The Dark Knight Rises & The Amazing Spider-Man: What They Got Right!
I love comic books. And not just for the costumes and adventures and colours. I love the stories and characters and little things that become myth and legend and literature when given the attention that I believe they deserve.
Because of that I am sometimes nervous for comic book movies. Studios love big explosions and fight sequences and costumes. So do summer blockbuster audiences. Thatās why itās easy to understand why character development and mythos can be left behind at times.
However, sometimes things get done right. And, as far as Iām concerned, both the Marvel and DC universes had great examples of things done right this summer with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.
I was totally impressed that in Andrew Garfieldās new Spidey we got a story about Peter Parker, not just your friendly neighbourhood web slinger. But also the teenager with a ton of issues and concerns and life in the way of being happy and growing up. He has a complicated family life and many, many questions. Thereās more to him than Spider-Man. And there was a Peter Parker before Spider-Man.
And in Christopher Nolanās last Batman movie I feel like we got the story we needed about the people and city of Gotham as well as The Dark Knight and Bane. We learned about the city in a post-Harvey Dent climate. We saw what the covering up of Two Face did to Jim Gordon. How a young boy named John Blake grew up in the city of crime and wanted to make it right and how Alfred Pennyworth, the man trusted with more truth than any other, battled it all inside for so long. The legend of Batman is about much more than just Batman, itās important to see that.
To me, superhero stories are more than just the masked men. Itās the dual identities and lives and secrets. I want to see the struggle and human side. Itās the thing that makes me identify with The Batman and remember what it was like to be an awkward teenager that didnāt live under my parentsā roof just like Double P. Those human qualities are just as important to me as the crime fighting. These are characters that have been crafted and chiseled and shaped over decades by numerous writers and artists and directors and actors.
I would argue that they are as important to modern story telling as Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Holden Caulfield and Nick Carraway. We can fight about it if you want to. I imagine weāll end up in a stalemate.
That means that the people who write the stories for comic books, television cartoons and major motion pictures are very important as well. And so I tip my hat to James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent & Steve Kloves (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer ( The Dark Knight Rises) for their great work. I hope that the next installments of both franchises continue in the same vein.
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creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.
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The Dark Knight Rises & The Amazing Spider-Man: What They Got Right!
By Joshua Murray
I love comic books. And not just for the costumes and adventures and colours. I love the stories and characters and little things that become myth and legend and literature when given the attention that I believe they deserve.
Because of that I am sometimes nervous for comic book movies. Studios love big explosions and fight sequences and costumes. So do summer blockbuster audiences. Thatās why itās easy to understand why character development and mythos can be left behind at times.
However, sometimes things get done right. And, as far as Iām concerned, both the Marvel and DC universes had great examples of things done right this summer with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.
I was totally impressed that in Andrew Garfieldās new Spidey we got a story about Peter Parker, not just your friendly neighbourhood web slinger. But also the teenager with a ton of issues and concerns and life in the way of being happy and growing up. He has a complicated family life and many, many questions. Thereās more to him than Spider-Man. And there was a Peter Parker before Spider-Man.
And in Christopher Nolanās last Batman movie I feel like we got the story we needed about the people and city of Gotham as well as The Dark Knight and Bane. We learned about the city in a post-Harvey Dent climate. We saw what the covering up of Two Face did to Jim Gordon. How a young boy named John Blake grew up in the city of crime and wanted to make it right and how Alfred Pennyworth, the man trusted with more truth than any other, battled it all inside for so long. The legend of Batman is about much more than just Batman, itās important to see that.
To me, superhero stories are more than just the masked men. Itās the dual identities and lives and secrets. I want to see the struggle and human side. Itās the thing that makes me identify with The Batman and remember what it was like to be an awkward teenager that didnāt live under my parentsā roof just like Double P. Those human qualities are just as important to me as the crime fighting. These are characters that have been crafted and chiseled and shaped over decades by numerous writers and artists and directors and actors.
I would argue that they are as important to modern story telling as Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Holden Caulfield and Nick Carraway. We can fight about it if you want to. I imagine weāll end up in a stalemate.
That means that the people who write the stories for comic books, television cartoons and major motion pictures are very important as well. And so I tip my hat to James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent & Steve Kloves (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer ( The Dark Knight Rises) for their great work. I hope that the next installments of both franchises continue in the same vein.
Author profile
creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.
“I love comic books. And not just for the costumes and adventures and colours. I love the stories and characters and little things that become myth and legend and literature when given the attention that I believe they deserve”: then Animal Man is a must read for you. It is the best DC series right now (along with Nightwing and Blue Beetle).
What makes Animal Man so special is the way Lemire deconstructs the superhero mythology. For example:
1) Superheroes tend to monopolize the attention of the reader, while Animal Man is constantly upstaged by the supporting characters of the series.
2) Superhero comics usually donāt give much importance to the private life of their main character (they tend to focus only on the ācostume onā part); in Animal Man, on the contrary, the private life of Buddy is the main theme of the series. In fact, it is rather infrequent to see Buddy with his costume on. You wrote “superhero stories are more than just the masked men”: well, Animal Man definitely confirms this statement.
3) Buddy is not perfect, and is not perceived as perfect by other people: in fact, in the 11th issue, when he tells his wife āItās going to be okayā, she replies āDonāt give me anything of that superhero crap, Buddy.ā That cut and thrust perfectly enlightens the philosophy of the series.
Since the New 52 started, DC guys made some huge mistakes (for example, they heavily distorted one of my favourite characters, Green Arrow, and this is something really difficult to accept), but they also gave us some incredible gems, and Animal Man definitely is one of the brightest ones.
I want see to fighting Batman vs Spiderman.
Dark knight and spider man is that cool. Thank you for sharing but i want to see fighting Batman VS Spiderman.