final days forum

Good vs. evil is still hot

A cynical culture may sneer at happy endings and do-good characters, but that's on the culture. A major reason comic book stories like Marvel Comics' Iron Man and the TV cartoon series Speed Racer appeal across the generations is because they celebrate the always satisfying theme of good versus evil.

Iron Man Trailer courtesy of buzzfocus on YouTube.com

Critics often downplay such stories if the characters seem like souless cutouts with no vices. I don't have a problem with complicated characters who are shaded with meaning. Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the world-weary industrialist Tony Stark was exquisite. But Downey's character also tried to do the right thing, in his own seen-everything fashion. The back story of Racer X, played by Matthew Fox in Speed Racer, possesses a mysterious, romantic flavor. Not many today are willing to stay unknown and in the shadows.

So why not enjoy Iron Man and Speed Racer overcoming-- if only for a little while -- their adversaries? Enough is happening within our culture to warrant morally based courage. What purpose does it serve to tell stories that do not teach and transform? Especially when we need leadership in every walk of life and in every part of the globe.

Speed Racer trailer courtesy of devildodo on YouTube.com

Remarkable goodness springs from the hearts of people who choose the right thing every day, even when it means sacrifice and ridicule. Let's do more storytelling about those people and their choices. The culture easily depicts the nightmarish side of life -- much like watching the first 15 minutes of local TV news, where mayhem trumps every other story -- but the culture is often sophmoric when telling stories about the redeeming power of lives well-lived.

And that's why such stories -- even if they are lifted from the pages of comic books and the fixed expressions of cartoon characters -- are so terribly needed.

Spider-Man, Hollywood and the devil

Spidey is getting divorced and making a deal with the devil? Gawker Media's cool new blog, io9 (self-proclaimed as "strung out on science fiction"), reports that Marvel Comics has released Amazing Spider-Man #545, which tells the tale of Spider-Man making a pact with a demon to save his Aunt May's life by ending his marriage to Mary Jane.

Many fans are outraged; they should be.

Marvel, and far too many Hollywood studios, seem wedded to the idea of self-implosion as the way to wrap-up a story franchise, revive ratings or lure fresh audiences. They convert beloved storylines into estoric non-wonders that reveal more about the struggles of the writers than the intricacies of the story itself. And that's devilish, indeed.

Case in point: I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End during the Christmas holiday. I had regretted not seeing the film this summer because I enjoyed the first two installments of the pirate adventure. But the latest film featured an incoherent supernatural mush about life, death and life again that certainly wasn't Christian theology, but I don't think Blackbeard would have believed it, either... Savvy?

The film violated its own story conventions, the guideposts a reader needs to enter the "story universe" the writer creates. When story conventions are broken, they leave the audience wondering what happened to the characters and the story they once knew. As Robert McKee writes in his fantastic book, Story, "the audience knows these conventions and expects to see them fulfilled."

I also felt betrayed when Alias self-destructed. The fabulous television series concluded with a head-scratching existential ending that defied the general clarity of the previous episodes. Did the writers write themselves into a corner they could not escape? If so, the fans, not the writers, suffered the most. 

When admired stories possess a center based on convictions, violating the story's conventions is particularly vexing. An excerpted comment by NefariousNewt on the io9 blog about Spider-Man says it well:

Stan Lee's original vision is being erased and Marvel is becoming one of those mega-corporations that does what it wants and no longer cares what the die-hard fan thinks. I think this might spell the end. Spider Man has always been my favorite superhero, because he was just like me: wanting to do right, juggling the needs of his personal life and the career he has chosen, and putting himself before others day after day, all the while living on the edge of poverty, the truly anti-heroic hero. Now, I'm ashamed...