Choose a superheroine who is your Alter ego. (It should be your own twist/version of a known superheroine). Inspirations may come from but are not limited to Comic Books, Amar Chitra Katha Indian Comics, and/or cultural stereotypes
What is your alter ego’s super-power?
Create a signature movement that is specific to your Superheroine/Alter ego
Show us how your superheroine moves from the mundane world of mortals into the realm of superheroine ---you are encouraged to use text, movement, costume, props, and/or video.
Please upload your study with feedback questions onto the blog by Apr 12. Feedback from everyone is due Apr 16.
oh hallo there. I was just speaking to Shy and she asked me to post some thoughts I've had about US superheroes to this blog (previously shared with Sangita). Hope perhaps some of this is of use to your creative process! :
ReplyDelete1) Origin stories are a more universal attribute of US superheroes that superpowers - a significant minority of prominent US superheroes lack superpowers (e.g. Batman, everyone in The Watchmen except Dr. Manhattan) but all virtually all prominent US (superheroes and supervillains) have origin stories - the moment in their past which made them what they are today. This typically might involve an incident or series of incidents which gives them superpowers (The Incredible Hulk), or an incident which is traumatic and the trauma moves them to adopt a new heroic (or villainous) role (Batman) or often it might involve both (Superman, Spiderman). (There are other cases which don't quite fall into these categories - e.g. Wonderwoman's origins are mythological and divine) .
2) Perhaps another universal attribute of US superheroes is the costume (and sometimes mask or even total physical transformation). The most common reasons for these include:
i) Disguise - to protect the hero's ordinary civilian identity, and lead a double-life
ii) "Branding" (not limited just to the cynical postmodern strain of superhero comics... ) - a symbolic public identity/persona
iii) Transformation or transcendence - the look metaphorically (and perhaps literally if it's not a disguise but a real physical transformation) represents transformation or transcendence of the human into the mythological, animalistic, divine, elemental etc.
Some further miscellaneous thoughts -
a) it might be worth digging into the concepts used in Julie Taymor's Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark . Probably the biggest Broadway musical disaster of all time, but Taymor still had a lot of interesting ideas which might spark your own.
b) I don't know if it would work for a South Asian audience, but perhaps an ironic or subversive take on Joseph Campbell's hero's journey monomyth might be interesting to think about.
c) For a tale setting for ordinary-scale everyday heroics in a relatable context for this event - how about matrimony sites like shaadi.com as a narrative frame?
Dear Zhan, thanks so much for your super informative and helpful super-hero theory! Great food for thought and source for inspiration...
ReplyDeleteTHANKS ZHAN-- really useful!!!!
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