Superhero TV

So, I’ve been writing about Supergirl lately. It’s easy to do. I really love the show. I love what they’re doing with the character. I love that the Martian Manhunter is on it. I love that they don’t run home to Superman every time there’s a problem. I love that the tone of the show is more like The Flash, because every other superhero thing out there wants to be brooding dark. What was nice about Lois and Clark was their tone is pretty similar to Supergirl and the Flash. That being said, I’ve never really read much of the Supergirl comics. I was mostly a Batman guy.

As a kid, though, I also like the Flash (which was why I was so excited about the series which I also love) as well as the Green Lantern (I wasn’t turned off by the movie, but I can see why people criticized). But as a teenager (this was about the time of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight), I returned to Batman. I liked the Tim Burton movies, hated the campy ones, and really loved the Christopher Nolan movies. But then I was done with Batman again.

As I’ve gotten older and had kids (which I also did older), my perspective changed. As a younger man, I was angry. In many ways, I’m still angry. But some of the problems with “gritty” superhero stories is that they run on fear, and fear and anger make for a violent combination. A combination that isn’t very productive. In fact, it’s dis-empowering. You stop. You don’t act. You’re weak.

Hope is hard. Hope and optimism opens you up to getting hurt, to failing. But that makes you strong. Your options are open. And you’re more likely to do the right thing than the wrong thing. That’s one of the best things about Supergirl and the Flash.

Too often these days, we are told we should be afraid and to act on that fear, even if that fear is irrational. Much of what we hear from the political realm these days are built on fear. Don’t give in to that. Demand better. Demand more. Fear is easy. It’s mindless. Hope is hard and requires more work than you can possibly imagine. Demand that.