Thursday, May 26, 2005

Boo to Bravo!

I am officially DISGUSTED. I should have expected it. On tonight's Bravo special, "The Ultimate Superheroes", they dared to put Spiderman as No. 1 before Superman and Batman.

We'll watch them change that tune over the next year.

Of course, they're really only talking about "box office fantasy" characters, as their inclusion of such figures as Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, James Bond, and (fer cryin' out loud) Austin friggin' Powers makes clear. But the sheer duration, variety, quantity, and adaptability in the use of the Superman and Batman characters make them hands down winners over Spiderman. Come now! Even a non-DC-partisan should be able to see that...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fully agree that all things flow from Superman. (Heck, not only did Luke Skywalker tell us this, but so did TV's Adam West - what greater authorities could you possibly require?) And yes, in the end it somes down to Box Office and the fact that Stan Lee can still interview rings around anyone at DC.

But the real tell here is 9 and 8. The Incredibles have the same powers, the same squabbles, the same family unit as the FF. But on top of Ben Grimm's angst about never being able to fit into a normal world, Mr. Incredible has the knowledge that his best days are behind him. BRAVO's rankings are all about the melancholia, the enuii, starting with Blade's "trapped in a world he never made" to the X-Men's "dedicated to saving a world that hates them" to Spidey's "Gotta get this medicine to Aunt May while fighting the Scorption while taking pictures so I can pay my rent". Superman is perfect. Therefore he is less interesting. Therefore he is less of a "hero".

Gotta love the deep psychological underpinnings of Post-Modernism. I mean, it's BRAVO, it has to be Art, right?

david

Martin Wisse said...

Hah!

Batman is mr grumpy all the time while superman is the patronising git who'd prank you "for your own good"

Batman has a megafortune behind him while Superman has the powers of a god.

Spider-man otoh is just a regular guy who got not so lucky when bitten by that radioactive spider. He's nice to his friends and can actually hang out with other heroes rather then dismiss them out of hand or patronise them.

Spider-Man is the better hero.

Jer said...

Bravo's show - like so many of these silly countdown shows - was mostly a poorly researched mess. I'm fine with the inclusion of Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker - I think their pulp cred serves well to include them in the ranks of the "superhero club" - but where's The Shadow? Where's the Lone Ranger? These guys (along with Flash Gorden and Conan, who did get mentions) clearly have more superhero cred than Austin Powers, or the Mask (what?), or Spawn (wha?) or the Men in Black (huh?).

And Daredevil? Who the heck thought Daredevil needed to be in here? I mean, sure if you were looking at the top 50 superheroes, Daredevil would be in there, but the top 20?

I'm also annoyed that there were no female superheroes on the list. I see that Bravo is having a separate countdown for "SuperVixens", but that's crap. Just put them on the same list and do a top 40 countdown. Wonder Woman and Buffy at the very least deserve to be ranked in the top 10 here. (And looking at the list of "SuperVixens", it looks like Bravo really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with female superheroes anyway).

I was looking forward to this because I thought Bravo did a good job with their top 100 scary movie moments special a while back. This was just a movie clip show - it would have been better if they had made it explicit that it was the top 20 superhero Movies or TV shows. Their ordering makes more sense that way - Spiderman is a better movie than the last Batman or Superman movies and the Incredibles will probably be better than the Fantastic Four. Of course that still doesn't explain why Daredevil would be on the list at all.

Bill D. said...

I tivoed this and haven't really watched it yet, but I did tune in for a minute or two when I got home from work last night, and I definitely got the vibe that it was more of a "Top 20 Superhero-y Guys We Can Get Film Clips For" type of show than anything.

Scipio said...

And what the heck was "actor Eric Christian Olsen" doing as a commentator (and a stunningly poor one, at that)?

Who's he and why should we care what he thinks?

Anonymous said...

Dude's been in ONE episode of Smallville, and this makes him an expert on superheroes?

Anonymous said...

This show referred to both Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane (and probably a few others during the parts I missed) as "former Marvel artist." Sure it's technically accurate, but it (as well as the inclusion of Lee, Quesada, and Avrad but nobody from the DC camp) underscored the show's biases long before Spidey was "promoted" to number 1.

Scipio said...

Yes, I did notice that while Lee is as disingenously self-congratulatory as ever, Quesada is just an out an out jackass, it seems...

Felix said...

I totally agree with the article.
Spruce Ridge | Costa Rica airport | septum rings