SO I'M A bit late on this one -- and besides the fact that my PVR ran out on Monday's Heroes just as Hiro met Future Hiro -- the otherwise well-paced, exciting episode left me with one lingering "whaaa?""Um, did they just steal the climax of The Watchmen?"
Homage? Steal?
I wasn't sure...but a couple days later now...it kind of feels like a steal.
Worse, a steal that could keep that Watchmen project in Development Hell for LONGER. (Just film David Hayter's script already! Jeez!)
Looks like I'm not the only one thinking this, either.
There's not an idea in the SF or Comics Genre that someone hasn't tried to say "I got there first." It's one thing for fans to come up with a million derivative spins on "Yesterday's Enterprise" or this way or that way to bring back a beloved character. It's one thing to look at BSG and say everything good about Ronald D. Moore's version comes straight from the original (an extremely dubious fanboy proposition at best.) But this...this is a smiley face of a different order.
I like Heroes. I have a lot of time for Heroes. I think that their handling of the mutant-powers thing is sufficiently different from X-Men that I don't feel like it's too much of a ripoff. But I feel extremely negatively toward the Linderman plot reveal -- and the endgame regarding New York.
And I'm not sure I can tell you why the latter bothers me while the former doesn't. Maybe because one is stealing a general concept (people all around the world discover extraordinary abilities) and one is stealing the climax of a narrative.
I'd be down for a good old fashioned space opera -- but I'm not sure I'd dig it if the big reveal was the villain telling the hero (or even the Hiro) "Hey, by the way...I'm your father."
Am I being inflexible and fanboy here? What do you think?
I'm still an enormous fan of Future Hiro and his Great Big Effing Sword.
12 comments:
I've been worried about this coming to head when I saw that they were going for the "we're gonna kill a million to save a billion" plot from WATCHMEN (and before that OUTER LIMITS). It's hard to believe that Kring didn't do his research and read WATCHMEN when he was developing HEROES.
***SPOILERS***
What's really disturbing is the fact that they are rushing toward an X-MEN storyline too - DAYS OF FUTURE PAST - where an X-man goes back from the future to prevent a catastrophe (the murder of a senator) which signalled a human-mutant war in which mutants were rounded up and placed in prison camps. According to publicity, this is the direction the show is going in with Nathan becoming the president. (Check out Comic Book Resources for video clips from next week's show).
So is HEROES a mashup of several comics albeit with new characters? Does anyone outside the fanboy community really care? It can really get one going - pondering the various influences on this show, and to be honest, I really want to just sit back and enjoy it.
So, I've decided to let sleeping dogs lie and see Kring's interpretation of these stories with his characters. I'll consider the knowledge that these stories have been told elsewhere as "backstory trivia." I do think that Kring and crew will surprise us a bit with their take on it all. I am eager to find out what powers Mama Petrelli has/had and her whole relationship with Linderman and her husband. Could Linderman be one of the boy's father?
There's a lot here to like. A lot of jumping off points, and I think that in this day and age of "instant audience feedback", Kring will respond by veering away from the expected. He's already done this by making Wolverine into a cheerleader...
(I'm going to reserve my right to change my mind if suddenly the "homage" becomes too "dead-on." It's a fine line.)
I was annoyed by the apparent theft from The Watchmen at first, then started to wonder if my Canadian perspective was hiding a more obvious inspiration: the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government caused (or permitted) the 9/11 attacks.
(Not that this riff would be any more welcome. I thought ST:Enterprise lost its way when it became a sci-fi interpretation of September 11.)
I have enjoyed Kurt Busiek's tales of Astro City, which are obvious mashups and re-imaginings of popular characters, settings and themes from Marvel and DC comic books, so I don't think anyone owns the general ideas.
But the McDowell character - his coldness and his anticipation of others' actions - was too close to Ozymandias for my comfort.
I'm wondering if this future Hiro is the same Hiro who confronted Peter on the subway.
Also, I remember hearing or reading something about Kim Kring not having read any comics or really being into comics before coming up with Heroes. But yeah, my fiancee kept on mentioning DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (didn't much care for the Claremont exposition, but yeah, interest -- I haven't read much else of X-Men -- just read the Dark Phoenix TPB).
didn't bug me as much. I noticed it but seemed ok...
hear what you're saying though.
Mark
But see, I don't think that's a particular stretch, either (the Days of Future Past thing.) From The Time Machine on down, going into the past to try and change things has been a solid, reliable trope.
My point again is that I think it may feel different for me not because the idea was the same. (remember guys, ideas are not copyrightable) but that the execution of that idea, the climax of it seems to me to be exactly the same.
Considering the similarity of genre that's just a step too close to me.
You can have a Comedy take noir endings and they're fresh.
but this is one superhero adaptation stealing the exact ending of another...and a big big, big other too. Not like repeating something Star Trek did, but like stealing the end of Lord of the rings.
I'm wondering if this future Hiro is the same Hiro who confronted Peter on the subway.
Yup, it is. Read this week's online graphic novel on the NBC website to get a little more backstory about how/why future Hiro is so dark and serious.
Ack. Ahem...
Until it was pointed out, I never noticed the Watchmen riff, but the Days of Future Past I caught almost immediately. I get the feeling, however, that it's going to play out differently than Moore and Gibbons had it play out. (Without spoiling the climax of Watchmen for the one person reading this who hasn't read it.)
Honestly, I think only the more astute comic readers will care* about this one, and if it is as different as I suspect, it'll end up a Watchmen historical footnote more than anything.
*I originally typed 'notice', but I think the New York Post changed that.
You're right of course. You're all right. But if you go back 70-odd years to the birth of the "first" superhero, you can't help but notice that his secret identity neatly combines the first names of the greatest heroes of the pulp era; Dr. Clark Savage Jr and Kent "The Shadow" Allard. There is not now, nor has there ever been, much truly "original" in hero stories. It's the telling that matters more, and Heroes is still doing that awfully well.
I caught the Watchmen reference but not the Days of Future Past.
Frankly it just made me smile. The story is good enough to think, what the heck. And as Bill rightly pointed out, the Watchmen element was taken from an episode of The Outer Limits anyway.
Then again, I was still smiling at the episode title referring to a seven percent solution.
Honestly, I hate it when media franchises over the Web. I'm just a shade over being a casual fan, and going onto these network's pages can take a small bit of time (kinda like Dead Things ON Stick can sometimes take more time -- especially when there's a bunch of video clips on the front page -- but for some reason, I don't care as much) out of my already busy life.
I had a sinking feeling, realizing how close this climax could be to Watchmen. I, too, felt it was just too similar in the details (the man with this plan is the uber-rich, cultured, guy-we-must-reluctantly-admit-has-a-point).
What is consoling me is the idea that it must (MUST, given this is network TV) play out very differently. The set-up & motivation is very close, but I can't imagine Heroes going so dark/cynical. My hope is that since they can't go the actual way of Watchmen, the way they do go (presumably the prevention of this full-on disaster) will have its own identity.
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