BW Media Spotlight

I’m starting to see a trend that bothers me, and it’s not just from the usual suspects. I understand where they’re coming from, but in a sense there’s a group of modern media critics in the superhero circles that don’t realize they’re doing the same thing as the Hollywood culture when it comes to superheroes and other cultural icons of fictional heroism like Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker. They’re following the suggestion of Kylo Ren:

Only in their case it’s giving up. The commentary is “the stewards of your nostalgic favorites have culturally ruined these corporately owned characters, so forget them and create new characters”. I’m all for creating new characters. If the current writers, editors, directors, and whomever else gets blamed along the line refuse to do what these characters have come to stand for, then by all means create the characters that do what they used to.

That doesn’t mean we as fans have to completely abandon those characters, many of whom are recognized around the world. That’s why the usual suspects want to change them, either for some sociopolitical agenda or more often their own egos and preferences, using the culture war as a shield for their “improvements”. That’s also what they want. People who don’t follow the patterns of media and storytelling are used to seeing Superman and thinking they know what to expect. If they like that, they’re going to tune in. If not, they’ll go elsewhere and not realize these heroes no longer act heroic because the current creative team doesn’t believe in heroes, or at least doesn’t want you to. (Conspiracy theory goes here.) So they want you to give up, and there’s a very good reason we shouldn’t. The video I posted today is tied into that, so if you missed Real Fake Wizard’s commentary, go watch it now (it should open in a new tab) and come back here while I build off of that and explain why we need to be the ones protecting our heroes this time.

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