"Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint."

November 2, 2018 4:52 AM

After thoroughly studying Action movies, year by year, in his "A History of Violence" series (previously) for AV Club, Tom Breihan began a weekly study of superhero movies called "Age of Heroes" earlier this year starting, naturally, with 1978's "Superman". This week he arrived at the fulcrum year of 2008 where both "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight" both reside.

You can probably guess from the post title which one he chose as more influential, but it's a good read. And for those that would like to catch up with "Age of Heroes":

1978 - Superman
1989 - Batman
1990 - Darkman
1991 - The Rocketeer
1992 - Batman Returns
1993 - Meteor Man
1994 - The Crow
1995 - Batman Forever
1996 - The Phantom
1997 - Batman & Robin
1998 - Blade
1999 - Mystery Men
2000 - X-Men
2001 - From Hell
2002 - Spider-Man
2003 - Hulk
2004 - The Incredibles
2005 - Batman Begins
2006 - Superman Returns
2007 - Spider-Man 3
2008 - The Dark Knight

(A note when viewing some of these titles: In forcing himself to choose one film per year, Mr. Breihan sometimes goes for notable if not necessarily good)

posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (17 comments total)

He doesn't pay enough attention to what's going on in the films, from what I saw of his take on The Crow and Mystery Men.

1) Eric's only internal life is his pain at the outset. He's an avenging monster from beyond the grave, sent to fight the monsters who put him there.... Until he meets Sarah. He remembers more and more of the goodness of life in her imperfect company, as she has a hell of a lot to her, and it's to the point where he'd prefer to hang out rather than hunt, be the father he always dreamed of being. Then It All Goes Wrong.

2) Mystery Men aren't parodying superheroes. They're comical characters in a comical world having adventures, the same way Asterix and Obelix and The Tick and Arthur and Corbyn Dallas and Ruby Rhod do. There are some sendups of genre tropes, but most directions in the plot and thematic imagery and acting were taken just because they were fun.

More, Superhero movies as serious vessels for mass entertainment were new-ish, pulp heroes were more than a century old at this point, superhero comics themselves well into their diamond jubilee. The tires are well filled.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:11 AM on November 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

1997 - Batman & Robin Spawn

Fixed.
posted by Fizz at 6:13 AM on November 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is a great series, though I think that Breihan had a much, much better finger on the pulse of action movies. Like the conceit of picking the "most influential," rather than the "best" or even "most interesting to discuss" works well for action movies; there's so many to choose from, and almost certainly something interesting to say about each one. The comic-book history of superhero movies, their distinctiveness as a genre, and the naturally multi-media and marketing-driven nature of them makes picking influences much more confusing.

And I think that Brad Bird's politics become even clearer in Incredibles 2: it's hard to say whether they're Randian, but they're definitely libertarian: individuals good, governments, bad; big private companies probably good if they're led by good individuals who recognize and support the right individual heroes. Which doesn't get as cartoon-villain as Ayn Rand herself, but contains so many unchecked assumptions that don't really read as such because they've been so mainstreamed.
posted by pykrete jungle at 6:20 AM on November 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Watchmen. Not on the list about violent "hero" movies.
posted by Brocktoon at 6:24 AM on November 2, 2018

Yeah, there's some disagreement in the AVC comments about which movie(s) really deserved the highlight. For 1994, I would have picked The Mask over The Crow; the former was peak Jim Carrey, and his version of "Cuban Pete" is probably still one of my favorite set-pieces in any comics-inspired movie. The Crow, on the other hand, really isn't much of a much, even with its morbid backstories. Breihan says that it "never could’ve been made anytime but 1994", which is kind of weird to say about a film that's based on a comic published in 1989 and has had three sequels, plus a reboot drifting in and out of development hell. (To a certain segment of the comics fandom, grimdark hasn't gone out of style for over three decades; that's why Watchmen is still in print.)

Also, I agree with Slap*Happy that Mystery Men aren't really parodies; they're the second-raters in a world where superheroes are just another flavor of celebrity asshole. The scene where Captain Amazing shows up with his costume covered with corporate logos like a NASCAR driver--and later, in his limo, ripping one of those logos off immediately upon finding out that he lost their sponsorship--is cannier than any number of superhero deconstructions that I've seen.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:33 AM on November 2, 2018 [6 favorites]

1987 - Robocop
posted by furtive at 6:54 AM on November 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

In the Also-Ran's for 1991 (Rocketeer! Yay!), he mentions The Guyver, a movie I recall existing, but never saw. Now I really wish my life had taken a completely different turn and that I had somehow ended up the host of a late night talk show, just so I could have Mark Hamill on my show and run that clip...
posted by Naberius at 7:03 AM on November 2, 2018

Now I really wish my life had taken a completely different turn and that I had somehow ended up the host of a late night talk show, just so I could have Mark Hamill on my show and run that clip...

Pull a Paul Rudd and introduce the clip as being from Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
posted by Servo5678 at 7:19 AM on November 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Re Watchmen, it was 2009 and he cuts off at 2008.
posted by lordrunningclam at 7:58 AM on November 2, 2018

Also, I agree with Slap*Happy that Mystery Men aren't really parodies; they're the second-raters in a world where superheroes are just another flavor of celebrity asshole.

No, they are number one. All others are number two, or lower.
posted by nubs at 7:58 AM on November 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Re Watchmen, it was 2009 and he cuts off at 2008.

What's more, the series is still going and he'll be covering Watchmen next week.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:23 AM on November 2, 2018

iron man is the superior hero movie. not just from 2008.
posted by logicpunk at 5:44 PM on November 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hmm, somehow I missed both this series and the previous one. Whether I agree with his choices and reasons or not, he's got interesting things to say and good writing, I just burned through the whole thing and am now poised to spend most of tomorrow on the action series. Thanks for posting.
posted by soundguy99 at 1:14 PM on November 3, 2018

Watching Dark Night now and just saw Batman drop a mob boss to the pavement from a fire escape to "soften him up". I'd be interested in knowing more about how torture entered into the toolkit of the super hero. When I was a kid, it was always seen as being beneath the dignity of any kind of hero. In the movie Blade, he turns an ultraviolet light on a vampire to get info - that's the first time it hit me, but did previous super heros torture?
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:52 PM on November 3, 2018

did previous super heros torture?

That depends on your definition of "superhero" and "torture". I think that you could go all the way back to the very beginnings of superheroes, in which Superman lures a bunch of greedy mine owners down to one of their unsafe mines and causes a cave-in so that they can experience what it's like to slowly die far underground. (He got them out, eventually.) Also in those early days, Batman had guns. Pretty sure that The Dark Knight Returns had a similar threaten-to-drop-someone-from-a-skyscraper scene, and I'm sure that I've seen it in other comics.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:03 PM on November 3, 2018

His article on Darkman is worth it if only for reminding me that this scene from The Dead Pool (a Dirty Harry movie) exists.
posted by nubs at 12:32 PM on November 5, 2018

That scene from The Dead Pool is BRILLIANT. Thank you thank you thank you. "Trust me!"
posted by artof.mulata at 9:44 PM on November 5, 2018