✩Kailey's Media Studies Portfolio✩: November 2020

~A Deep Dive into Superhero Films~

Genre

Superhero films are a subgenre of film that follows one or more superheroes: people with otherworldly abilities who protect the public from some sort of threat. These films contain many elements from other genres, such as action, fantasy, adventure, science fiction, and even horror and comedy. Superheroes are so versatile that characters with extraordinary abilities do not just reside in the film industry; heroes can be seen in comics, manga, literature, television, and video games.

Conventions- Content

1. Good vs. Evil Tropes

Typically in superhero films, the hero is the protagonist, or the "good guy," while the antagonist is the villain or the "bad guy." For example, the most recent reboot of the Batman franchise from 2008, The Dark Knight, follows the story of Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) as he takes down the infamous crazed villain, The Joker, and multiple different gangs that litter the streets of Gotham City. Batman is the protagonist who is painted as the hero while The Joker and the gang leaders are the evil antagonists. The majority of superhero films follow this formula, from Spiderman to Superman, to the Avengers to the Xmen. Although, there are some films that break this stereotype such as Suicide Squad (2016) and Joker (2019), both with villains as the protagonists.

2. Fight scenes

Another thing typically seen in superhero stories are large fight scenes. Very rarely in superhero stories do the hero and villain talk out their issue with one another in order to come to a solution both of them can agree on. Instead, there is always a fight scene where the protagonist takes down the villain's lackeys and sometimes even the villain themself. The battles are lengthy, including epic stunts, creative use of the environment, weapons, and depending on the film, a car chase. The suspense is high as the audience hopes for the hero to come out of the fight victorious, which varies depending on where the fight scene takes place in the film. Fights earlier in the film often end in a loss in order to drive the plot and raise the stakes for the main character, whereas fight scenes located at the climax of the movie typically observe a hero's success. A great example of a large scale and dramatic fight scene can be seen at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). At the end of this film, the Avengers all gather together to defeat Ultron and his minions. The viewers see each of the heroes take down the evil robots with style, showing off their powers and unique skills. Soon after, the team meets up again to work together and beat Ultron. Fight scenes display how powerful the superheroes are and how teamwork and the "good guys" always win.

3. Plot

Finally, some people claim that superhero stories all have the same plotline. This assumption can anger die-hard fans because, on the surface, each storyline appears different. However, when one really examines every event that happens within the story, it is evident how many superhero movies follow a similar plot. This plot is usually called "The Hero's Journey." This is a common storyline for pieces of media that include a hero who goes on an adventure of some sort, a formula made popular by Joseph Campbell from his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Although there are multiple versions of this formula from different people, each version has three "acts": departure, initiation, and return. Departure focuses on the main character living in an ordinary world who then obtains a call to adventure, which can lead to a refusal of the call, and then help by a mentor of some sort. In the initiation act, the protagonist crosses the threshold into the new world where after many trials, they much overcome the enemy and gain a reward. After this, the hero returns to the ordinary world a new person and even power over both worlds.

EX: A simplified version of The Hero’s Journey

This journey is the reason many superhero stories seem the same. You can see these plot elements in the majority of superhero (or even fantasy and adventure) films. For instance, the 2018 film Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse follows this plotline. The protagonist of the film, Miles Morales, gets bitten by a radioactive spider, doesn't want to have to live up to the recently deceased Spiderman, and gets help from Peter B. Parker to learn how to use his new powers. These events all describe the departure act in the Hero's Journey. The next act, initiation, is depicted by Miles learning how to use his new abilities to save his world with the help of the other spider people. Together they defeat the enemy, Kingpin, and his selfish plan. Finally, the return act can be seen by Miles accepting and fully understanding his new role as Spiderman and growing into a more confident and self-assured person. So, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse is just one example of how superhero films follow an almost identical plotline to one another. Shazam!, Captain Marvel, Hulk, and Wonder Woman are only a few other superhero films following this template.

Production Techniques

1. Soundtrack

Something typically seen in superhero films is an exciting soundtrack. In the soundtrack, songs can range from powerful instrumental to dramatic fight tracks that often include a popular musician for the aforementioned song. The use of such intense tracks helps get the audience engaged in the scene and support the main character. Also, these songs are perfect to listen to when you want to imagine yourself taking down supervillains. Here are a few examples of superhero movies that utilize a riveting soundtrack throughout the film.

-Guardians of the Galaxy

-Black Panther

-Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

-Avengers

-Suicide Squad

2. Long Shot Before Fighting

Something else that is very common in the production of superhero movies is a long shot of the hero or hero team standing together right before a big battle. This shot shows how the team is united against the enemy and is prepared to fight for the greater good. It shows how strong the hero is while also providing a nice view of their costume/costumes.

EX: A moment before a large fight scene in Avengers Endgame (2019) featuring Black Panther, Captain America, Black Widow, and Winter Soldier in order of left to right.

EX: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman standing together before a battle in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from 2015.

EX: The Teen Titans (in order of left to right: Beast Boy, Starfire, Robin, Raven, and Cyborg) right before a fight with their archnemesis

Marketing

1. Poster Designs

When marketing superhero movies, the poster tends to depict the protagonist (sometimes with their companions) in an action pose. The character either has their signature weapon with them or their powers activated. Companies like to show the characters about to fight to show how strong they are, and help to create the idea that the superheroes will end up victorious in the end. Wonder Woman’s poster exemplifies this tactic.

Other times, the movie will show the most plot-relevant characters in promotions to establish dynamics and show off the large cast, the big names, and the power of the heroes compared to the villains. Avengers: Infinity War makes use of the latter in their promotional posters, showing off all the heroes.

The last way superhero movies posted advertise the film is by including the hero just standing within the frame in their super suit. These kinds of posters don’t make the hero seem all that intimidating at first glance because they aren’t heading into battle with their weapon, ability, and army at the ready, but because they are still superhuman and in their battle gear, the consumer knows not to mess with the superhero. Since they are standing in their hero suit, the hero has established that they are strong and still a threatening individual, even if we know they would never fight a civilian. The poster for Deadpool demonstrates this marketing strategy.

Example 1: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D

This movie, released in 2005, follows Max (Cayden Boyd) and his two imaginary superhero friends, Sharkboy (Taylor Lautner) and Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley). Max is an ordinary boy who can dream anything into existence while on Planet Drool, Sharkboy is half-shark with advanced martial arts skills, and Lavagirl has the ability to create lava from the palms of her hands.

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D fit the description of a superhero movie because the three protagonists work together to save the planet from destruction and the evil villain, Mr. Electric. The plot also follows the Hero’s Journey template with the departure into the imaginary world, the initiation as the adventure on Planet Drool and the defeat of Mr. Electric, and the return of Max to real life. During the initiation, Sharkboy, Lavagirl, and Max have an epic fight with the antagonist’s minions, called plughounds. There are a few other times throughout the film where the audience witnesses fighting between the “good guys” and “bad guys” which ultimately end up in the trio winning. Also, the story has an upbeat soundtrack to go along with the events of the story like other superhero movies do, even having a song sung by Sharkboy. Including a shot of the heroes before a big battle, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D hit all the marks of being classified as a superhero film.

EX: Lavagirl and Sharkboy preparing to face off against their enemy in order to save Planet Drool.

Example 2: Captain Marvel

Another movie with all the qualities of a superhero movie is Captain Marvel. Produced by Marvel Studios and Disney in 2019, the story takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and follows Carol Danvers as she tries to recover her lost memories.

Carol Danvers uses her supernatural abilities to help save the persecuted Skrull species, defending them from the enemy called the Kree, just like other superhero movies. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel includes many older songs in the soundtrack, like Just a Girl by No Doubt. Overall, Captain Marvel's soundtrack aids in increasing the intensity and engagement of the film. In regards to The Hero’s Journey format, Captain Marvel is no exception. The story begins with Carol (or Vers) fighting the Skrull when she realizes something isn’t right about her. She takes this as her cue to chase her missing memories as well as the Skrull that escapes her powers by retreating to Earth. These sequences of events all depict the first act of The Hero’s Journey, departure. All the events until the return act where Carol uses her new knowledge to help the Skrulls she used to pursue are classified as the initiation act. This includes meeting Nick Fury, recovering Carol’s memories, finding the Tesseract, and taking down the people that kept her and the Skrulls captive. Another point, Carol begins the movie fighting alongside the Kree aliens, originally believed to be the “good guys,” until the reveal that the Kree are actually in the wrong; after which Carol switches sides to help the species she used to kill, showing that she is the “good guys” while the Kree are the “bad guys.” With the insertion of many fight scenes, Captain Marvel is a perfect example of a superhero film.