This Friday I figured I'd combine things and have an off topic discussion. Now, I know we've discussed our favorite genre for games before, but is it different for stories? When you read a book, what type of book do you find yourself going back to a lot? What about with movies? TV shows? Cartoons? Comics?
Personally, I find I keep straying back to Super Hero stories. Maybe it is a bit childish of me, but I think the genre has a lot to offer. Personal problems can be addressed, they're just exaggerated to a higher scale. Ultimately, Peter Parker's social woes are bad time management due to a pressing other obligation. How many people can't relate to that? But it makes a damn boring story if the other obligation isn't something like "I'm a super hero" now doesn't it?
At the same time, other social issues can be addressed as well. The X-men have classically been about discrimination. First it was about race, and later (nowish) about homosexuality. There are plenty of nods to other kinds of discrimination in those pages, and the story is powerful even if you just want to make it a more personal story about a teenager's quest for acceptance and finding their place in society (the other under-running theme in the books.)
There is just a whole lot you can do with the genre and it leaves itself wide open to almost anything. Want zombies? See Marvel Zombies or an even more serious take like Peter Cline's Ex-Heroes. Want teenage drama? Give the first couple volumes of the Runaways a try. Atonement and addiction handling? Iron Man has regular stints with Tony's alcoholism and the miniseries "The Loners" is about a support group for ex-teen heroes.
Similar stories can be found in DC by the way, I'm just not as versed with DC's lore and they tent to swing for the fences a lot more with their tales. Still, books like Green Arrow and various members of the Bat Family often talk about urban life woes.
So, that's mine. What about you?
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