Rise of superheroes follows hard times

With “Hancock,” which zooms into theaters after midnight tonight, Hollywood has gone all meta, giving us Will Smith as a superhero who has lost his mojo.

I’ve already had my brain pummeled this summer by Robert Downey Jr. flying around in a techno-suit, Adam Sandler as an invincible former Mossad agent, Steve Carell as a nerdy indestructible super spy, Harrison Ford as a Teflon 60-year-old archaeologist, Edward Norton as the incredibly angry green dude — which I admit I missed but saw the ads.

I don’t know how many more superheroes I can take.

Author Peter Biskind, who has written books about movies and culture in the 1950s, ’70s and ’90s, assures me that superheroes return with bad times.

Superman reached iconic status during World War II. The gas crisis and economic malaise of the Carter years begat Superman again — the Christopher Reeve incarnation.

And now, well, given the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the morass in Iraq and oil prices, we need Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Iron Man, all at once.

“Who doesn’t want a superhero when the world is in trouble?” asked marketing guru Jane Buckingham of the Youth Intelligence Group, who studies young people. “Who doesn’t want somebody to come save the day when the world is a mess?”

Rachel Abramowitz,

Los Angeles Times