Story Structure Part Two, or Why Spider-Man Should Keep His Damned Mask On
I don’t doubt that writers of everlasting comics can learn from these new fangled moving pictures, but ultimately they are two distinct media types that need a different approach, not just in execution but in the very heart of their story structure. For example, just look at the amount of times a costumed adventurer is umasked in a film, and the amount of outings that have occurred in recent comics.
A film maker, as a standard part of her job, would ask herself what could be worse thing to happen to her protagonist? Problem is, if the character’s a cape, there’s one obvious answer. Because of this, as well as an actor wanting more face time, they can’t seem to keep their masks on.
This strikes me as the approach taken by many comics writers of late. Unmasking is rife, which annoys me for three reasons:
1) All we get are dozens of outed heroes, all going through the same stories over and over. Yes, I know superheroes are just like celebrities. I know it must be horrible for your enemies to know where your family lives. I have read all of these before, and it isn’t cutting edge if I read it over and over in a 90s Image comic.
2) Ongoing, endless comic series need a different story telling technique to a done-in-one movie. Once the worst has happened, there is nowhere else to go, and frankly I just don’t trust the current crop of writers to show me something new or interesting. In fact, I think secret identities create more story possibilities.
3) Personally, I really like secret identities, and when I handed my cash over it was to see Spider-man, not bloody Peter Parker.
