Mr. Queenan Misses the Point

Normally I don't post things like this, but this interview really got under my skin.

Film writer Joe Queenan recently appeared on CBC Radio's Q with Jian Ghomeshi (radio gentleman and silky-voiced mancrush) to talk about "superhero saturation" in Hollywood films. You can listen to the interview here.

Have you listened to it? Good. So, here's my thoughts.

I found Mr. Queenan's comments on the superhero genre to be reductively pale and belittling, especially his dismissal of guest speaker Steven Saidman's comments. "Everyone knows about the X-Men" is not a concrete argument, nor is "Cowboy movies are better because they don't have superpowers". Superhero films are not popular because of their quote "fascist" heroes, but because they are humbling. Just this summer, Iron Man 3 served as a deconstruction of the genre with Robert Downey Jr.'s character using his wits, not his supersuited powers, for a majority of the film -- and while I'll concede with Queenan that female roles in superhero films are commonly underwritten, this isn't a problem unique to the genre but is indicative of the film industry's reluctance to star leading ladies (with an exception being Scarlett Johannsen in Avengers, only the 3rd highest grossing film of all time).

It's clear that Mr. Queenan has little respect or understanding of the source material (wrongly stating Batman's appeal and sales figures when Superman has dominated the comics market between the 1940s and 1960s and is the best-selling comic series of all time) and whese stories reposition themes of duty (Avengers/Superman), cultural humility (Thor/Xmen), and social responsibility (Spider-man/Batman) Queenan's comment is true that "Captain America didnt beat Hitler, 19 year old boys did" -- Maybe so, but he forgets that Cap was in the boy's back-pockets every step of the way.

With that out of the way, what's yours?