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Super Freak
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Just sharing some thoughts here on an often heated subject to try to give it a cooler, healthy reframe… Apologies in advance for such a tl;dr post!
In a conversation with @T800 recently I realized that my perspective has subtly shifted when it comes to collecting figures for Henry Cavill’s Superman, Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman, Ezra Miller’s Flash, and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg. Plus any supporting characters from Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League like Batman’s so-called “Knightmare League,” or the villains, etc.
First to lay the foundation for this…
Zack Snyder’s DC trilogy tends to be polarizing. MoS is a decade old now and it is still hotly debated to this day. I sincerely respect that there are those for whom it isn’t to their taste. To put the shoe on the other foot, I’m sure there’s a great chance that there are movies that haters of Zack’s DC trilogy love to death that leave me cold. But to my mind film appreciation is ultimately subjective in nature. By definition, really. The reasons why a film strikes a deep chord or rubs someone the wrong way are ultimately personal. So I don’t even look at films as objectively “good“ or “bad” anymore. When people use such terms as good and bad, in my opinion they are really just saying “I personally like or dislike such and such.“ At least when you get down to the direct experience of a film. And, who am I to judge about anyone’s personal taste and their idiosyncratic reasons behind it? People in glass houses, and all that.
But in any event, there are those of us for whom the trilogy of MoS/BvS/ZSJL was a glorious event in our lifetimes. It was a really important event in our appreciation of DC superheroes. This has a strong parallel to my experience of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy two decades ago. I grew up being disappointed by Ralph Bakshi‘s attempt to make LotR in animated form. I just assumed that as a live action event, the story was basically unfilmable. But then, lo and behold, the technology arrived at a point where it was achievable. And in most every respect Peter Jackson knocked the ball out of the park.
For me what Snyder did with his trilogy was astonishing. MoS, BvS, and ZSJL not only brought the characters to life in live action in a way that made it feel like they could really exist, Snyder also added a meta-textual layer to the storytelling that surprised me tremendously. I’ll briefly explain…
By the time MoS came out I hadn’t read any comics since I was a boy. Superheroes didn’t interest me as an adult. I hadn’t even watched a single one of the Nolan Batman films. When 1978 Superman and 1989 Batman released I had a fun time watching them in the theater, sure. And I watched the films that followed with each worse than the former. I had resigned myself to the expectation that superhero mythology will never be satisfying to me as an adult. Since about the turn of the millennium, my fantasy-adventure itch had shifted from a love of superheroes and sci-fi as a kid to a love of D&D game mechanics, the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting, the Baldur’s Gate CRPG, and Neverwinter Nights persistent world toolsetting and lore writing.
But to return to the topic, yes, naturally I was awed by the visual artistry and realism of the Snyder films. But I was also struck deeply by what Snyder did with his trilogy as commentary on the evolution of superhero mythology in pop culture. I appreciated that auteurism.
I loved the Silver Age DC comics I grew up with as a child. But by early 2014 when I first watched MoS, I knew zip about the comic genre’s evolution into the Bronze Age and beyond. What Snyder did by applying the same philosophical project that Alan Moore used with Watchmen to Superman and Batman inspired me to delve into learning about Alan Moore’s Watchmen, and what deconstruction of the superhero genre is. That brought me also to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, The Death of Superman, Red Son, Flashpoint: Paradox, and so on.
It was obvious to me personally that I was clearly more attracted to “elseworld” tales that very purposefully defy and shake up genre conventions. I suppose it’s worth noting that the natural evolution of the genre does this over time, as well. But my point is that I much preferred the stories that were stark and kind of radical departures from the canon, and broke the rules of genre conventions and tropes. Like alternate universes where history had unfolded differently, etc.
(Note: If anyone requests I can list a series of articles written by Darren Mooney of Escapist magazine that detail Snyder’s commentary on the evolution of superhero mythology wonderfully. Mooney is a true comic nerd and I think he really does get what Snyder was doing.)
So not only did I get to see my most cherished superheroes, the DC pantheon, brought to life in live action in a visually stunning, real feeling way; I also got to appreciate them through what is for me a relatively mature adult lens. I never in a million years expected that to happen. But once I got it, I realized how much it meant to me. It’s a big deal for me.
In any event, my two top personal favorite film experiences of all time are Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Zack Snyder’s “Snyderverse.” And the realization that Snyder’s five film saga will unfortunately never be completed via live action is definitely a huge downer for me. But I’m gradually getting to the point that I can accept it emotionally as a fact of life.
I’m not excited by what will replace the Snyderverse but I’m still waiting to see how my feelings evolve about the Flash, for example. See here if you’re interested in my take on it:
The big realization I made when chatting with @T800 about it, is that as a figure collector I will adopt that same sense that I have already for LotR to MoS/BvS/ZSJL. I’ll probably be collecting upgraded figures for LotR for the rest of my life! I love that story and film trilogy so much that I’ll always want the best possible representation of the characters on my display shelf. Same goes for the Snyderverse. It’s the same thing, really.
I also am daring to hope that we will eventually get to see the saga completed as an animated series. It’s definitely the second best option to live action films with actors before they get too old to play the parts. But if the animated films are of Owls of Ga’Hoole quality for example, that could be pretty damn sweet. And really and truly Zack would have total freedom to tell the story exactly as he envisoned it. As for figure collecting, when I look at what Soosoo managed to pull of with Omni-Man from Invincible, I’m actually optimistic that the 1/6 figures of an animated ZSJL 2 and 3 could look astonishingly good.
In a conversation with @T800 recently I realized that my perspective has subtly shifted when it comes to collecting figures for Henry Cavill’s Superman, Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman, Ezra Miller’s Flash, and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg. Plus any supporting characters from Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League like Batman’s so-called “Knightmare League,” or the villains, etc.
First to lay the foundation for this…
Zack Snyder’s DC trilogy tends to be polarizing. MoS is a decade old now and it is still hotly debated to this day. I sincerely respect that there are those for whom it isn’t to their taste. To put the shoe on the other foot, I’m sure there’s a great chance that there are movies that haters of Zack’s DC trilogy love to death that leave me cold. But to my mind film appreciation is ultimately subjective in nature. By definition, really. The reasons why a film strikes a deep chord or rubs someone the wrong way are ultimately personal. So I don’t even look at films as objectively “good“ or “bad” anymore. When people use such terms as good and bad, in my opinion they are really just saying “I personally like or dislike such and such.“ At least when you get down to the direct experience of a film. And, who am I to judge about anyone’s personal taste and their idiosyncratic reasons behind it? People in glass houses, and all that.
But in any event, there are those of us for whom the trilogy of MoS/BvS/ZSJL was a glorious event in our lifetimes. It was a really important event in our appreciation of DC superheroes. This has a strong parallel to my experience of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy two decades ago. I grew up being disappointed by Ralph Bakshi‘s attempt to make LotR in animated form. I just assumed that as a live action event, the story was basically unfilmable. But then, lo and behold, the technology arrived at a point where it was achievable. And in most every respect Peter Jackson knocked the ball out of the park.
For me what Snyder did with his trilogy was astonishing. MoS, BvS, and ZSJL not only brought the characters to life in live action in a way that made it feel like they could really exist, Snyder also added a meta-textual layer to the storytelling that surprised me tremendously. I’ll briefly explain…
By the time MoS came out I hadn’t read any comics since I was a boy. Superheroes didn’t interest me as an adult. I hadn’t even watched a single one of the Nolan Batman films. When 1978 Superman and 1989 Batman released I had a fun time watching them in the theater, sure. And I watched the films that followed with each worse than the former. I had resigned myself to the expectation that superhero mythology will never be satisfying to me as an adult. Since about the turn of the millennium, my fantasy-adventure itch had shifted from a love of superheroes and sci-fi as a kid to a love of D&D game mechanics, the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting, the Baldur’s Gate CRPG, and Neverwinter Nights persistent world toolsetting and lore writing.
But to return to the topic, yes, naturally I was awed by the visual artistry and realism of the Snyder films. But I was also struck deeply by what Snyder did with his trilogy as commentary on the evolution of superhero mythology in pop culture. I appreciated that auteurism.
I loved the Silver Age DC comics I grew up with as a child. But by early 2014 when I first watched MoS, I knew zip about the comic genre’s evolution into the Bronze Age and beyond. What Snyder did by applying the same philosophical project that Alan Moore used with Watchmen to Superman and Batman inspired me to delve into learning about Alan Moore’s Watchmen, and what deconstruction of the superhero genre is. That brought me also to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, The Death of Superman, Red Son, Flashpoint: Paradox, and so on.
It was obvious to me personally that I was clearly more attracted to “elseworld” tales that very purposefully defy and shake up genre conventions. I suppose it’s worth noting that the natural evolution of the genre does this over time, as well. But my point is that I much preferred the stories that were stark and kind of radical departures from the canon, and broke the rules of genre conventions and tropes. Like alternate universes where history had unfolded differently, etc.
(Note: If anyone requests I can list a series of articles written by Darren Mooney of Escapist magazine that detail Snyder’s commentary on the evolution of superhero mythology wonderfully. Mooney is a true comic nerd and I think he really does get what Snyder was doing.)
So not only did I get to see my most cherished superheroes, the DC pantheon, brought to life in live action in a visually stunning, real feeling way; I also got to appreciate them through what is for me a relatively mature adult lens. I never in a million years expected that to happen. But once I got it, I realized how much it meant to me. It’s a big deal for me.
In any event, my two top personal favorite film experiences of all time are Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Zack Snyder’s “Snyderverse.” And the realization that Snyder’s five film saga will unfortunately never be completed via live action is definitely a huge downer for me. But I’m gradually getting to the point that I can accept it emotionally as a fact of life.
I’m not excited by what will replace the Snyderverse but I’m still waiting to see how my feelings evolve about the Flash, for example. See here if you’re interested in my take on it:
The big realization I made when chatting with @T800 about it, is that as a figure collector I will adopt that same sense that I have already for LotR to MoS/BvS/ZSJL. I’ll probably be collecting upgraded figures for LotR for the rest of my life! I love that story and film trilogy so much that I’ll always want the best possible representation of the characters on my display shelf. Same goes for the Snyderverse. It’s the same thing, really.
I also am daring to hope that we will eventually get to see the saga completed as an animated series. It’s definitely the second best option to live action films with actors before they get too old to play the parts. But if the animated films are of Owls of Ga’Hoole quality for example, that could be pretty damn sweet. And really and truly Zack would have total freedom to tell the story exactly as he envisoned it. As for figure collecting, when I look at what Soosoo managed to pull of with Omni-Man from Invincible, I’m actually optimistic that the 1/6 figures of an animated ZSJL 2 and 3 could look astonishingly good.
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