Over at Journalista, Dirk’s in the middle of a very thoughtful and interesting ongoing examination of Marvel’s publishing practices, and how they are trying, succeeding and/or failing at entering the “true mainstream” by breaking into the bookstore market and (or perhaps by) varying their output from exclusively superhero-oriented books. Today’s installment features an interesting examination of Brian Michael Bendis’s excellent Daredevil. Dirk’s theory is that though Bendis is a clever writer with a knack for the police procedural/crime drama elements inherent in the Daredevil character, he’s too smart for his own good: readers who might get involved for those aspects, Dirk argues, are inevitably thrown for a loop when ol’ Hornhead shows up in his red tights and beats up a flying guy named the Owl.
I definitely see his point–when you’re going, as Bendis is, for a more realistic style of story, the suspension-of-disbelief-heavy superhero elements might seem incongruous–but as usual, I think his supposition of an audience distrustful or disdainful of superhero conventions just doesn’t hold water. How much money do the X-Men, Batman, Superman films, Spider-Man, The Matrix, Buffy, Smallville, and (yes) Daredevil make, anyway? There’s something to be said for the “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition” angle–people picking up what looks like a straight noir book might be unpleasantly surprised when the superheroics start. But based on the sheer numbers of people who seem to dig superheroes just fine, surely the crossover audience exceeds that of people who’d forego a great story simply because someone in it wears a costume and fights crime.
I’ve often said that the anti-superhero camp in the comics world is just as cultish, irrational and unrepresentative of the world at large as the only-superhero camp. Dirk’s not nearly as far gone as many, but I think it’s a mistake to assume that superheroes are an obstacle. The fact that for the most part superheroes are the only game in town? That’s another story.