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Stories and their (super)heroines
May. 8th, 2012 08:56 amIn the Kevin Feige interview I linked some days ago, he says, among other things, that The Hunger Games is a film (and a franchise) about a female superhero despite not being officially labeled as such.
Now, this actually works out pretty well if you think about it: The Hunger Games as Katniss' origin story, Catching Fire as the inevitable sequel introducing more characters and repeating some of what made the original so successful only with even higher stakes (and being in danger of feeling like a repeat until the game changer at the end which changes what went on before, and Mockingjay as the big controversial finale dividing fandom. You could make a case for Katniss being either a Marvel heroine or a DC one (of the early Alan Moore variety), who constantly questions the narrative she's in. At first I thought Haymitch was genre atypical in that he doesn't die, as is a mentor's lot in 99% of all cases, but then I remembered who in the Marvelverse is a) cynic-with-traumatic-killer-past, b) fond of alcohol, and c) specializes in mentoring teenage girls in both comics and movieverse. Okay, so the first two are true for a great many Marvel characters, but the third one makes that person Wolverine, and clearly Haymitch = Logan so works.
Moving on to other characters, Emma Frost as Johanna or Johanna as Emma works very well, too, though I don't see Katniss as Kitty Pryde in any other regard but the Kitty and Emma relationship. (Kitty is friendly and social by nature; Katniss really isn't, and probably wouldn't be even if she didn't live ina horrible dystopia, being the stoic type.) Katniss' arch nemesis is President Snow (gets introduced in the origin story at a distance, has his personal meeting with Our Heroine complete with threat in the second tale, becomes a main goal in volume 3), of course, though the books do something so interesting and unexpected with how that resolves in Mockingjay that right now (though I'm sure I'm forgetting or overlooking something), I can't think of a comics equivalent to that. Well, Neil Gaiman has made a speciality out of ( something spoilery ), but that's not exactly the same thing. The twist of the Katniss vesus Snow tale ties directly in the way Mockingjay refusing to cater to the conventional "bad king/monster slain/ all's fine with the realm" while new benevolent ruler takes over narrative. ( More spoilery thoughts. ) There are several comics books narrative busy with deconstructing the genre they're in - notoriously Watchmen - but actually I think what The Hunger Games do, in terms of the superhero narrative, isn't deconstruction (though it's constantly self-reflective of tropes) as much as applying the heroic story in an intelligent way that never loses sight of "just what is it your hero(ine) is really fighting?"
Going back to the Hunger Games-as-comic-book/film idea: what the story, at first glance, doesn't have is a much beloved trope, the villain-redeemed, complete with fangirls complaining on why the heroes can't accept him (in much rarer cases her) already, why is everyone so down on the poor darling, can't they see that everything this person did wrong in the past was just someone else's fault ANYWAY (preferably one of the heroes). (Why yes, I've rolled my eyes at a couple of stories starring Loki in this capacity in recent days.) Then again: you could make a case of several characters being a critical refutation of this archetype. ( Spoilers for Mockingjay ensue. ) Now don't get me wrong; I love a good redemption story as much as anyone. But I increasingly find myself impatient at the lazy short cuts both fans and original sources often take, substituting the teary angry stare of mostly male characters for actual character growth, so this type of countertale now and then feels very refreshing to me, in a biting way.
Now, this actually works out pretty well if you think about it: The Hunger Games as Katniss' origin story, Catching Fire as the inevitable sequel introducing more characters and repeating some of what made the original so successful only with even higher stakes (and being in danger of feeling like a repeat until the game changer at the end which changes what went on before, and Mockingjay as the big controversial finale dividing fandom. You could make a case for Katniss being either a Marvel heroine or a DC one (of the early Alan Moore variety), who constantly questions the narrative she's in. At first I thought Haymitch was genre atypical in that he doesn't die, as is a mentor's lot in 99% of all cases, but then I remembered who in the Marvelverse is a) cynic-with-traumatic-killer-past, b) fond of alcohol, and c) specializes in mentoring teenage girls in both comics and movieverse. Okay, so the first two are true for a great many Marvel characters, but the third one makes that person Wolverine, and clearly Haymitch = Logan so works.
Moving on to other characters, Emma Frost as Johanna or Johanna as Emma works very well, too, though I don't see Katniss as Kitty Pryde in any other regard but the Kitty and Emma relationship. (Kitty is friendly and social by nature; Katniss really isn't, and probably wouldn't be even if she didn't live ina horrible dystopia, being the stoic type.) Katniss' arch nemesis is President Snow (gets introduced in the origin story at a distance, has his personal meeting with Our Heroine complete with threat in the second tale, becomes a main goal in volume 3), of course, though the books do something so interesting and unexpected with how that resolves in Mockingjay that right now (though I'm sure I'm forgetting or overlooking something), I can't think of a comics equivalent to that. Well, Neil Gaiman has made a speciality out of ( something spoilery ), but that's not exactly the same thing. The twist of the Katniss vesus Snow tale ties directly in the way Mockingjay refusing to cater to the conventional "bad king/monster slain/ all's fine with the realm" while new benevolent ruler takes over narrative. ( More spoilery thoughts. ) There are several comics books narrative busy with deconstructing the genre they're in - notoriously Watchmen - but actually I think what The Hunger Games do, in terms of the superhero narrative, isn't deconstruction (though it's constantly self-reflective of tropes) as much as applying the heroic story in an intelligent way that never loses sight of "just what is it your hero(ine) is really fighting?"
Going back to the Hunger Games-as-comic-book/film idea: what the story, at first glance, doesn't have is a much beloved trope, the villain-redeemed, complete with fangirls complaining on why the heroes can't accept him (in much rarer cases her) already, why is everyone so down on the poor darling, can't they see that everything this person did wrong in the past was just someone else's fault ANYWAY (preferably one of the heroes). (Why yes, I've rolled my eyes at a couple of stories starring Loki in this capacity in recent days.) Then again: you could make a case of several characters being a critical refutation of this archetype. ( Spoilers for Mockingjay ensue. ) Now don't get me wrong; I love a good redemption story as much as anyone. But I increasingly find myself impatient at the lazy short cuts both fans and original sources often take, substituting the teary angry stare of mostly male characters for actual character growth, so this type of countertale now and then feels very refreshing to me, in a biting way.
