Hero worship

By STEPHEN JEWELL

If you're old enough to vote but spend a good deal of your time contemplating the ongoing adventures of spandex-clad superheroes, then you'll be familiar with the perennial question asked by parents and partners: "Why are you still buying comics?"

The standard response to which is to claim that comics today are aimed not just at kids but adults as well - they explore mature themes and contain sophisticated storylines that are as complex as the best television series and films.

At least, that's what I say and I've been reading and collecting comics for more than 20 years now.

I started off with British comics like 2000 AD in the late-70s and graduated to Marvel comics in the early-80s when I first stumbled across titles such as The X-Men at my local newsagent.

I'll never forget the first Marvel comic I read, Uncanny X-Men No 141, which was the first part of a supposedly alternate world story, Days Of Future Past in which leading X-Men like Wolverine apparently died at the hands of gigantic mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels.

When it comes to proof of comics' literary and artistic worth, I usually cite D.C. Comics' Vertigo line, which was spearheaded by Neil Gaiman's successful Sandman series. Or alternative comics like Daniel Clowes' Ghost World and Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, which won the highly prestigious Guardian First Book Award in 2001.

However, it doesn't explain why so many men - Stu Colson who runs Karangahape Road comic shop Heroes For Sale says his customers are mostly 18-45-year-old males - are addicted to ongoing superhero sagas of The X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman and Superman, guys who wear their underwear on the outside and have been known to change their clothes in phone boxes.

It's an absurdity that I explored in The Olympians, a superhero satire, whose main characters were thinly veiled parodies of archetypal superheroes such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

I originally created The Olympians with an Auckland artist friend, Paul Rogers, in the mid-80s and later sold it to Marvel's creator-owned division, Epic, which published it in 1991 as a two-part series.

Colson believes that superheroes provide a fantastic ideal that even the biggest wimps can aspire to. "Like anything in popular culture, superhero comics have an appeal that people can identity with," says Colson.

"As society becomes harder to escape, comics are still one of the perfect places to go into. That's why Batman is the all-time most popular character. He's not that much removed from real people. It's easiest for us to think that we can be Batman than to be Superman. We can't come from another planet with all these powers but we can be some guy in the night saving people."

Captain America and Planetary artist John Cassaday, who is a guest at this weekend's Armageddon pop culture convention, believes that comic readers are attracted to superheroes' mythic nature.

"Superheroes are like American folklore," says Cassaday. "The general populace know them and they're as real to some as their non-fictional ancestors. In the States I'd say Batman, Superman or Spider-Man are up there in popularity with Davy Crockett or George Washington. Silly, but true. We want heroes. We all need them. They appeal to us at a deeper level, with or without the colourful costumes."

Marvel superheroes are popular in Hollywood following the success of The X-Men in 2000 and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film, which topped last year's American box office. Daredevil, which opened in New Zealand last week, performed respectably after being released in America in February, while anticipation is running high for the upcoming X-Men sequel, X2, and the Ang Lee-directed Hulk. However, the X-Men, Spider-Man and Daredevil films have had a minimal impact upon the sales of the relevant Marvel titles. Although the poor performance of the X-Men comic line, whose 30-year-old continuity and confused storylines were too convoluted for new readers to grasp, contributed to the demise of former editor-in-chief Bob Harras.

His charismatic successor, Joe Quesada, who ignobly lends his name to a rapist in Daredevil, subsequently introduced the stand-alone Ultimate line, which includes Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men. The Ultimate titles retell the origins of Marvel heroes like Spider-Man and X-Men from the beginning, using a present-day setting which is readily accessible to new readers who may have been introduced to the comics by the movies.

And by depicting Spidey's alter ego Peter Parker as a precocious teenager, Ultimate Spider-Man appeals to a young audience which watches schoolyard television melodramas such as Smallville and Roswell.

The Ultimate line appears to be working. "We've sold more copies of the trade paperbacks [collected editions] of Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1 and 2 on an ongoing basis than any other Spider-Man title," says Colson.

But despite small victories like Ultimate Spider-Man, mainstream American comics are mainly bought by an increasingly ageing audience. According to Colson, his shop has three regular customers under 18 while older buyers are cutting back on their purchases as they inevitably face up to the responsibilities of life.

"I hate it when customers get mortgages or have children," laughs Colson, who also says that many comic-buyers "switch from buying regular pamphlet-sized comics to trade paperbacks because they run out of storage space in their house."

Colson also believes that The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter have fuelled sales of fantasy titles like Vertigo's Fables and Hunter: Age of Magic, which is written by Auckland-based writer Dylan Horrocks.

"It's still escapist fantasy but there is something about them which is very different to superheroes," says Colson.

"A lot of people like the idea of magicians, and Dylan's work on Hunter has been really popular. There's definitely a homegrown element there as people have been checking out what Dylan is doing but, at the same time, they've kept buying Hunter which means that he's been doing a good job."

However, Colson's bestselling comic over the past year has been the newly relaunched Transformers, which is based on the giant Japanese toy robots and accompanying cartoon series which were popular in the 1980s. Unfortunately, licensing problems with Transformers manufacturer Hasbro has officially restricted the comics' distribution to North America, although New Zealand's parallel importing laws mean that Colson has been able to acquire copies.

"Transformers is something that people have grown up with," says Colson.

"They identify with it because they dug it when they were kids. Transformers was a huge boost to comics, more than any movie."

The Transformers' arch enemies, the Decepticons, lent their name to South Auckland hip-hoppers the Deceptikonz, who will perform at Armageddon, and Colson says that comic-mad Che-Fu is also a big Transformers' fan.

Colson says his customers definitely have preferences. "Maori want Conan. I get a lot of big Maori guys in their 40s who used to read the old black and white stories in the 70s who now come in and will grab the Essential Conan reprint collections."

Colson's customers also include a small but significant number of women. "We have a lot of Goth chicks coming in buying Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and from there, they move on to stuff like Eightball, but they stay in that eclectic range.

"But a lot of the guys will come in and they will want a bit more of the established stuff. They're prepared to accept the idea of a superhero a bit more. To read a comic, you've got to believe that that stuff can happen. It's guys in tights flying around, saving the planet. If you take it seriously, you're never going to get it but, at the same time, you've got to take it seriously enough that you believe it's real."

Comics are certainly being taken seriously by Hollywood which has Spider-Man 2, Electra, Batman, Catwoman and The Punisher in production. Meanwhile, Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson has just agreed to direct Nicolas Cage - who took his stage name from Marvel character Luke Cage - in a film of Marvel's literally demonic Hells Angel, Ghost Rider. But if any producer is looking for a sleeper hit, The Olympians film rights are still available ...

* Armageddon pop culture expo, Aotea Centre, from today until Monday.

* Daredevil is in cinemas now, X-Men 2 opens May 2 and The Hulk June 26.