"Competence porn," superhero comics and the disconnect between writers and their audiences

[box_in_the_box]

Leverage is a show that I still haven't managed to catch yet, even though I've heard nothing but good things about it.

Not too long ago, Leverage writer John Rogers coined a term so awesome, to describe something that's so sadly lacking in far too many stories nowadays, that even though I haven't even watched his show yet, I still feel it's

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

The most striking example of competence porn that comes to mind in my recent pull list would be the scene in Dark Avengers (3?) where Norman banishes the Void and makes you think "Why the fuck couldn't Tony Stark do that, if he wanted to see Bob become something special?"

[box_in_the_box]

I suppose the problem I have with scenes like that is that, if it makes you ask the question, "Why couldn't a previous supposedly competent character do what this character did?", then there should at least be an answer. Otherwise, you're not really building one character up as much as you are knocking another character down, because if the only answer is, "Because the previous character was dumb or didn't care," then you've only made your current character look smarter and more careful than a dumb, careless character, which hardly makes a case for their competency.

[box_in_the_box]

YES.

[jarodrussell]

Was it when Reid was kidnapped by the guy with three personalities and he called Hotch a narcissist?

[hyperactivator]

This reminds me of alot of bad horror movie rants. Many horror movies tend to make all thier characters shallow unlikeable jerks that you want to see die horribly. But that defeats the purpose of being scary. If you don't care about the character you don't feel scared when they are about to die or horrified when they do. The result is an unscary aesop-like mess.

I'm getting the same result above with the ordinary people in the Marvel Universe. I don't want the superheros to save them I want the superheros to be saved from them.

I would feel no sadness if the Inhumans took all of earth's Superheros,Mutants,and Atlanteans into space to help them rebuilding the Kree empire and left earth to the Norman and his kind. In fact it would make me blissfully happy because Marvel's Cosmic heros are all written awsomely.

[box_in_the_box]

Good points.

[queenanthai]

This reminds me of alot of bad horror movie rants. Many horror movies tend to make all thier characters shallow unlikeable jerks that you want to see die horribly

Which is what I'm horrified that they'll try, and so very certain that they'll do, in the Nightmare On Elm Street remake. Not to hijack the topic or anything, but the reason why Nancy was such a fantastic protagonist was because she was an everygirl. Not stupid. Not a kickass fighter. Not slutty. Not overly sardonic or witty. Just a girl. And KICKED FREDDY'S ASS. TWICE.

Now that's a heroine.

[fnordmotorco]

I loved Global Frequency for this exact reason.

[colonel_green]

In the original issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Flash Thompson was the everyman, for all the same reasons he was Peter's ENEMY, so he shouldn't be Spider-Man's TARGET AUDIENCE.

Flash Thompson was the school bully/jock. That's hardly the common definition of 'everyman' (maybe in a Ditko Objectivist-influenced way, but that's an aspect that the comics have been trying to get away from ever since Romita came onboard).

[jarodrussell]

That's hardly the common definition of 'everyman' (maybe in a Ditko Objectivist-influenced way, but that's an aspect that the comics have been trying to get away from ever since Romita came onboard).

And you don't see a connection between where comics were to where they are due to that exodus?

[colonel_green]

Er, no. Not in the slightest. Is Objectivism considered to be a key component of most entertainment media?

Quick edit to extend the sentence

[jarodrussell]

Not Objectivism specifically, but the revere of the competent that comes along with Objectivism.