Little C: I'm Holding Out for Heroes

Readers, we are in the midst of a heavy saturation of super hero media. Every studio is pushing big hero filled movies, both the CW, Netflix and ABC have multiple comic book based TV shows (the other networks have them...they're just not as good). It's truly a wonderful time to be a nerd. I wanted to talk about this as Agent Carter season 2 started yesterday and Legends of Tomorrow is coming soon. I'm excited for both of these shows for different reasons, and in expressing that I engaged in an argument with someone who said "There's too much superhero stuff out. It's over saturating the market". They said other things after that but I stubbornly refused to listen. Don't anger me pre-coffee people.

Yes, it's true that there are a million different options for the superhero inclined out there. Personally I would argue that superheros are the new cop drama, we have a million of them but each one has its own style. The point is that people who are sick of seeing protagonists who wear masks and capes don't understand the current state of our pop culture. The millennial generation (which is usually used as an insult dispute the fact that we drive most of the current culture) have grown up in a world where terrorism is a very real part of life. We grew up afraid of bad guys with strong beliefs who are bent on destroying us. We reacted to this the same way children raised in the 30s and 40s did, we looked for a hero to make us feel protected.

Sometimes we look for heroes that protect other heroes

The biggest difference that I see is that heroes were once confined to comics and radio where as technology now allows us to see our masked vigilantes once a week in TV shows and four or five times a year at the theater. As such we are finally starting to see different kinds of characters as Super. Don't get me wrong, diversity wise we are still waaaaay behind but with every show that starts to include heroes of color or female heroes I get a little more hopeful.

So yes, we have a flood of caped crusaders in our media. And yes, some of them are stupid or contrived. But until the world starts to change in some major ways, we need all the heroes we can get.

Happy watching,
Little C