It's interesting because I feel like The Boys is supposed to make you really uncomfortable with what a superhuman could do to a human in a fight and make you think about how we watch more 'normal' superhero content. But it doesn't seem to actually do that, because so many people just seem to be totally on board with, as you say, 300-style superheroes.
And I mean, I want to be fair here, I'm probably a little guilty of that as someone whose favorites are Wolverine and Punisher.
I never have, and doubtful ever will watch the Boys. And every time someone attempts to convince me to watch it they push me further and further away. I find the idea of sociopathic 'superheroes' fundamentally disgusting, and I don't generally want to watch it even if the premise is taking them down. No thanks. I live in the world where people with unchecked power shove everyone else into the meat-grinder. I'd like to not do that in my escapist fantasy, thanks.
Punisher and Wolverine (when Wolverine's powers are a bit less developed, like he's extremely hard to kill but not shrugging off artillery shells or whatever) I find a little more workable for the same reasons as the archvillain exception above. Typically the threat is high enough and they have few options to avoid the violence. Like, when your main power is "knives for hands" there's only so much you can do without ignoring the premise. Punisher is basically just John Wick with a slightly different backstory. It's not that I'll never indulge in that sort of story, but it's a sometimes food, and the more the media leans into realistic and excessive gore the more I tune out. The end of season 1 of Punisher, where he fucks up Jigsaw's face on the mirror was definitely a rough ride.
Yep. Mass-slaughter of living beings, even “evil” ones, doesn’t make me feel good.
It’s one of my big objections to the end of Avengers: Endgame: uhhhhhh did Tony just wipe out a whole race there along with Thanos and crew? Did we check with those monster guys? Are they enslaved, like Gamora and Nebula totally were before being deprogrammed? All the questions it raises are yucky, especially in a week where I am listening to a podcast about Heinrich Himmler.
Robots feel much better.
My assumption for Endgame was that those guys were somehow engineered monsters. Biobots basically. I got the same impression with the aliens in the first Avengers (otherwise how does blowing up the mother ship shut them all down?). They're organic, but still effectively robots in that they have no real agency beyond programming. It rides a line but their inhuman presentation and that thought make them workable for me.
I do agree though, robots are much better. And in today's world, a lot more topical. I am certain that before I die autonomous killing machines will be deployed in warfare or policing and I'll get to see the actual ramifications of them 'choosing' to kill people. Fuck them 'AI's. Let's reprogram them all with axes I say.
I believe Lucas explained exactly that as his reason for the droid army, he realized in the writing and visualizing stage that he didn't want a bunch of people sliced in half by the heroes.
Yeah, good on George, a thing I don't get to say very often these days.
