#Super heroes

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Some great discussion going on here. Lots to chew over.

I do think it’s interesting that, outside of Marvel and DC, which are pretty well grandfathered in, almost no modern super hero universe just allows for unlicensed vigilantism. Anime like MHA and Tiger and Bunny, webcomics like Grrl Power and Spinerette, prose works like Wearing the Cape, even other comic book universes, pretty much all of them dismiss the idea of super heroes just being allowed to do whatever they want without any oversight or accountability.

Granted, in the DCU at least if you act up as a hero, Superman, Nightwing, or the JSA come have a “talk” with you, but that’s self policing.

Also, here’s Carol rejecting the cop analogy

🔥 government-sanctioned superheroes

So for a long time, in many spaces in which I was in, the reflexive intellectual contrarian position on superheroes as a broad concept- often framed in liberal terms, liberal in an American context, because this was frequently regarding the Superhuman Registration Act from Marvel specifically- was that superheroes are unaccountable, and if they were real the correct, or at least inevitable thing would be some form of nationalization or licensing system. After all, these people are untrained irregulars, appointed by no one and answerable to no one except whoever's powerful enough to bring them down in a fight- would we really want them running around with no oversight from our good friend The Government? Who watches the Watchmen?

And, you know, a lot of these premises are basically correct. But about four years ago, as a very ancillary point to, uh, everything else going on at the time, it was quietly cemented for me that there had always been a version of this argument being made from a position of ridiculously unwarranted faith in proceduralism, in the goodwill of the government and law enforcement in particular. Versions of this argument being made by people who've never had a bad encounter with the cops. Maybe it's not the worst thing in the world that Spider-Man usually isn't on speaking terms with the NYPD, actually! Maybe you very much don't want him to be!

That said, I think there are certainly risks of swinging too far in the other direction here, beetlejuicing into the conversation a particularly annoying kind of cape fan who treats superheroes as leftist, anarchist or at least antiauthoritarian by default- they aren't, you have to work to characterize them that way, and it's often extremely visible that you're doing that work. As you may have been able to tell from some of my recent bitter doomposting, my own stance has ultimately settled at a glum median "I hope they bite each other's dicks off" kind of position. I think it's possible to do a cape thing that's meaningfully anti-state or anti-police in the way people badly want them to be, but as always you're now left holding the bag of trying to explain how your grassroots outside-the-system vigilante culture isn't going to degenerate into cops 2, the sequel to cops. It requires actual thought! It's likely on some level what that story would be about.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Trick or Treaters (1970s,1980s)

[illyanarasputinfan]

Daniel Sampere

[ppgxrrblove]

again loving the break mold in between art being different but just fitting. lovely piece.

art by: @noinoichebura

[aphrmoosun]

Superman (2025)

[i-am-aprl]

[bunnerscrib-28]

The Girls

[guardianjameslight]

Someone make it make sense.

[science70]

Ron Goulart, Challengers of the Unknown (Dell, 1977).

[peterkothe]

KAMEN RIDER GEATS

-One of the most recent of the Kamen rider series and a very cool epic one too! Awesome suits, great characters, a twisting turning plot and LOTS of action!

-

Premise: Unbeknownst to us, a secrect competition, THE DGP: THE DESIRE GRAND PRIX, is held where, everyday normal people are chosen, given transformation buckles and become Kamen Riders! Using various power up buckles, they compete against each other in various challenges, battling strange otherworldly invaders called the Jyamato! The one lasts to the end and wins the final challenge receives the grand prize: their greatest desire granted!

-Ace Ukiyo, aka Kamen Rider Geats, is the reigning champ, winning the Grand Prix multiple times in a row; however, his motives are not what they seem! Is he a hero or villain? How and why is he continuing to compete? What are the Jyamato? How is the DGP able to do what it does, and what is the true reason for the completion? You’ll have to check it out on TokuSatsu or Tubi to find out!

[writing-nothing-but-spilled-ink]

[queerryan]

"Um, superhero costumes can't be comic accurate in movies because they would be silly and unrealistic"

Oh because A FLYING ALIEN WHO HAS A SON WITH A BALD GUY, a GODDESS WHO CAME FROM AN ISLAND WITH ONLY WOMEN and a BILLIONAIRE WHO CARES ABOUT PEOPLE it's definitely super realistic and not silly at all.

[illyanarasputinfan]

Sweeney Boo

[webshootersandwingdings]

Action Comics #291

[animatejournal]

The Incredibles | Director: Brad Bird Studio: Pixar | USA, 2004

[nevergetstuck]

He's a good boy!

Give the creator some love