The Mad Titan
So you’ve probably watched the Endgame trailer by now. It’s broken all sorts of viewing records and no one’s really that shocked. Now, a lot of people are 50/50 ( we know someone else who loves this split) on superhero movies. What I must say is that super heroes dominating popular culture isn’t a surprise. In the 50s and 60s it used to be Westerns and this was followed by Gangster and Crime dramas and we now have super heroes.
Now, shifting the focus to Thanos : The Mad Titan. The character dominated internet discussions in the summer. Was this his movie, is he the antagonist, maybe he did the right thing, is he the best villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker, is he the Darth Vader for this generation and a lot more. He even found himself in 2018 sensation Fortnite. Now I’ve praised the performance of Josh Brolin in a previous post but what I didn’t mention was that I’m a little bored of the messianic villain.
The Watchmen, The Legend of Korra, Naruto, Raas al Ghul, Dan Brown’s Inferno the list goes on. If you consumed enough content, this would be a little predictable. The turn of the century has seen a shift towards nuanced characters but I believe even this has reached a saturation point. That doesn’t mean we shift to guys dressed as Nazis or everything foreign being a Russian spy. Some of my favorite villains of all time have been animals like the Shark from Jaws, T Rex from Jurassic Park and Alien. No shades of grey just pure dread. And in recent times it has been the nihilistic variants in The Joker and Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh. Other great examples include the sadistic Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton . I believe it’s only a matter of time before the messianic villain will die. Creators will have to look to their imagination for a new type of antagonist or revert to an old one.
_________________________________________________
If you liked Infinity War you should check out :
1) Anything by Jonathan Hickman
2) The Infinity Gauntlet
So you’ve probably watched the Endgame trailer by now. It’s broken all sorts of viewing records and no one’s really that shocked. Now, a lot of people are 50/50 ( we know someone else who loves this split) on superhero movies. What I must say is that super heroes dominating popular culture isn’t a surprise. In the 50s and 60s it used to be Westerns and this was followed by Gangster and Crime dramas and we now have super heroes.
Now, shifting the focus to Thanos : The Mad Titan. The character dominated internet discussions in the summer. Was this his movie, is he the antagonist, maybe he did the right thing, is he the best villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker, is he the Darth Vader for this generation and a lot more. He even found himself in 2018 sensation Fortnite. Now I’ve praised the performance of Josh Brolin in a previous post but what I didn’t mention was that I’m a little bored of the messianic villain.
The Watchmen, The Legend of Korra, Naruto, Raas al Ghul, Dan Brown’s Inferno the list goes on. If you consumed enough content, this would be a little predictable. The turn of the century has seen a shift towards nuanced characters but I believe even this has reached a saturation point. That doesn’t mean we shift to guys dressed as Nazis or everything foreign being a Russian spy. Some of my favorite villains of all time have been animals like the Shark from Jaws, T Rex from Jurassic Park and Alien. No shades of grey just pure dread. And in recent times it has been the nihilistic variants in The Joker and Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh. Other great examples include the sadistic Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton . I believe it’s only a matter of time before the messianic villain will die. Creators will have to look to their imagination for a new type of antagonist or revert to an old one.
_________________________________________________
If you liked Infinity War you should check out :
1) Anything by Jonathan Hickman
2) The Infinity Gauntlet
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