Superheroes' Superpesonality

The title of my post is a lie. Superheroes do not have well-defined personalities, and that's part, or most, of their appeal. Their blankness allows them to be placed in any sort of situation-like how a Wonder Woman comic can be anything from a myth-themed epic to a "hip" '60s adventure set in Greenwich Village. They adapt. Wonder Woman's a particularly good example for this, because she isn't static (not even her origin story, unlike Batman or Spiderman).

Sure, they sometimes have a bit of personality, but they're costumes. Peter Parker is witty, Diana is feminist and Bruce Wayne is Dark with a capital D. Even this depends on the writer-Bruce Wayne can be zany (see: Bat-Mite), Wonder Woman can be positively un-feminist (see: the current run of Wonder Woman) and Peter Parker can be one of the least witty people alive (see: Todd McFarlane's run).

But is this that bad? After all, it's what has given comic books their longevity. Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman have all been around for, give or take a few, 75 years continuously being published. Superheroes act as deities for the modern world-a pantheon focused on revenge justice.

This is changing. The latest crop of superhero writers are focused on creating specific characters-look at Runways, Gotham Academy, X-23... the list goes on. In addition to creating new characters, writers have reinvented obscure (or popular, in the case of Ultimate Marvel) characters.

I don't know what this means for the future of comic books, but for the present? It means more compelling and literary superhero comics, which is the revitalisation comic books were crying out for during the dark ages of the '90s.