Wow..

[cabbitzilla]

The 'hero' gig has REALLY changed in the last sixty years.
Captain Marvel, at least as portrayed nowadays, is such a sickening goodguy that you just can't even imagine him stepping on a bug, much less kicking lots of badguy arse.

Now I just recently managed to get my hands on about half of the episodes of the old 1941 vintage Captain Marvel serial, and let me tell you this is a hero who has NO fear of bloodshed or killing. I'd been noting the tendency towards such behavior, but it was episode 4 (Death Takes The Wheel) that really rammed the point home:

1. Captain Marvel lands on a building roof.
2. The badguys try to drop a truck engine on him.
3. Captain Marvel catches said engine, and throws it at the head of one of the badguys...
4. ... and then picks up one of the other badguys and throws him off the roof. (*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahTHUD*).

What's equally interesting is what they do NOT do: I've only seen one car destroyed, and it was very obviously a model. Same with the single airplane that 'blew up'. No car crashes. No rampant destruction of property. Humans are cheap, but props are expensive. :)


For those wondering, I'm still home sick. It's why I'm entertaining myself with old serials.

Comments

[m-masque.livejournal.com]

A lot of those early mystery men, (pre Superman/Batman/etc) could be pretty deadly. The Spider, the Shadow, they both carried guns and weren't exactly hesitant in using them. As the mystery men gave way to the superheroes, such as Superman and Batman, they usually wouldn't kill, mainly because the stories were getting geared towards a much younger audience than the teens/adults of the pulp-novel stories, but they also weren't very likely to go out of their way to save a villain from his fate.