On one hand, I’m very pleased with what seems to be a good and relevant message in mainstream media. I haven’t watched the film and I doubt I will, but I support it wholeheartedly if it is about what people online say it is.
On the other hand, it’s kinda sad that the best and most digestible recent Western production displaying prosocial values is a comic book film. 😓
Comic books, more often than not, have always been pro-social values, and largely pretty progressive. The movies water some of that down sometimes, but it’s always been there at the core.
One of my favorite moments in comics comes from the 1970 Green Lantern / Green Arrow run. Green Arrow rescues a kid from getting run over by a train, and rather than celebrate the victory, he laments that the city didn’t have a park where this kid could play safely. He considers running for mayor, and the rest of the Justice League talk him out of it.
As a kid, it was the first time I saw a comic look at the reader and say, “Yeah, these capes really are just fantasy. If you want the world to be better, you can’t leave it to other people.”
The Green Arrow was always a leftist activist analog. The problem with a serialized shared universe that parallels the real world is that you can never actually fix the problems that exist in the real world or else you lose that connection to it, but that also generates frustration too.
Like “cool” you can punch all the bad guys in Gotham, but why aren’t you eliminating poverty? Why aren’t you reforming corrupt the local government and police force? You fight alien invasions, but what have you done about ethnic cleansing and genocide? What about nuclear proliferation?
It was kind of nice in Superman (2025) that they actually had Superman dip a toe into addressing large scale real world issues with the invasion he stops and then deal with the aftermath of it. But that was about as complicated as we’re likely to see that real world parallel get unless they just turn the new DCU into a wholly different sort of world, a near utopia but police by the whims of a handful of ultra-powerful metahumans.
I think, if we are taking the message at face value (which might not be the best idea with a religious dude, but whatevs), it’s not sad that it is being shared through narrative and myth, but that this is the best we can find with values we care about.
I mean, what else could I be saying here? Lol. I honestly wonder if people are THIS thick or they’re just pretending, so I give people the benefit of the doubt. But, damn, it’s frustrating at times. 😔
It’s the lack of depth behind it and the evidenced collective arrested development, but it’s better than nothing for those who have no knowledge of philosophy and/or Scripture (or the maturity and intellectual competence to process it). 🤷
It’s like having to teach an adult to boil an egg when, by then, they should understand the basics of cooking at the very least, but even worse cause we’re not talking about something as easily replaced, this is ideology and attitude which are foundational for people and society at large. But, like I said, I’m glad someone is teaching folks to boil eggs!
On one hand, I’m very pleased with what seems to be a good and relevant message in mainstream media. I haven’t watched the film and I doubt I will, but I support it wholeheartedly if it is about what people online say it is.
On the other hand, it’s kinda sad that the best and most digestible recent Western production displaying prosocial values is a comic book film. 😓
Comic books, more often than not, have always been pro-social values, and largely pretty progressive. The movies water some of that down sometimes, but it’s always been there at the core.
One of my favorite moments in comics comes from the 1970 Green Lantern / Green Arrow run. Green Arrow rescues a kid from getting run over by a train, and rather than celebrate the victory, he laments that the city didn’t have a park where this kid could play safely. He considers running for mayor, and the rest of the Justice League talk him out of it.
As a kid, it was the first time I saw a comic look at the reader and say, “Yeah, these capes really are just fantasy. If you want the world to be better, you can’t leave it to other people.”
The Green Arrow was always a leftist activist analog. The problem with a serialized shared universe that parallels the real world is that you can never actually fix the problems that exist in the real world or else you lose that connection to it, but that also generates frustration too.
Like “cool” you can punch all the bad guys in Gotham, but why aren’t you eliminating poverty? Why aren’t you reforming corrupt the local government and police force? You fight alien invasions, but what have you done about ethnic cleansing and genocide? What about nuclear proliferation?
It was kind of nice in Superman (2025) that they actually had Superman dip a toe into addressing large scale real world issues with the invasion he stops and then deal with the aftermath of it. But that was about as complicated as we’re likely to see that real world parallel get unless they just turn the new DCU into a wholly different sort of world, a near utopia but police by the whims of a handful of ultra-powerful metahumans.
Tell us more about how sharing values through narrative and myth is sad.
I think, if we are taking the message at face value (which might not be the best idea with a religious dude, but whatevs), it’s not sad that it is being shared through narrative and myth, but that this is the best we can find with values we care about.
I mean, what else could I be saying here? Lol. I honestly wonder if people are THIS thick or they’re just pretending, so I give people the benefit of the doubt. But, damn, it’s frustrating at times. 😔
I SWIM IN THE SEA OF THE UNCONSCIOUS 🎶
It’s the lack of depth behind it and the evidenced collective arrested development, but it’s better than nothing for those who have no knowledge of philosophy and/or Scripture (or the maturity and intellectual competence to process it). 🤷
It’s like having to teach an adult to boil an egg when, by then, they should understand the basics of cooking at the very least, but even worse cause we’re not talking about something as easily replaced, this is ideology and attitude which are foundational for people and society at large. But, like I said, I’m glad someone is teaching folks to boil eggs!
Username checks out
Comics are our modern day myths. It’s not surprised the most digestible messages would be through them.