Masters of the Universe [Friday]
A good story is as much about creating a world the story rests in, more so than the elements of the plot. At times, we don’t necessarily care WHAT happens, just that we get to dig around a bit in someone else’s world…to basically hang out with the people you’ve grown attached to. I’ve always said that the reason Jackie Brown is such a great movie is because the characters are just on the edge of likability. You’re not really sure what to think of anyone. Some are sad, some are pathetic, some are stupid, yet all of them are interesting. On closer examination, I think it’s Tarantino’s best, if only because he doesn’t TRY as hard as he usually does. The movie breathes and lives on its own, you get to just hang out and watch it happen.
It’s funny when I talk to people about comics, because most people’s knowledge extends to something like Superman or X-men. And I’ll admit, I grew up a Marvel kid, mostly because I thought their heroes were cooler. The stories were faster, the action was bigger, the emotions involved more sensational. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized that DC Comics was run from a central editorial division which assured for a fair amount of continuity and preservation of the universe where all the DC characters existed. Marvel only kept that kind of attention within a series, so while the X-men were fighting in the middle of Central Park against Sentinels, X-Factor would be hanging out and having a picnic eating burgers. Only as I got older did I realize that Professor Xavier must’ve died at least five times in the span I read the X-men comic books.
I was reading Yopp’s post below about Preacher, and it reminded me to take a glance at my graphic novel shelf and re-read some of them. The idea that each character has a history, that everything happens for a reason as part of a bigger story is something that is virtually unheard of in popular media entertainment. Plots are episodic, perpetual, pointless. You don’t have to pay attention to why someone said something, or when someone came across this character. Brian Michael Bendis’s masterpiece Powers takes the mystery cop drama and flips it, creating a universe full of superheroes who all are interconnected with the bigger mystery. Even more impressively is that the entire series takes a major turn in Volume 7, where the story is no longer about the conflicts that come with being regular people that happen to have superpowers, but turns into an almost religous/philosophical shitstorm that forever changes the “world” in which the characters live. Our minds wrap around these turns and twists and has to now adjust how everyone will react, it tweaks the backstory of everything we’ve come across, which is a pretty impressive feat in just reading a simple comic book.
But people tend to think the word “universe” seems to encompass far ranging expanses, entire world. But one of my favorite examples of a well realized universe is Paul Feig in creating Freaks n’ Geeks. By the end of the 18 episodes, you know almost every extra. Characters’ actions forever change the dynamic of the group, and backstories shift and change the more we delve deeper into their worlds. Sure, their world’s a bit more interesting than ours, but it’s the fact that we can imagine existing in their universe as much as we do in ours.