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How are you doing, you wonderful nerd?
As I'm sure you've noticed,
we're in the midst of a kind of superhero renaissance,
where comic book movies and TV shows
are constantly being shoved in our faces left and right.
Not that I'm complaining.
Of course, if anything, that's just job security for me.
Which is why this month we're doing an entire series
all about superhero shows and movies.
But I have to wonder if that's
even the correct way to address them.
Superhero movies, as if it's a genre unto itself.
Surely the easiest thing to do
is to say they're action movies with superheroes
or crime dramas with superheroes.
Political thrillers with superheroes,
science fiction fantasy adventure epics
that just so happen to feature
superpeople with capes and costumes.
Comic book writer Grant Morrison
said in 2009 that he's not even sure
if there is a superhero genre,
or if the idea of the superhero
is a special chili pepper-like ingredient
designed to energize other genres.
The president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige,
said a few years back that he specifically
does not believe in the comic book genre or superhero genre.
Surely if the president of what is,
as far as I know, the only motion picture studio
which produces films about superheroes
and nothing else says the superhero genre
does not exist, then it must not be a thing, right?
Well not according to Peter Coogan
in his book Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre,
and in his essay from What is a Superhero,
both of which I will have linked
in the description down below
if you want to go check it out.
So first things first, if we're trying
to figure out if the superhero genre exists,
then we first need to figure out
what a genre is.
And the entirety of genre theory
is a little bit beyond our scope for today,
so for the sake of this video we'll keep it simple
and say that a genre is a system
of particular conventions like plot,
setting, character, and theme, which
through imitation and repetition
become a familiar and meaningful narrative system
that can be named as such.
Or, as author Thomas Schatz put it,
familiar characters performing familiar actions
which celebrate familiar values.
There are a few factors that we can observe
to see if a story form has become a genre.
As we said, imitation and repetition play a key role.
Superman leaped into the scene
with Action Comics #1, and countless
knock-offs flew into frame.
Lawsuits followed faster than a speeding bullet.
When you look at the superhero boom
taking over the comic book market in the 1940s,
you may see some similarities
with today's film and television industry.
Just lots and lots of repetition and imitation.
Successful parody of a genre is also an indicator.
If superheroes can be parodied successfully,
which they have been, as recently
as the Lego Batman movie and as far back
as the 1940s, then that shows the conventions
of the genre are well understood
and have saturated the minds of the audience.
And heck, even just having a name
helps to identify genres, especially
if the work self identifies as such.
X-Mean reading "The Strangest Super-Heroes of All"
on the cover of their first issue
announces the type of story the reader is in for,
the same way The Rawhide Kid announces
"Blazing Western Action."
Marketing themselves as superhero stories
indicates the publishers were confident
the audience would not only understand what that meant,
but were actively looking for such stories
and the paradigms presented within them.
Westerns typically showcase civilization
triumphing over savagery, detective stories
solve mysteries, and they do so with
familiar characters and settings.
So, what conventions make up the superhero genre?
According to Coogan, "Superhero stories
"concern the responsible use of extraordinary
"power in the service of justice."
Or, as Stan Lee so elegantly put it
in Amazing Fantasy #15,
"With great power, there must also
"come great responsibility."
Superhero stories often include
the use of supervillains, sidekicks,
secret headquarters, superteams,
an influence on continuity, and so much more.
But Coogan writes that there
are three main conventions.
Number one, the protagonist's selfless
and prosocial mission to fight evil
and protect the innocent.
Number two, the protagonist having
some kind of superpower, whether that be
a mutant ability, powers gained through
a science experiment or accident,
or simply specialized equipment or skills
that elevate the hero above the average person.
And number three, the most important
convention of the superhero genre,
is the protagonist's identity.
The identity is made up of both
the costume and the codename,
and occasionally the concept of secrecy,
although the idea of a secret identity
is becoming less and less common as time goes on.
The codename and costume work in tandem
to announce a character's identity.
They help to convey and emblematize
a character's mission, like Captain America
and Punisher; their power, like Spider Man
and Storm; or pieces of their origin,
like Deadpool and Batman.
While there do exist other masked heroes, like Zorro,
his codename and costume don't operate
in the same way that a superhero's does.
See for yourself.
Do Zorro's name and costume have
a strong connection to either his
mission, powers, or origin?
Not really.
Zorro's identity isn't as coherent
as a guy wearing a flag calling himself Captain America,
or a hero covered in scales and
wielding a trident called Aquaman.
It's important to note that not every convention
is required for something to be labeled
as a superhero story, and in fact,
other stories might contain a few elements
of the superhero genre but aren't
considered superhero stories.
As Coogan explains, this apparent indeterminancy
originates in the nature of genre itself.
No one example within a genre displays
every convention of its genre, but all examples
from a genre share common elements that form
a complicated network of similarities
overlapping and crisscrossing.
Right there, Coogan cites philosopher Lou Wittgenstein's
concept of family resemblance in his discussion of games.
"For if you look at games you will not see
"something that is common to all, but
"similarities, relationships, and a whole series
"of them at that."
This concept is applied to genres
in that they don't have a rigid set of criteria
that every story in every genre must meet.
Instead, each story in that genre
has at least some shared, overlapping characteristics
with other stories in that genre.
Sidenote: if all this sounds familiar,
it's because we've discussed the mission,
power, and identity of comic book characters
back when we asked how to even define
what a superhero is.
It's necessary to revisit these points
because one cannot define the superhero genre
without first defining the superhero.
Much like a police procedural or detective story,
the superhero genre takes its name
from a character in the work itself.
To understand those genres,
we need to have an understanding of those characters.
So if you haven't see it, I recommend watching that video,
after this one, though, of course.
I'll have it linked below, but let's
get back to the show.
It's at this point in the conversation
that Coogan makes the distinction
between a superhero and a super hero.
He does so to distinguish the protagonists
of the superhero films and those of action movies.
The characters in the Fast and the Furious franchise,
for example, continue to show off
their incredible and amazing feats of strength,
skill, and dedication to family.
No ordinary human in our world
could do what they do.
They're just too fast and too furious, dang it.
But that does not make them superheroes
or supervillains, I don't,
guys, I love these movies, I don't know
if they're the good guys or the bad guys,
I just know that I want a dozen more of them.
If we consider Dom and the crew to be heroes
in their stories, they could be regarded
as super heroes, but they are not superheroes.
The distinction here is that super heroes
differ in degree from ordinary people
whereas superheroes differ in kind
for all the reasons we've previously discussed.
So, is Kevin Feige wrong then?
Does the superhero genre actually exist?
I believe it does and, if I may speculate,
I think that he secretly does too.
Kevin Feige saying he doesn't believe
in the superhero genre was simply
a knee jerk reaction to Steven Spielberg
saying how superhero movies will die like Westerns.
And when you're the head of a film studio
that literally makes nothing but superhero movies,
it's understandable to get a little defensive.
But Kevin, and I know you're watching,
I just have to say embrace it.
Embrace the superhero genre.
Yes, of course, superhero movies
can be different from one to the next
and, for the most part, they are.
But that doesn't mean there aren't
encompassing conventions over all of these movies.
The superhero genre exists.
It's thriving and you have had more
than a small part to play in that.
So don't try and distance Marvel from superheroes.
Own it.
As always, I would love to know
your thoughts on this topic.
Vote in this poll up here.
Is superhero a genre or not?
I'm interested to know why
you voted the way you did down in the comments below.
There's always some wonderful conversations
down there, I love the great community
that you wonderful nerds have helped create.
Thank you so much to our patrons
who make these videos possible
over at patreon.com/nerdsync.
The names of those beautiful people
are in the description down below.
If you want your name there,
once again, that is patreon.com/nerdsync.
I will see you wonderful nerds
on Saturday for a brand new video.
In the meantime, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics
and, I guess, superhero movies.
See ya.