Postmodern Superheroes

amunptah · Post by **amunptah** » Sat May 28, 2011 4:17 pm

I'm currently reading Watchmen again, and getting a real kick out of it, especially that I get a lot more of the references now than I did when I first read it during my teens.
I'm also enjoying Irredeemable, especially because of it's deconstruction of a "Superman", transforming him from somewhat of a cliche to a deep, flawed character.
What other postmodern superhero titles should I be reading?
I only just spotted Superior in Marvel Previews. Any good?
Although I don't much care for the art or character design, from what I've heard, Invincible plays with the genre conventions too?

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sat May 28, 2011 4:22 pm

Invincible is more straight up super-hero rather than post-modern.

Try Welcome to Tranquility if you haven't seen it yet. Especially the first series.

Of course there's Miracleman.

Maybe something like The Pro or The Boys might also be interesting for you.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Sat May 28, 2011 8:11 pm

Yeah, "The Boys" is a pretty cynical view of superheroes. It was great until issue 40 or so because they made one character [the one you can relate to] only appear in a separate mini-series. That, along with a boring back story, made me quit reading it for now.

Irredeemable is about as good as it gets for this stuff though. You can always try Incorruptible, which is the opposite of Irredeemable basically, and takes place in the same world.

Halcyon is a 5 issue mini-series that's about to wrap up, finally, and it looks at superheroes after all crime stops. I remember it's pretty good but I stopped reading until the last issue comes out, way too many delays.

So try The Boys and Halcyon. I think there are a few more titles with a cynical approach but I don't read them.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sat May 28, 2011 8:35 pm

abysslord wrote:Yeah, "The Boys" is a pretty cynical view of superheroes. It was great until issue 40 or so because they made one character [the one you can relate to] only appear in a separate mini-series. That, along with a boring back story, made me quit reading it for now.

Irredeemable is about as good as it gets for this stuff though. You can always try Incorruptible, which is the opposite of Irredeemable basically, and takes place in the same world.

Halcyon is a 5 issue mini-series that's about to wrap up, finally, and it looks at superheroes after all crime stops. I remember it's pretty good but I stopped reading until the last issue comes out, way too many delays.

So try The Boys and Halcyon. I think there are a few more titles with a cynical approach but I don't read them.

Cynical doesn't nec. = postmodern. Welcome to Tranquility plays with Genre and Conventions, is fairly 'self aware' and isn't at all cynical.

amunptah · Post by **amunptah** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:50 pm

I'll give Halcyon a look. I took a look at The Boys, but it tends toward the Millar side of ultra-violence, so it's not really my thing.

torchsong · Post by **torchsong** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:05 pm

Noble Causes and Dynamo 5 both play with the "superhero" dynamic but without as much of the grim and grit as you'd find in the other mentioned books.

I can't recommend Incorruptible highly enough if you're enjoying Irredeemable. I almost find myself enjoying it more than the series that spawned it.