Comments on: “Yet Another Comics Blog” argues against origin stories

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:41:08 +0000

“When I look at Spiderman swinging from some kind of white elastic material that seemingly comes from his wrists, I really want to know why. What is he? How did that happen?… But when I look at Indiana Jones and see him teaching a room full of students, I don’t wonder how he got to be a teacher. Because its obvious.” Yeah, I think that it’s important to spend more time describing unusual choices than usual ones. Becoming a superhero is a much more unusual choice than becoming a detective or soldier (or teacher), so I think it probably warrants more explanation.

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:46:59 +0000

That article confuses me with its examples. When I look at Spiderman swinging from some kind of white elastic material that seemingly comes from his wrists, I really want to know why. What is he? How did that happen? Where the hell is that stuff coming from? But when I look at Indiana Jones and see him teaching a room full of students, I don’t wonder how he got to be a teacher. Because its obvious.

The origin story is a crucial part of the super hero genre. Because if they’re super, then they are different from everybody else and there has to be a reason why. It can often have a large effect on their personalities, beliefs, morals, everyday lives.

When this comes in the story depends entirely on the style of the narrative, the plot, the length of the story, etc. But I feel it’s necessary.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:07:08 +0000

This is totally dependant on the story you are trying to tell. With the Spider-man example, the story of the first film concentrated on Peter Parker become comfortable in the role of Spider-man. To do this it was important to show him before and after he gained his powers. Tim Burton’s Batman didn’t require this for the main character, and actually worked better with Batman being an established figure in Gotham. I think the problem is that with a lot of the characters, people are genuinely interested in their origins. Still using the example of movies, take the upcoming Green Lantern Movie. Sure you could jump straight in, have Hal Jordan as an established Green Lantern, but his origin story is actually very interesting.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 16 May 2011 04:59:25 +0000

Origins are exceedingly unimportant and it has become a cliche that you must begin by explaining how a super hero got started. There’s no reason on earth that the origin can’t be revealed in full at a later time, or given in bits and pieces or hints and suggestions if one is clever enough to write that way.

The most important thing is NOT TO DRAG IT OUT. An origin isn’t a story, it’s background and should stay background. Get it out and done with, then GET TO THE STORY.

And “Batman Begins” sucked eggs.

By: blah blah blah

blah blah blah — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:36:56 +0000

And Batman Begins is an orgin story.

i do agree that the orgin should come after storytelling, but the author should make an apropriate orgin later to show the reveal.