means these studios can use those characters as much as they want in the cinema medium (but not TV). That’s probably not as big a motive as others, but still, if you own a character, why not use it? In any case, Disney has cut a deal with Sony to get back use of Spider-Man, so we’ll get to see the webslinger mix it up with the Avengers soon enough. Nostalgia: Nostalgia — and you may have noticed this — sells big, and the people who were reading Marvel and D.C. Comics in the ‘60s and ‘70s are now adults, with adults’ spending capabilities. Many also have kids, and the superhero films make for a great shared experience between generations. On the other side of the nostalgia equation, though, is the fact that the preeminent artists in the film and TV medium, the ones with the firepower to make big decisions, are also the people who grew up with those comics, and in some cases, they’ve been wanting to tell these stories for most of their lives. On some level, a few of these filmmakers are still kids playing with action figures. Just, you know, really expensive ones. Cultural Unrest: It’s really no coincidence that we saw the most recent rise of the superhero to prominence come in the wake of 9/11 and the Great Recession, conditions that in many ways mirror the era that gave birth to Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman etc: The Great Depression and World War II. But beyond that confluence of forces, things become less clear. Comics have always been a bit of a Rorschach test politically — something many comic creators, including Marvel co-founder Stan Lee, have talked about openly — and it’s easy to take away either a conservative or liberal message from them, depending on your perspective, and that can be either a positive or negative, depending on how you see things. For example, it’s fairly easy to take away a fairly conservative, pro-war or pro-authority message from comics. Let’s face it: Most of the early comics dealt with wealthy tycoons such as Batman beating up on criminals, who were almost always from the poorer classes. Even today, when a story is likely to be more nuanced, police and soldiers are likely to be painted as forces for good, with the exceptions being aberrations for the sake of the plot. On the other hand, the earliest Superman stories featured the Man of Steel battling slumlords who exploited their tenants, and protecting the powerless is still a pretty big part of the idea of what it means to be a superhero. Wish fulfillment: This may be the big one. We live in a world where the United States has been at war in one form or another in the Middle East for over a decade, an economic recovery from the recession has been slower than hoped, politicians seem to be in a constant state of inaction and racial tensions and conflicts over alleged police brutality have come to a full boil It’s the sort of world that makes it easy to imagine a savior from the skies, a superhero that can fight for truth, justice and whatever you consider the American way to be. Indeed, sometimes one even fantasizes about being that person, about being the person who can deliver themselves and their neighbors from harm. Who wouldn’t want to be Batman, right? Cool explosions: Maybe all this woolgathering is just that, and the fact is that “Avengers” and its ilk are just fun movies: Well made, well-acted and a lot of fun. Indeed, if they weren’t fun, nothing else would much matter. And whether that sort of escapism is solely a diversion, or serves a deeper cultural purpose, it’s still pretty fun to see Thor bash his hammer into an army of androids. Sometimes, being an enjoyable two or three hours is its own reward. Email Victor D. Infante at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor. By Victor D. Infante The Telegram & Gazette DailyTidings.com By Victor D. Infante The Telegram & Gazette Posted May. 4, 2015 @ 2:23 pm » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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