Where the “Camelot” trailer and the “Crowning of Arthur”
story make out the story of him to be majestic, (help with instrumental music
in the trailer), and hero-like in the “Crowning of Arthur” because he proves to
be king-worthy despite his non-noble association of the mask of his true
identity. It all gives a very positive image of King Arthur and a negative
image of the noblemen because they judge Arthur by his class. However, in the
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” video, King Arthur is made to seem like a
careless dictator. In “Crowning…”, Arthur is of the commoners and they offer
their support for him whereas in “Monty Python”, the commoners are shown hardly
knowing who King Arthur is and showing him no respect. Why such a large
difference in the portrayals of King Arthur? Well, one idea that came to my
mind is perhaps in “Monty Python” King Arthur has had many years of reign, is
older, and has changed in character and become less hero-like to the peasants.
That could just be one possible reason for the difference in the pieces though.
In regards
to race, gender, and superheroes, it is clear that most superhero comics
consist of generally white males. We do not see very many female-led roles in
comics, more side-kicks and victim characters. Even in the “Superheroines…”
article it talks about Charlie’s Angels
being a female-led hero group, they still follow men in their missions whether
it is Charley or Bosley (both presumed to be white men—John Forsythe in one and
Bill Murray of the other). Despite the lack of female superhero leaders in
comics, we now see more female-led hero protagonists in movies and books like The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen and
Disney’s Brave’s Merida. To me, this
is just the beginning of women-led heroes.
In the
article’s “What if the X-Men were Black?” and “Who Gets to be a Superhero…” we
read about the inequalities of race in superhero comics. Both articles discuss
the issues that come with trying to change the races of superheroes, like
Wolverine for instance, if he was black, he might just be seen as a wild black
man. If this is the case, then change it. Change the storyline if necessary to
make it how you want it to appear. Yes, I do see the issues with all of the
superheroes in comics being generally white (males), but as we see in “Meet the
New Muslim-American Green Lantern” they are changing the race of the hero and
character using Simon Baz. And as pleasing to the eyes as he is, I never really
pictured Ryan Reynolds as a Green Lantern character anyways, in my opinon, and
I could see the comic portrayal of Simon Baz to fit better.
And my
other issue with these articles is that if you cannot change the race of one of
the classic superheroes, why not get creative and make a new superhero? All of
the classic superheroes (Batman, Superman, Iron Man, even Spiderman) have been
done so many times and changed and improved and made worse etcetera, etcetera.
Make a new classic and make him (or her) exactly as you want to portray him (or
her). Maybe there are already comics that were made with a different race, I
really don’t know. But to me, that seems like the best solution at least in
regards to making a non-white superhero. I know that it doesn’t change the
issues with the current superheroes but it would be a step in the right
direction.
And
finally, “Superman and the Jumper”: the relation I see between this and the
previous articles is that we have our typical white male superhero, a white
damsel in distress, and a tertiary male black character. I just think this is
an example of what all of the superhero articles are expressing.
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