alternicity and the superhero
Jan. 28th, 2023 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliA superhero story takes place with overt superpowers.
Even low-key superpowers are starting to make it borderline, and covert ones are very odd superhero stories indeed, when they have not moved over fully into urban fantasy and SF.
Which means, as a corollary, that all superhero stories are in alternate histories. The things that Marvel and DC do to keep up the pretense that history keeps going along the same lines are patently absurd. Wars, countries, massacres -- as long as they are fictional -- do not change the history of their world.
This should be thrown out the window for a good superhero universe. Powers will change the world. Gadgeteers will invent flying cars, and new ways to make roads so that cars do not collide. Civil wars will have fire and ice powered supers duking it out in a way that makes it moot which is heroic. Diseases will be cured, and invented. Elections will change.
Of course, much depends on the story. A political thriller will need to work out all the changes. A romantic comedy about a city's foremost superhero and an accountant would have to hint about the edges -- perhaps more if she works for the city to keep track of superdamages, but that would not be needed. Super-slice-of-life would need some awareness of the impact, but would chiefly focus on the day to day life, which would allow large portions of the issues to float off-stage.
Even low-key superpowers are starting to make it borderline, and covert ones are very odd superhero stories indeed, when they have not moved over fully into urban fantasy and SF.
Which means, as a corollary, that all superhero stories are in alternate histories. The things that Marvel and DC do to keep up the pretense that history keeps going along the same lines are patently absurd. Wars, countries, massacres -- as long as they are fictional -- do not change the history of their world.
This should be thrown out the window for a good superhero universe. Powers will change the world. Gadgeteers will invent flying cars, and new ways to make roads so that cars do not collide. Civil wars will have fire and ice powered supers duking it out in a way that makes it moot which is heroic. Diseases will be cured, and invented. Elections will change.
Of course, much depends on the story. A political thriller will need to work out all the changes. A romantic comedy about a city's foremost superhero and an accountant would have to hint about the edges -- perhaps more if she works for the city to keep track of superdamages, but that would not be needed. Super-slice-of-life would need some awareness of the impact, but would chiefly focus on the day to day life, which would allow large portions of the issues to float off-stage.