These three film adaptations, all based on superhero characters—listed below in the order of their theatrical release during the summer of 2008—reveal how comics must continually reinvent themselves in order to stay culturally “relevant.”
For instance, in Christopher Nolan’s initial, highly successful, reinvention of Warner Bros.’ Batman franchise, BATMAN BEGINS (2005), the Ra’s al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) character is derived from the 1970s revamp of BATMAN by Denis O’Neil and Neil Adams, the so-called “Darknight Detec- tive” period that emerged when comics writers and publishers began to suspect their growing irrel- evancy—Ra’s was an eco-terrorist years before the ELF. Frank Miller’s highly lauded graphic novel THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (1986) was also an attempt to reclaim relevancy, primarily in the form of giving the superhero psychological complexity (colloquially referred to as a “dark side”). The dif- ference between the Batman of an earlier era and Frank Miller’s Batman is analogous to the differ- ence between an early Shakespeare character such as Richard III and a later character such as Macbeth: the earlier character, Richard III, is not burdened by crippling self-consciousness, as is Macbeth. An action hero, by definition, must act with- out qualm or reluctance (Richard III), and not hesi- tate to act due to troubling moral ambiguities (Macbeth). If these three movies all represent attempts to garner the superhero some relevant cultural ca- chet, then their commercial success—especially so in the case of THE DARK KNIGHT—indicates they were successful in the attempt. Warner Bros.’ BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT are re- inventions that adamantly avoid the campy fea- tures that hampered the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher era Batman films, while Universal’s THE INCREDIBLE HULK represents a reimagining of Ang Lee’s earlier HULK (2003), a commercial disappointment that was also critically reviled. Rather like THE DARK KNIGHT, Paramount’s
IRON MAN features an absent father figure, mean- ing that the story concerns the hero going in search of his identity, a venerable archetypal pattern. IRON MAN also borrows an idea from BATMAN BEGINS, the false father (or false hero) figure, in the earlier film represented by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), a Howard Hughes- like billionaire, techno-genius and weapons
IRON MAN flies, THE DARK KNIGHT crashes and THE INCREDIBLE HULK smashes! Highlights from three of 2008’s biggest blockbusters.
manufacturer (under the auspices of Stark Enter- prises, the company founded by his father) is dis- patched on his journey of self-discovery after being captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. Stark goes to that country in order to demonstrate to military commanders his latest super weapon, “Jericho,” when he is caught in an ambush and severely wounded, ironically by one of his own weapons— a darkly comic twist on so-called “friendly fire.” The weapon contains shrapnel in the form of ra- zor sharp shards that are programmed to seek vi- tal organs in its human host. Captured, saved from death by being outfitted with a battery-powered electromagnet by a doctor and fellow captor (Shaun Toub) that prevents the so-called “creep- ing death”—the shards—from advancing into his heart, Stark is subsequently tortured in order to persuade him to build the Jericho weapon for the terrorist leader, Raza (Faran Tahir). But instead of building the weapon from the technology given him, Stark proves necessity is the mother of in- vention, cobbling together a brilliantly crude, bul- let-proof flying armored suit, which, after creating a little mayhem, he uses to enable his escape. Like an ideal Hemingway character, Stark exhibits grace under pressure—a 21st century exemplar of “cool.” Returning home as damaged goods—the elec- tromagnet encasing his heart the only thing keep- ing him alive—Stark is a changed man. A casualty of the world he has been complicitous in mak- ing—and now crippled by it—his sobering experi- ence as a captor has transformed him. He immediately halts production in his corporation’s weapons division, much to the dismay of his elder business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). His pacifistic change in conscience is noticed both by his close personal aide and secretary, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his friend and mili- tary liaison, James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Terrence Howard). Returning home no longer human but a human-machine hybrid, Stark turns his energies toward the perfection of the exo-skeletal flight system he first built while imprisoned in the
IRON MAN
ULTIMATE 2-DISC EDITION 2008, Paramount, $39.95, 126m 1s, BR
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 2008, Universal, $39.95, 111m 37s, BR
THE DARK KNIGHT 2008, Warner, $35.95, 152m 10s, BR 29
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