3) Life Style and Popular Culture: Bill Maher v. Capes and Tights

In 2019, everyone knows what a superhero is. Marvel movies are the biggest thing at the box office, superhero tv is almost half of what's on, and, in general, superheroes are cementing themselves as a piece of human existence. It might be hipster to say now, but I remember when it was still uncool to like superhero content. "Superman isn't real!" I would get often on the school yards of public school. I almost got in a fight over a stolen comic or two. Superheroes were my jam. They didn't start becoming everyone else's until 2008. The Dark Knight and the first Iron Man hit theaters, and people can't deny a good movie from being called a good movie. Slowly but surely, superheroes began to grow even more. In 2012, Marvel's The Avengers came out, and it was the first official stamp in culture that cemented that superheroes were what the market wanted to see. These movies not only made money, but had long term audience investment due to a serialized television type of approach.


General audiences were finally considering superhero entertainment as plain and simple entertainment. It didn't matter if the characters wore colorful costumes to fight evil doings of evil, as long as the stories were dynamic, relevant, and, most importantly, good. For every Avengers, you still get a dark and gritty character study like Logan. You can have a raunchy comedy in Deadpool, or a serious cultural epic a la Black Panther. Superheroes, superhero movies especially, were beginning to blur the lines more and more of what it meant to be a "Superhero movie." In fact, Marvel's primary plan was not to make superhero movies, but to make genre films with superheroes in them. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a political thriller whereas Ant-Man is a comedy heist film. 

Comic creator legend, Stan Lee, died in mid November. Lee, being a comics icon, had left a huge mark on, not only comics readers, but movie goers alike. Stan Lee's face is everywhere in all Marvel, sometimes otherwise, superhero films no matter the studio behind it. If there is one face that everyone knows, ages 9-69, it is Stan 'The Man' Lee. 

Not a full week after Lee's death, political television personality/'comedian' Bill Maher posted a blog about how superhero entertainment was, in his day and should be considered now, strictly for kids. He went on to say that "when you grew up, you moved on to big-boy books without the pictures." He also went on to say that society now tries to cling onto it's childhood and that he didn't "think it was a stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important."

Immediate backlash was put upon Maher, but he didn't seem to care. In fact, he doubled down in an interview with Larry King stating that the backlash only proved his point. Just recently, in January 2019, Maher talked about it at length on his show titled Grow Up. Taking pot shots at Kevin Smith (pop culture nerd icon/filmmaker), for "dressing like a child." And continued to double down, further mocking anyone who enjoyed superhero entertainment, belittling them as children. 

I wanted to talk about this in this blog because I honestly think Maher is an idiot. And far too old and stupid. I can say that because this is my blog. But seriously, lets break it down. Could someone really discredit any piece of entertainment? For kids or not, Marvel movies are the biggest money makers at the box office, and the superhero train has yet to crash in the 10 years since it's new era back in 2008. Also I can't look at films like The Dark Knight, Logan, and Black Panther and dismiss any of those films as "just for kids." I saw The Dark Knight in 2008 when it came out, I was 11, not mature enough to understand most of that movie at all, but I knew it and loved it anyways and matured with it. Logan is #sadaf! Can't show a kid that! And honestly, I think the biggest turn is in Black Panther. Not only do I like it because its a Marvel movie, but it's a Marvel movie with a message that is supremely relevant today even beyond things like race, sexual equality, and cultural identification. To dismiss a movie as layered and rich as Black Panther as nothing more than children's fair can literally only come from someone who is either uneducated or blind. Or he just didn't see it. 

This is too long for my liking so I'll wrap it up. In truth, I don't think Maher has cracked open a comic book in the last 50 years. I think he still is in the mindset that it's cool to make fun of nerds. I think he forgot he was in Iron Man 3. And honestly, I just think Bill Maher is better off not getting it, and comic/superhero fans are better off excluding him from the fun. Bill Maher may be so "cool and mature," but these movies are still making money, they're remaining culturally relevant, and they are teaching people, of all ages, how not to be an A-Hole and those are 3 things that Bill Maher will have a hard time doing himself for the years to come especially with that bullheaded attitude.