Even though this
blog is about comics, and
the business aspect of
those, for this time I will
write about Superhero movies,
because this is a more general
perception of the theme and comics. How perception
is not reality, but this perception
can affect our markets, our
sales and at the end, our
costumers.
There are two excellent articles on the web
that discusses the situation
of these films that are perceived
as unoriginal and repetitive over
and over again.
Before I continue,
If you are a
fanboy of the comics, please,
don’t send me a ton of e mails
about the “ clear, obvious “ reasons why Superman
is far different that
the Spiderman Movie and all that
, Read at the beginning of this article, this is about Marketing, business perception
First Greg Hatcher does an incredible clever
analysis of the superhero
movie, so clear that discovers and
explain to us the superhero formula
of the last eight/ nine movies.
In here Hatcher
discuses about not only on the
use of such formula, but
that in the long term this is going to damage the superhero movie market. One of the
clear arguments is about
the creativity and
the narrow way the superheroes
have been represented. This to the mainstream public
will look like unoriginal
and derivative.
Have we had enough of the Superhero genre?, this article
by Alfie
Packham and Steven
Roberts that appears
in the Nose ( the University of
York students newspaper) debates
a similar idea. Packham argues
that there exist very different movies,
with different aspects shown
in the movies. In here I have to agree
with Roberts in which that
is the apparent concept, but at the end
is the same story over and over again.
If we really try
to create superhero movies that impact the viewers, and hopefully drive them to the nearest comic book shop, then we
have to start producing new and
different material from the way this
material is produced.
One of the best
examples, although not a movie, is the tv series The Walking Dead. I
know the difference in format, time and
more are determinant in the
production of this material, but
we can use the advantages of the
media in our favor. So these are my points
of view that can change the way we produce superhero movies.
·
Ditch the
origin. We don’t have the
time and most people
in the planet know well the basis for
the characters. If it is
an unknow character, give
free a
comic (printed or in digital
format) to explain the basis
for the character/story (hint for
increase your product awareness of
your comic)
·
Don’t be
afraid to show a complex and
interesting story.
·
Don’t write “for someone” or worse, “for kids” If in truth
comics want to be
a medium for everyone, start
acting like one., different stories,
different markets.
·
As in comics,
having good images and scenes, does not justify
not having a good story. Excessive special effects will not cover for an intelligent story.
The
usual formula is
that the superhero
has some superpower/ability ,
that makes him different, generally
speaking (s)he is the hero because (s)he does what is right (in contraposition to a
supervillain who if (s)he
has the same set of superpowers, these are used in an
egoistical or selfish way.
This causes that in the story, (s) he has to
have an excuse to use these
superpowers ,the most the better, and thanks
to all the special effects used today,they are used a lot. I
understand the temptation to use all the
digital Special Effects so visually
is the best movie, but as in
comics and in marketing, you have to
connect with some feeling or sensation to our consumers, so the movie becomes relevant. Superman (MoS) tried
to play in the alienation that
we can feel sometimes, in the value
of the special relationship of men and their
father image etc. Spiderman has
always been about the awkwardness of adolescence and to know that
deep inside, we have something special, something
Done correctly, superhero movies
can become attractive, can resonate
deeply in the spectators and in
consequence, this can show to all
the mainstream why we are fond
in some of these characters, what they mean and what they mean to us, the geeks/fanboys/fangirls.
