The Death of the Superhero and the Insurrection of a New America
Earlier this week, a good friend of mine had recommended I watch a video by Film Theory that speculated where the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) could be headed for the next decade. After watching this video though, I realized how little I could care about another superhero movie. The MCU leaders promise bigger stakes and bigger villains, and “bigger movies.” While I will be watching Black Panther 2 when it comes out, which has potential to be a good movie with Shuri at the helm, and even a new Blade, I believe that the superhero genre has reached its peak. This isn’t to discount what superhero movies have already done for us — Black Panther did show the world what potential mediums Black storytelling could be in. Kids could look up to the late Chadwick Boseman and see themselves in him as a superhero or a leader in their own nature, but the world’s current climate has actually brought us back to a demand for cinematic stories based on realism.
It should be noted that there are some comic book movies and shows that are striving towards a new type of realism (i.e: Watchmen and Joker). However, the stakes for superhero movies aren’t getting bigger, or better, or badder — the constant introduction of a new clear-cut comic book villain every turn completely misses the point of the origin of the mythology. What comic books are to us is what hieroglyphics and art were in the ancient times. Which means that they could be left up entirely to interpretation. While it would be highly unlikely for a huge alien force to come down from outer space with a quest to destroy us all, or a sea monster attacking me on an island, the real desire is in the way you tell a story. What does it mean for us to encounter a monster, and what does that monster represent? Before blockbusters, the popularity of film noir challenged that theory with protagonists who were not heroes, mainly portrayed by white men, influenced by the post-war climate America where the world was not so steady — a cynical take on how the oppressive system will always win in the end. Star Wars and Jaws however, gave us hope — that the authoritarian system or the “monster” could be overcome.
I’m a complete sucker for film history and if history has taught me anything, it’s that Hollywood’s cookie cutter ideology of heroes vs. villains, mainly prominent in the Western genre, temporarily died in the 70s. That is, until it was revitalized with the superhero and the blockbuster. What killed it were the “New Hollywood” kids on the block: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Paul Schrader, even Steven Spielberg. With the exception of Spielberg, who grew as up a Hollywoo’ kid, the New Hollywood were very anti-authority, very anti-corporation, very anti-studio. They were influenced by film history, the cultural revolutions of New Waves across the world, and studied the filmmakers themselves, while inventing new visual techniques and ways to tell stories through their own perspectives. Their success however, overshadowed filmmakers of color who were also making great films with similar artistic integrity — rebelling against the mold of Blaxploitation, such as Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song and Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess. Ditto, the filmmakers of the 90s.
What was happening in America during that time was the rise of the Black Power movement, Second-Wave Feminism, and the anti-Vietnam War movement — until the authority decided the party was over like a bad parent, taking back control of everything in the 1980s. It could be said that because of an excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol in the 70s, purposefully led on by the government, made everyone too coked up or high to realize what was actually coming — hence how we got Reagan and his little “War on Drugs” project to destroy Black communities, imprisoning us with the drug problem in America. At the same time, mega corporations and studios seized back control from the filmmakers they once gave money and power to; who ended up becoming drugged up megalomaniacs. The 70s was a hot time in America, a booming time in the economy after everything seemed disastrous. Civil Rights leaders were being killed not too long before this, fighting for the same cause we are fighting right now. Rest In Power to Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King Jr., and to all the activists who died for the cause. People were angry as they are now. And what we are witnessing now is an insurrection. So goodbye Trump, you lost.
There is a lot of talk of another Civil War, but when I was traveling across America, I actually had the fortune of seeing something different. I walked into towns that had population Zero of Black people, only to find myself meeting white people who probably never met a Black man before, greet me and speak to me. Of course there were the MAGA supporters who made it clear they hated my being there, but others would open doors for me saying they’ve wanted to do this their whole lives. I was met with both surprise and skepticism by a lot of this — especially because when I was living in Los Angeles, I was surrounded by the “politically correct” idealism that defined right from wrong so certainly as did I. And yet these are the ideas that are becoming the decisions of our world? I don’t think so. The superficiality of it all is deafening, which is why we are so bored by the mainstream movies being made out there. At least I am. I thought I knew America before I traveled across it — then I realized I didn’t know anything at all and how beautiful it actually can be. What is lacking is information, introduction of cultures, and an admittance to the fact that no one really knows anything. What I realized I was so certain about, I was blinded by, and I became not-so-certain at all. When I went to New York, I explored the “Melting Pot” of America, seeing that it was painted with a landscape of cultures and historic value. Every bodega had different foods and different people from various parts of the globe. When I went to Portland I saw the continuation of the Black Lives Matter Protests and everyone was jazzed with energy with a very “anti-system” and “anti-authority” attitude. Denver was the same way — despite its beautiful poetic atmosphere, people were pissed off. And this is only to scratch a surface of what I saw, but one thing I could be certain about was that now was the time for something new.
When I returned to Atlanta, I felt I had just come back from a long four year dream, coming back to reality. I haven’t felt so good in a long time — being able to focus on crafting the most important story of my life has been special, nonetheless. It is important to me because The Rancor will define my perspective to the world through the surreal landscape that is the film industry, and it will be set in Georgia. While there are very valuable messages in there for me, this film will be entirely up to your own interpretation. It is bigger than me so there will be no “right” or “wrong” answers, they are yours and yours only to keep. I challenge this idea of HERO.ISM, good and evil, right from wrong, and if you are left with uncertainty by the end of it then I feel I’ve accomplished something.
What a young Robert Rodriguez was to independents of the 90s is what Phillip Youmans is to independent filmmakers now. What Quentin Tarantino’s “anti-studio” brand was for filmmakers of the 90s and early 2000s, Jordan Peele is for us now. Peele has shown us that Black people can make personal stories within genre, while interrogating said genre, and still having fun with it. Youmans has shown us you can go out and make a great story on your own budget and still sell it to Netflix. I, for one, have been taking notes. We are in the age of streaming, and movie theaters will only exist for big-budget “event films” whereas Netflix is supposedly looking for self-starters. The traditional way of making films (and the same could be said for TV if you have the patience) is no longer the only way — pitching to studios or production companies, hoping you get the budget or that “A-List Cast” you’ve always dreamed of having. Make your stars and make your movies wherever you are. I personally want to see a completely diverse slate of stories that are so fresh and new, challenging and wild at the same time, made by men and women from all walks of life, sexual orientations, and cultures with their own perspectives. This is already happening and more accessible now that film festivals are starting to stream their films online, so I will definitely be joining the conversation when I finish and submit my own film.
See you in the New Wave.
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