[FRIAM] water, again (was murder offsets)

[jon zingale]

"""
On just one, for the accident that it overlaps with another factoid.His
comment that superheroes:
1. Are magic == special
2. Preserve the status quo
"""
Ugh, superhero movies. The fascination for some of my friends seems tobe a
mixture of canonization (when will this or that character finallyfind a
place among the CGI-Hollywood stars) and curiosity regardingrender-farm
state-of-the-art[0]. As a comic book reader in the 90's, Iwitnessed a
transition in the industry toward the realization that /withgreat power
comes great impotence/[1]. The immortal and invincible Supermanis a man
without a match. He is fixed, unchanging, and thus without meaning.Alan
Moore's Dr. Manhattan is in some sense an homage to this
literarymanifestation. Manhattan is the scientist that jumps the limit
andbecomes God. In this moment of 'enlightenment', he simultaneously comesto
realize, as Zarathustra before him, that he is without meaning andthat God
is dead. Meanwhile, many of Moore's more typical superheroestake their cue
from Eisner's "Spirit". There we find a hero that hasno special powers or
wealth and is often found leg-in-cast, strung upin the hospital. He is
visited by sympathetic doctors and nursesthat wish they could talk sense
into him. Grant Morrison's Batman presentsanother inspired turn. There he
reimagines Arkham asylum as the  "Clinicof La Borde" <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Borde_clinic>  . Batman is called by
Commissioner Gordon, the Joker hastaken over the asylum. The Batman shows up
to find that the Joker hasnot only done so but seems to be making
breakthroughs with the patientsthat years of traditional 'therapies' had
failed to realize[2]. Defeated, Batmanrealizes that to take action against
the Joker is to do harm.
While many such examples can be found in the literary body of post-90'scomic
books, film and television appear to have ignored or missed thememo,
dragging the entire enterprise into cultural regression. Onefavorite example
is a transition from the baby-faced 11th Doctor, Matt"all evil in the
universe fears me" Smith, toward the aged and flawed,Peter "I ought to be
able to protect and again I failed" Capaldi. Thewriters of Doctor Who,
sensing that they had painted themselves intoImpotentman's corner made a
desperate move to deflate the all-powerfulhero back into something
life-sized, a character with the possibilityof narrative development.
Perhaps counterintuitively, it was exactlyby reintroducing degrees of
powerlessness that the Doctor comes toregain agency and find meaning.
To my mind, the most /sinister/ quality of these big-budget superherofilms
is the ultimate use of /deus ex machina/. The films build to thebrink with a
destroyer of multiverses orchestrating an apocalypse from apoint outside of
time and space. Then, some event outside of the controlof even these level
20 superheroes /magically-miraculously-luckily-(ironically?)/ prevents what
by any reason ought to have ended everything.The superheroes /win/ but not
by their own actions or will. Theimage is ultimately one of powerlessness.
The crowds go home assuredthat while we are rushing toward collapse, there
is nothing we can do,but at least there is /magic/ because obviously /good/
will prevail.In many ways, the experience of being dragged to these films
has /perverted/me. Now, I am most impressed that Luthor survived tormenting
Kent as long as he has.When, in /Alien: Covenant/, the merry band of
trustafarians plays intoDavid's hands, I leave the theater with a wide grin,
and not of schadenfreude but hope! Finally, like Artaud's /Theater of
Cruelty/, an image of what may be at stake and the reasonablenessof the
steps that make it so.
[0] Arguably the reason for these films.
[1] An observation cited by Umberto Eco in his  "Myth of the Superman"
<http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/132778/16847366/1330398044203/umberto_eco_the_myth_of_superman.pdf?token=gg3Z> 
.
[2]  Progress as a result of turning Two-Face onto the tarot, for instance.



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