Yeah, not to yuck anyone’s yum, but this has been one of the reasons why I always thought fiction in general, but in particular superhero stories, anime etc., wasn’t that interesting.
That’s an awfully broad brush. A lot of the better science fiction (and there is an awful lot of really good SF) speculates on what would happen if a particular technology existed. You could say the same for super hero stuff, though that’s often closer to fantasy. Yes, there are lots of examples of sloppy writing, and super hero franchises that go on for decades tend to have at least moments of ridiculous ability creep, but it’s inane to say that things like More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon, Blood Music by Greg Bear, or To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Christopher Paolini aren’t really good fictional stories about people with special abilities.
I think the real problem is trying to keep a story going too long, and the need to escalate everything constantly serves to ultimately undermine how that progress feels.
The stories tend to be repetitive, end up where a villain gets a new MacGuffin and the hero has to get some new capability to overcome only for the next villan to have an even bigger MacGuffin, rinse and repeat with each time being portrayed as some impossibly large leap over the last. To keep characters going they time jump, they get cloned, they come back from the dead, they cross over from some alternate universe.
Basically, most genres of fiction have a risk of overstaying their welcome if you try to make it go on a long time.
Still feels like an awfully broad brush when you say “most genres of fiction.” Remember that super hero franchises end up having lots of different writers with different skill levels, and they’re mostly made for kids. It’s not an inherent problem with fiction - it doesn’t have to be that way - but with super hero franchises it does often happen.
Wouldn’t Marvel cross the line from Science Fiction into Science Fantasy? Ignoring the metal debate for a minute, we’ve got litteral gods, a sapient tree, a rock man, a guy who shoots lasers from his face, and a thousand other absolutely nuts things.
Oh, for sure marvel as a whole is fantasy. You could argue that some franchises are, or were, SF. Like if you take the original Iron Man: genius inventor develops a metal suit with weapons and thrusters. Eventually he’s basically fighting magic, but the original story wasn’t like that.
But I did say earlier in the thread that super hero stories are generally fantasy, but that you could apply the same idea of postulating what would happen if someone had a particular ability instead of if a particular technology existed.
That’s an awfully broad brush. A lot of the better science fiction (and there is an awful lot of really good SF) speculates on what would happen if a particular technology existed. You could say the same for super hero stuff, though that’s often closer to fantasy. Yes, there are lots of examples of sloppy writing, and super hero franchises that go on for decades tend to have at least moments of ridiculous ability creep, but it’s inane to say that things like More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon, Blood Music by Greg Bear, or To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Christopher Paolini aren’t really good fictional stories about people with special abilities.
I think the real problem is trying to keep a story going too long, and the need to escalate everything constantly serves to ultimately undermine how that progress feels.
The stories tend to be repetitive, end up where a villain gets a new MacGuffin and the hero has to get some new capability to overcome only for the next villan to have an even bigger MacGuffin, rinse and repeat with each time being portrayed as some impossibly large leap over the last. To keep characters going they time jump, they get cloned, they come back from the dead, they cross over from some alternate universe.
Basically, most genres of fiction have a risk of overstaying their welcome if you try to make it go on a long time.
Still feels like an awfully broad brush when you say “most genres of fiction.” Remember that super hero franchises end up having lots of different writers with different skill levels, and they’re mostly made for kids. It’s not an inherent problem with fiction - it doesn’t have to be that way - but with super hero franchises it does often happen.
I say it’s generally a problem of long narratives, but some genres like comedy can get a pass since they don’t have to rely on growth and progression.
To the extent a story needs to develop, running a long time is likely to doom something.
Running a few books or a handful of seasons can work, but if a story has to evolve over decades…
Wouldn’t Marvel cross the line from Science Fiction into Science Fantasy? Ignoring the metal debate for a minute, we’ve got litteral gods, a sapient tree, a rock man, a guy who shoots lasers from his face, and a thousand other absolutely nuts things.
ScienceFantasy.Superpowers from radioactive waste (daredevil) or a radioactive spider sounds sciencey, tho
Oh, for sure marvel as a whole is fantasy. You could argue that some franchises are, or were, SF. Like if you take the original Iron Man: genius inventor develops a metal suit with weapons and thrusters. Eventually he’s basically fighting magic, but the original story wasn’t like that.
But I did say earlier in the thread that super hero stories are generally fantasy, but that you could apply the same idea of postulating what would happen if someone had a particular ability instead of if a particular technology existed.