Superheroes: Formulas
Formulas are the
list that allows the audience to know what to expect from a certain type of
genre. There are many different formulas and combination of formulas for the
variety of genres. Genres are used to classify our media. Some examples of
genres include horror, action, and comedy. Media that genres are spread across
include movies, music, and books. Formulas vary slightly but within each genre
they generally provide the same formula. The varying of formulas provide for
twists and turns to engage the audience further (Browne, 2005) .
When I think of
the formula for a superhero, it is as follows:
1. A crisis or
disastrous event must occur
2. Some sort of
transformation to the superhero must occur
3. That someone has
to be willing to step up and save the day.
Let’s look at a
recent movie example. In Captain America, the world was going through a war.
The war would be classified as the crisis. Army officials and scientists
decided to use an experiment to help build “super soldiers”. This would be the
transformation of Steven Rogers into Captain America. Captain America crashed
the plane that saved the world. This was also how he became frozen into present
day (Johnston, 2011) .
The superhero
formula is evident in so many superheroes in comics and movies such as Batman,
Spider-man, Superman, and Captain America. The formula I gave in the preceding
paragraph was convention. Inventions for the superhero formula would include
killing off Captain America or pairing up Batman and Superman in a fight. These
types of inventions do not fit the norm of the convention but instead throw a
curveball into the mix to keep the audience guessing what will happen.
References
Browne, R. B. (2005). Profiles of Popular Culture.
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America: The University of Wisconsin
Press.
Johnston, J. (Director). (2011). Captain America:
The First Avenger [Motion Picture].
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