LNH: Legion of Net.Heroes Vol.2 #23

Martin Phipps martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 9 00:13:19 PST 2007


On Nov 9, 3:32 pm, Tom Russell <milos_par... at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Nov 9, 2:10 am, Martin Phipps <martinphip... at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > The present story is another good example: it contains pornographic
> > scenes and the story arguably exists to string them together but it
> > was ultimately a superhero story, in this case a mixture of fantasy
> > and comedy genres.
>
> Which brings us to the more pressing question: What makes a superhero
> story a superhero story?  I'd argue it's the presence of superheroes,
> and not any emotion it might arouse-- as it can arouse literally any
> emotion.

So what's a "superhero"?  If Superman is drinking coffee and talking
to Lois is he being a superhero in that story?  If not then his
presence doesn't make it a superhero genre story.  Frankly, superhero
stories are a subgenre of fantasy, one that sometimes overlaps with
science fiction but usually doesn't.

Martin




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