As I arrived back in New York late last night and this time yesterday I was drinking coffee and eating pain au chocolat in a little tabac in rural France, you'll forgive me if this isn't really that coherent.
I was thinking about superheroes and celebrity.
The Order played with that to some extent, I believe, and comics like Wildguard have touched on other aspects of it, but superheroes would be the celebrities of their world. You think Wonder Man would ever have had any real trouble getting movie deals if he just turned up and grinned with his ionic eyes?
Simon Williams would have been the Tom Cruise of the movies - or at the very least the Bruce Campbell.
The Fantastic Four have always skirted the edge of being celebrities - but that seems to be an aspect which shifts and changes dpeending on the writer. If they were in this world though, they'd be closer followed than the Hiltons.
Then there's Tony Stark - his identity is public knowledge now but even before that he had his share of publicity, including his very own psychopathic stalker who shot him and put him in a wheelchair.
So what would the logical extension in the Marvel Universe be?
Dazzler would be the Paris Hilton of the MU- seen everywhere, the person to open a club if you needed a vapid celebrity.
Wonder Man would be the Tom Cruise (or the Bruce Campbell, like I said).
The Wasp is the Heidi Klum; fashion model turned presenter and designer.
Tony Stark is...well, he's George Clooney, obviously. Permanent bachelor, single and looks good in a suit.
And the FF are the most famous celebrities in the world. Ben Grimm is a regular on Saturday Night Live, Sue Richards is on talkshows all the time pushing her causes, Johnny is the man about town with a new girl every night and Reed is the reluctant celebrity - I don't buy him as the handsomest guy in the room. He's probably a recluse, like Daniel Day Lewis.
I like the idea of this - it'll never happen on a line wide basis but I like the idea of celeb'ing up th MU a bit.
1 comments:
I feel like the idea of superheroes as celebrities changes a lot depending on who is writting them. There are several notable writers who address the topic pretty regularly.
Ellis and Millar both did in Authority. And Millar did again in Ultimates and his current Fantastic Four run. Morrison did during his new X-men run. And Milligan did with X-Force/X-Statix.
And, those are just the examples that spring to mind right away. Personally, I agree its probably more realistic. But, at the same time, I think that a lot of fans get up in amrs whenever they see superheroes being treated as celebrities because usually that comes with the superficial baggage. And, I think fans like to think there favorite heroes are above that.
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