I liked Tim Martin’s perspective about comic books because it paralleled my own opinions on the format. As he mentions, the comic book medium is still young and developing alongside the evolving views from public perception. Because it is so young, it has an opportunity to grow with the mainstream audience and attract more to the medium. We see this now as more and more film and novels receive comic book adaptations. A recent example of this growing trend that I saw prior to reading the article were the Game of Thrones graphic novel adaptations that seemed to be easier entry points into the world in contrast to the 500-page novels that are written by George R. R. Martin.

He makes a valid point that those who grew up with comics are now in a position of power to help it grow as well. What was once taboo or considered something for children has developed into something that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and groups.

Superhero movies are violent, but the violence which they portray deviates from reality, or at least shies away from the full extent of it. It really makes you question why some forms of violence are “okay” to watch, whereas other forms cross the line. The Dark Knight (2008)—one of the movies on the Top 10 list—is objectively very dark in terms of its content, especially in conjunction to the subject of morality. There is even one scene in the film in which the Joker makes a pencil “disappear” by lodging it into a man’s eye. This scene was kept in the movie, however, a later of a man getting burned alive was cut for being too violent. Where is the line? 

Although I have not read many superhero comics, watching this video made me wonder if this is a similar morality battle the illustrators face in regards to how violent is too violent, or maybe even not violent enough.  

-Rachel Levine

But why exactly are the movies so successive in the first place? “Filmmakers = Fan-boys.” They say that if you love your work, you’ll never work a day in your life. The article points out that super-movie directors such as James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), Kevin Feige (Age of Ultron), or Zack Snyder (Marvel’s president of production) are “unashamed comic book nuts.” 

The rest of the article goes into risk-taking (how Marvel isn’t just “chasing the dollar,” and try to make movies of variety), amazing special effects (Groot, Spider-Man, literally everyone in X-Men), and fame and balance. 
While Hollywood’s studios obviously try to gather the widest market they can manage, pleasing the “hardcore fans” is just as important. “They’re the ones who talk on the internet,” producer Ralph Winter said. “They set the tone and the buzz for everything else.” 

-Thorn Lin

In this article I linked by Geoff Boucher, he discusses how comic book films are affecting the sales of comic books, and the article further explores reason for why that is. The article also mentions why comic book writers are not so eager to have popular comic book movies come out. 
   The article goes over some of the history of comics, and how they have changed so much since their original rise in popularity. I thought that this was an interesting article to link because one would tend to think with the current boom of superhero movies, comic books sales would be plenty, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Even though digital mediums have probably brought a huge decrease in sales for physical copies, there should still be a boost in comic book sales and talk. Another thing that surprised about the lack of interest in comics is that comics and their characters seem to be much more mainstream now compared to the past, so again, one would think the sales of comic books would be on the rise with the current popularity of the Marvel films. It will be interesting to see how comic books and their popularity fare in the future. 

Dillon Eldridge

 

    Since I knew very little about memoirs, I wanted to research and see how they were thought of in the first place and how they evolved to their current status in the literary world. I also wanted to know how they were originally received, what is what about memoirs people found so attractive and the overall effect they had overall on the literary world. In an article from The New Yorker by Daniel Mendelsohn, he goes into detail about the history of memoirs and how they gained so much popularity in a short amount of time. The article describes how memoirs were criticized by some people when they were first created, only to eventually be given a respectable place in the literary world. This article interested me because I thought it did a great job at explaining why memoirs are so appealing to people, and what aspects of the memoir have been modernized to attract the current members of society. I also think it will be interesting to see how memoirs continue to evolve in the future, and if they will continue to rise in popularity, or be a niche literary practice will become less popular as time goes on. 

-Dillon Eldridge

 

Mendelsohn, Daniel. But Enough About Me. The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2010, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/but-enough-about-me-2.

In their article, psychologist Rosenberg categorizes what they believe to be the three most popular origin story types—trauma, destiny, and chance. Ultimately, Rosenberg believes these three categories are so popular because they are relatable to the viewer. We enjoy seeing somebody at their lowest, as we have been, and turning that pain into something extraordinary. Rosenberg emphasizes that extraordinary aspect of heroism does not come from strength and power, but the pursuit of altruism above all else in the face of adversity. However, I do wonder if the popularity, or even relatability, of origin stories is strictly derivative of altruism. As some of the other articles my classmates have posted point out, nowadays antiheroes as well as villains (whose motives are not always of the altruistic variety) are becoming even more popular than regular heroes.
-Rachel Levine