Mr and Mrs Incredible

[Ajax]

From the teasers this looks like it will be a good movie. Note this has nothing to do with The Incredibles, it's a movie from Hong Kong about two married super heroes, though I wouldn't be surprised from the trailers if the name wasn't an intentional reference.

Teaser 1
Teaser 2
Teaser 3

[lugaru]

Great find! I'm very interested in the foreign superhero movies that are starting to crop up with the success of american superhero films.

I think it was Alan Moore who wrote something on how superheroes are a very hard sell in other countries.

It has occurred to me that the superhero really only originates in America. That seems to be the only country that has produced this phenomenon. Yes, we have had knockoffs of American superheroes originating in this country and presumably in other parts of the world, but they're not natural to this environment. They're an alien species. And I've thought about it and wondered why that was. And I wonder—perhaps this is being too simplistic, I don't know, but I wonder if the root of the emergence of the superhero in American culture might have something to do with a kind of an ingrained American reluctance to engage in confrontation without massive tactical superiority.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/17-03/ff_moore_qa

And since superheroes are foreign to them they always produce some really weird superheroes.

[Trelau]

Like him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw-tQTS3-Iw

[BWPS]

I really don't understand any Chinese. That looks really weird anyway.

Superheroes originate in America because America is almost always the forefront of new pop culture elements (with Japan and England occasionally being exceptions). It takes time for other countries to create their own versions of what America develops and initially they just import what is popular in the US.
"American reluctance to engage in confrontation without massive tactical superiority."
So this means...
Americans don't prefer underdog stories? (ridiculous)
Superhero stories usually depict the hero having a tactical advantage over his enemy? (never)
Reluctance to engage in confrontation without massive tactical superiority is characteristic only of America? (It's characteristic of anyone without a deathwish. America just happens to have good tactical advantages usually)
That whole thing sounds like something some kind of crazy self-righteous guy with a psycho-beard would say. Oh, right.

[Uncle Yuan]

Aunt Yuan hails from India.  She assures me that Indians don't need superheros; they have several thousand gods . . . .

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Superheroes are mostly American because they just happened, and they just happened in America.

Pretty much they were just an evolution of pulp heroes.  Batman was pretty much a classic pulp vigilante at first.  Superman was mostly this at first two, plus more of a costume and a fantastic origin, which made him the first superhero.  Really, it was just a small step from some of the earlier characters to him.  After a while, they evolved to be more child friendly so the gunning bad guys down, or in Superman's case throwing them off buildings, was out and they settled into what we think of as superheroes.

I wish I could get more info on the history of the pulp hero, though.  My initial web searching didn't turn up anything.

[thalaw2]

Superheroes exist in other countries...for example the Monkey King is regarded as China's oldest superhero and he's over 1000 years old.  I think the only think American about superheroes is not elevating them to godhood. 

[lugaru]

That whole thing sounds like something some kind of crazy self-righteous guy with a psycho-beard would say. Oh, right.

Not far from the truth, although I did drop a lot of books because there was no conflict. What is funny is that the new guard of edgy and politically savy writers are MUCH more guilty of this than the oldschool and especially silver age dudes.

In the silver age you would see dime store villains ruining supermans day and people who have practically no powers capturing the Flash.

Now stuff from Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison and heck, even Allan Moore can often be un-ironic hero worship. Authority and Planetary are personal favorites but a lot of the time I threw the book down when they basically said "Of course our heroes win, because they are sooo awesome and powerful!". It was slightly redeemed since the heroes where flawed but sometimes watching The Doctor disintegrate a foe or Elijah Snow taking out foes in one pannel. It is what bugs me sometimes about The Boys or even Preacher... this whole idea of the hero as the bad@$$.

More seriosly I think other countries dont have superheroes as much because Pulp heroes make more sense to them. I would bet that every country has pulp heroes... super spies and wrestlers and cat burglars and jungle men and maked gun slingers. The science fiction element is more uniquely american and I totally agree with you that it has a slower adoption rate but other than Japan (who may or may not have gotten there on their own) other countries still prefer the more populist traditional heroes. I've seen dozens of superhero comics come and go in Mexico but you still see plenty of comics about true crime, westerns, wrestlers, two fisted truck drivers (!?) and soap operas with varying degrees of sexyness.

Also are comics (non Archie or Scrooge) still populist in America? Gone are the days of 500,000 issue print runs and I can mainly blame the direct market for that since I like modern comics.

[Ajax]

Superheroes exist in other countries...for example the Monkey King is regarded as China's oldest superhero and he's over 1000 years old.  I think the only think American about superheroes is not elevating them to godhood. 

Great Sage, Equal to Heaven
Victorious Fighting Buddha

Must I go on? 

Plus I'm not sure if I would call Monkey King a hero. He just kinda did whatever the heck he pleased until he couldn't anymore. Even then he had a long leash.

I think the problem other countries/cultures have with super heroes is how would they fit into society? I mean, we have been trying for the past 70 years and still haven't quite figured it out. Individuals with near godlike powers swing around a city and stop crimes. Spider-Man webs a purse snatcher and drops him at the police precinct what are they supposed to do with him?

I read an article on ANN talking about a Japanese artists take on Spider-Man that came out (in Japan) in 1970-71. This was sort of "what if Spider-Man took place in Japan" type story. All the characters were Japanese and though some elements remained the same it was a completely different work. No Uncle Ben or Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy type characters. Though there is an Aunt May who becomes Aunt Mei. The interesting part is halfway through the series Spider-Man quits being Spider-man and for the remainder of this short lived series, never dons the costume ever again. Villains never come back cause they always die to some accident. So it makes the main character question whether Spider-Man is needed in the world, when all he brings is death and misery. The beginning of the series is very monster of the week, but when it changed to the no-mask spidey it was more popular with readers though not popular enough to save it from being axed. If you are wondering why it was created it was an attempt by Marvel to expand the brand so they hired a Japanese manga creator to make something that was Spider-Man, but would be identifiable with the Japanese readers. A strange experiment to say the least.

[Trelau]

First, i'm just gonna have to ignore that:

Superheroes originate in America because America is almost always the forefront of new pop culture elements (with Japan and England occasionally being exceptions). It takes time for other countries to create their own versions of what America develops and initially they just import what is popular in the US.

Then: From what i can tell, superhero had a relative popularity here in the late 80s up to the mid 90s; mainly thanks to TV shows: reruns of the old batman, the wonderwoman tv show (who took the place of charlie's angel in the heart of middle aged women as "their" hero), the short-lived Flash tv show. It was also the Era of Lois & Clark, and of a bunch of cartoon "for the kids" (Batman TAS, Spiderman TAS and a little later, X-Men evolution).
This was just an after effect of the extremely popular Batman from Tim Burton. It lasted a few years, then died out. Public interest then shifted to sictom, and then to reality tv. that's still where we are now (and i'm still waiting for the next thing to come become reality tv is really becoming old)
Now that super-hero movie are back we saw a few more cartoon emerge, but nothing as popular as what i had in the early 90s.

For the kids, super-hero got send into oblivion thanks to the "Club Dorothée" (Dorothy's Club). It was the most popular Show for kids, on wenesday morning (kids didn't have school up  to Middle school) and it introduced all my genration to Manga/Anime. Dragon Ball Z, Nicky Larson (City Hunter), Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Knight of the Zodiac, etc...
All uncensored (unlike your version) and voiced by excellent actors, it was ultimately what killed the show (a politician attacked the show for "perverting" the youth whith violent cartoons, and got it cancelled in 1997, after 10 years of audience record, still unmatch for a kid program today)

So we were into Anime and not into superhero. Most of the guys i know had never heard of the x-men befor the first movie. Most people knew who are batman and the joker, but had never heard of Two face before the dark knight.
Super hero are just not popular.
I live in the city with the biggest library in all of France (i'm pretty sure it's the biggest in europe actually, but i can't find that data so let's play it safe): you won't find any comic there, except a few hardcover publication (best of marvel from the 60s-70s where they take one character or one storyline and make a massive book out of it; or somme more recent publication like all civil war or all sinestro corp).
There is only one "comic book shop" who sells monthly publication, and it's a small business, and even they have a bigger part reserve to european comic book (Bandes-Déssinées, "drawn stripes") than US comic book.
I did find evidence (garage-sell treasure) that in the 60s-70s, a lot of kid were buying 4 cents comic books (1 story, about 15 pages) with one big hero like superman or spiderman, A5 or even A6 format; but i have no idea who sold that and when/why it stopped.


Now if you want to talk about european comic book and the main difference whith your superhero, i'm your guy.
But keep in mind the most important difference is economical: we don't have montly publication; comic book are treated like actual books (1 years and a half to make one, moderate sells = increased cost), we don't any true "leaders" in the editors and they are generally genre-specialised (detective/noir story, med-fan story, jokes/kids story) and the market is marginal at best (even though we sometimes have best-sellers who get 8 books and sell million copies, don't expect the media and the general public to actually know about it)

There. and quickly, on the subject of super hero: the greek invented the concept of men with supernatural power fighting against all odds to triumph in the end, don't forget greek mythology gave you your supermen and their monster (beast and psychological, Oedipe was a superhero too)

[lugaru]

Yeah Trelau, I had a similar experience growing up in Mexico. We got lucky with super cheap reprints of american comics: Spider-Man actually packed 2 issues, a few articles, puzzles and pin ups for 1/5th of the price of an american book. But in the end Mexico is all about the anime... as a kid we had Saint Seya and Robotech and all that with every ounce of blood and adult sitations. Dragon Ball aired with its occasional nudity and body functions (the early, funny episodes). I watched some american episodes and was like WHAT!?

And I would not mind seeing a portion of the american industry move to a european "graphic novel" only market, especially given the quality and freedom that is allowed over there. Also I would love to see more compilation magazines like the japanese Shonen Jump or the French Metal Hurlant (basically heavy metal). I grew up reading a lot of magazines from spain like Cimoc and comix since they washed up on Mexican shores. Imagine an oversized magazine with 8 page spider-man, wolverine and avengers stories (although they are all avengers now).

But Greek superheroes? PAH! Who could ever imagine Hercules as a superhero. They would probably slap him with a nerdy sidekick and have him wrestle gods from other pantheons like Thor. It would never work. BTW Incredible Hercules is one of the best comics ever, I love Van Lente.

I also love Monkey King as an example... more of an anti-hero but yeah, the inspiration for dozens of characters not to mention movies, cartoons and comics.

[Trelau]

[Quick HS] If you liked Métal Hurlant, you should check out Les Humanoïdes Associés
http://www.humano.com/
They are the one publishing (and re-printing) all of Moebius's work, and the work of almost everyone who used to work with Métal Hurlant.
Also, every month or so, they put a complete graphic novel to be read online on your computer/ipad (for free):
http://www.humano.com/ibd
afraid it's all in french, i didn't see a way to get acces to a translated version, but i know they sell some of their titles in the US too (with nudity censored  in the case of L'Incal and other older novels) so you can probably buy most of their collection

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I would say that all cultures have had their own versions of heroes that were above the common man.  Actual superheroes area very specific type of those, but all cultures have something along those lines. That's where you get the Greek heroes, the Monkey King, the super sentai, and various other variations.

Us Americans like to try to lump them in together as superheroes, but they are no such thing.