Why Dark Superhero Stories Actually Work

It’s May – a star-studded cast of Avengers run across the movie screen and prepare to take on Thanos and his army of minions in the big-budget battle of the decade.

Now it’s September, and there’s a new type of film coming out.

Average moviegoers will think this is just a preview for another crime thriller from Warner Bros., but then the title card comes up: “Joker.”

There has already been talk about Oscar buzz for the film, with early reviews praising the dark, gritty film for its character development and corresponding performances of the actors.

Audiences who watch the trailer will see the story of a man constantly put down by the world he finds himself in; something that drives him to the point of insanity.

“Joker” is a movie about a supervillain, one that stands up on its own and doesn’t need an explicit connection to any so-called superheroes.

While it is associated with superhero films, because of the character it portrays, it’s dark and graphic with no guarantee of a happy ending – and it works.

“Joker” adds to the list of dark superhero stories, non-traditional stories like any other experimental work, brilliantly challenges the genre it was founded upon.

Another recent example was the release of “The Boys,” an Amazon Prime series based off a comic book of the same name, which packs a little more than a punch with its bloody violence and explicit language.

Anyone unfamiliar with superhero fiction as a whole may ask themselves, what is the point to having a dark superhero story like the “Joker” film?

Dark superheroes represent creators being able to think out of the box and produce stories to captivate new audiences.

Director Christopher Nolan told his dark and gritty Batman story through The Dark Knight trilogy from 2005-12.

This was most evident with the release of 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” which took audiences and the box office by storm.

Gone was the old Batman, punching villains with over-the-top exclamations. Instead audiences saw a psychologically-wounded Batman fighting a homicidal Joker.

It was a far cry from anything done before and it worked, because that type of movie was perfect for a character like Batman.

Recent films were criticized for being too dark by film critics including “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” with many moviegoers feeling the dark tone making both films feel bleak at times.

But why did movies like “The Dark Knight” succeed where other movies that tried to be dark failed?

Certain characters belong to certain genres and there should be a specific tone to their films.

Batman is an inherently dark character who’s on a mission to rid the world of the criminal element, so making his films and stories dark is a no-brainer.

Superman on the other hand is an invincible alien who always smiles and never seems to have a bad day, there is no reason there should be a dark movie made about the character.

All in all, dark superhero stories work because they utilize dynamic characters and put them in situations that present them in a whole new light.

Author’s Note: This work was originally published in The Spartan Daily on September 24th, 2019 under the headline: ‘Darker iterations of old stories are neat’. The original story can be found in the link here: https://sjsunews.com/article/darker-iterations-of-old-stories-are-neat