The hero

During my Friday traditional getting stuck in the weekend traffic jam I had some thoughts about heroes. Especially comic book heroes.

Today the most common hero need to be a good guy with some dark or bad habbits. A good example is Batman. From day one he was a guy with the intention to frighten his foes and make the encounter with him a terrifying event, so they would never ever follow the path of crime again. Many other heroes followed this example and especially during the dark age of comic history the Anti-hero mastered this appearance (maybe with a bit more violence).

Nolan's Batman, serious and in a very "realistic" setting, laid a new path for the modern thinking of what a hero should be and how he would look like. The Marvel movies are the perfect opposite of this movement and they are much more affiliated to comic and the young-readers. Which way you prefer is a matter of taste and isn't the topic but we recognize that all those media-dominating heroes are subordinated to the premise of a mix of good and bad habits of a character. A character like Wolverine wouldn't work without his bad-ass stamping nor a Tony Stark without his arrogant and playboy attitudes.
So all those comic-book heroes has been tuned a bit darker since their birth. Even the Man Of Steel was updated with a more alienating appearance and thinking. But what am I looking for?

I'm looking for the ultimate hero. Not a martyr, who even gives his life for the good cause, but a real righteously character who is cocksure of his destiny to fulfil an entire life for the greater good. The archetype of the white knight without the ridiculousness of a "Prince Charming".
This character would be the hardest to write, because the connection between the reader and the character has to work on a very high level of idealistic understanding. His, or of course her, inner impulse to do good equals a strong religious belief and those kind of creeds are damn hard to transport.
In comic-books I never experienced such a kind of character nor in fictional books or films. Of course never in real history.

In my opinion this "real" hero will never exists because nobody can write an acceptable and believable character and story which won't force the writer to create a compromise between the high standards for the ultimate hero and the need to make the character appealing to the reader. It's so much easier for us to embrace our own inadequateness in a character then be inspired by higher concept ideology transported by a pure vessel. Sad but true.

Time passes...

Okay. A lot of water has run down the river since my last post. But that is absolutely okay. Maybe you wondered: "Is it all over now? All this will to communicate about comics has vanished?" And honestly I must confess: yes. To face the truth there hasn't ever been a great amount of communication around this blog or interaction with readers. I lied to myself about the part of writing a blog and meet people who share my interests. No offence. There has been nice people writing comments and reading my blog. But I was really focused on this "readership", watching stats of my blog so I lost the point of it all. I had to find it again:

It's about comics. And it's about my view on comics.

So I reduced the design in order to simplify the reading and writing. It spares your and my time and supports a distraction free reading. But that is just a visual aspect of simplification. I will break down the routines of "New comic book - new review ... new week - new "Panel of the Week"" and so on. There is now need for pressure. So I will try to write and post more liberal without any frames or restrictions I inflict on my posts.

So? What have I done all the time? I've read comics. And books. A good friend of mine lend me a lot of TPB of "The Walking Dead". Now I have arrived at No. 15 and my high regards for this series has obtain some cracks. Here and there I've spotted some indications of a TV-soap-stile behaviour between the characters. That is really worrying and I hope it will become again a little more entertaining on a sophisticated level which was so awesome all the time.

And there was the "Death of the Family" event in the Batman series. All good and fine, but what the heck suddenly meant Requiem for Robin? When did Damian died? And why? I was really upset, when I finally read in the web, that Damian died in Batman Inc. Just a millisecond I thought of buying the issue but than my anger on this totally wrong placed death (right when the Death of the Family event takes place) it should have been part of the event. To continue the Batman title this way isn't satisfactory. Nevertheless the event itself was really good and I enjoyed it.

But all along there has been too much events and crossovers for my taste in the last couple month. Please give me one book with a storyline without buying all the other sideseries just to get rid of the feeling to miss something. Thats really annoying.

Hey, but there is a light at the end of this consumedriven industrytunnel: the new "Man of Steel" Movie. ;) Okay, it will end up (like all the Hollywood works) in a big merchandise explosion but nevertheless I am totally looking forward for this film. Everything I've seen to this date looked very appealing to me and to point something right out of the third trailer: the "S" isn't a "S". It's a symbol and means "Hope". And I really hope that this film brings Superman back to his former glory.

So, it is time to focus again on the main aspect: Comics. Dear reader, maybe there will pass some time till the next post, but be sure of that, I will write again. And don't forget: there are much more important things than to read one comic blog of thousands. Quit surfing the web, grab a good comicbook or book. There is nothing more important than you own experience.

Andy

Panel der Woche #5

Hallo Comicfreunde,

diese Woche habe ich unter den gekauften Serien leider kein Panel der Woche gefunden. Folglich habe ich mein Bücherregal etwas durchstöbert und bin auf das gute alte "The Man Of Steel" von John Byrne gestoßen. Nach den riesigen Veränderungen, die "Crisis On Infinite Earth" ins DC Universum gebracht hat, wurde Superman von Byrne rebootet und legte für fast 20 Jahren den Ursprung von Superman fest.

Für mich als ein "Frischling" in der Comicwelt und eher vertraut mit den aktuellen Storyarcs, war "The Man Of Steel" eine sehr unterhaltsame Zeitreise. Im Kontext vom Reboot des kompletten DC Universums mit "New 52" ist es umso interessanter wie sich Charaktere und das Medium Comics über Jahrzehnte entwickelt.

Das Panel, das ich rausgesucht habe hat den wunderbar sympathischen und humorvollen Superman eingefangen. Es ist die Leichtigkeit und die leichte Arroganz von Superman mit der er sich der Verbrecher annimmt, die mich hier überzeugt. Ich liebe es wenn Superman ernst dargestellt wird, er die Welt im großen Rahmen betrachtet und der Alien-Charakter von Superman herausgearbeitet wird. Die Byrne Interpretation stellt ihn viel eher als ein Held dar und ist viel verbundener mit den Menschen und nicht so "abgehoben" wie heutzutage.

Man of Steel: Teaser Trailer

Hallo Comicfreunde,

kurz notiert: im Rahmen der Premiere von "The Dark Knight Rises" ist jetzt auch der erste Teaser Trailer für "Man of Steel" erschienen. Bisher bestätigt er meine Meinung, dass dieser Superman-Film einen ähnlich ernsteren Touch haben wird, wie die Nolan Batman-Trilogie. Das lässt hoffen, dass wir einen sehr ansprechend Film im Sommer nächsten Jahres sehen werden. Abwarten und Tee trinken heißt es nun...

Teaser Trailer "Man of Steel"

Man of Steel: Filmplakat

Hallo Comicfreunde,

kurz notiert: hier ist ein neues Filmplakat vom neuen Superman-Film "Man of Steel", der kommendes Jahr in die Kinos kommen soll. Ich bin sehr gespannt darauf wie Zack Snyder Superman umsetzen wird und ich hoffe er kann es genauso gut adaptieren wie "Watchmen". Superman hat einfach einen guten Film verdient und der sollte nun auch geliefert werden.