COMICS PORTAL: ‘Heroes at Home?’ Really?

The difference between Marvel and DC has never been more apparent than the House of Idea’s upcoming series of covers called Heroes at Home in which Marvel characters do chores around their houses—in costume, of course!

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THIS EVENT?

Here’s the basics from Marvel.com about this event:

What makes a hero? Nowadays, one thing that makes a hero is staying at home, and that includes many of Marvel’s most famous Super Heroes! … Marvel is kicking off its new Heroes At Home variant covers, featuring Marvel’s mightiest in everyday situations in their own homes.

And here’s some more:

Every Sunday, Marvel’s Instagram will feature a free digital comic that will also appear as variant covers on upcoming comics. Over the next five weeks, let Marvel make you smile, courtesy of artists Gurihiru and writer Zeb Wells! In the first comic which debuted yesterday, Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, tried his hand a baking! But that “Parker Luck” doesn’t take a break…

“Our new webcomic series, ‘[Marvel’s] Heroes at Home by [Zeb Wells] and Gurihiru, launched yesterday across social media!’” Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C. B. Cebulski wrote on Twitter, celebrating the fact that the Instagram version has already passed a million likes. Cebulski then asked, “Which self-isolating super hero will we see next?”

You can see part of this in the banner above and in illustrations below.

‘EVERYDAY’ MARVEL

The House of Ideas has been well known, over the years, for having their characters face “everyday” problems. If memory serves, Sue Storm has had a bad hair day. Spider-Man was beaten down because he was suffering from a bad cold. Iron Man has had heart difficulties, among other things.

You get the picture.

I can’t see Batman or other DC heroes dealing with this kind of thing. Batman does get beaten down, but not because he has a bad cold. Of course, Superman is invulnerable to most things, so they wouldn’t hinder him.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the DC heroes are more iconic—in other words, often “larger than life” instead of the “everyday” ones at Marvel. Second, and I think this is important, DC looks at storytelling more as if it is an “escape” from reality. Of course, we do see DC having fun in the sun (in their recent “Cybernetic Summer” special) and other “real” experiences, but they seem to enjoy them more than are hindered by them.

I know some fans who prefer Marvel’s approach instead of DC’s. “I like seeing Spider-Man dealing with day-to-day concerns like I do,” one often says. “That makes me feel more heroic.”

On the other hand, I find that kind of, well, depressing. The recent pandemic has been something I and many others would rather look beyond than to see chronicled in the comics. I firmly believe it won’t last forever, so when the day comes and I read books from this era, I’d rather not relive COVID-19, honestly.

If you prefer that, more power to you! It’s just not something I’m interested in.

WHAT WILL FUTURE EPISODES BRING?

Given that Mr. Cebulski is asking fans to come up with heroes fans want to see in their home environments, I came up with a few ideas of my own:

1. Mr. Fantastic wearing an apron and making dinner in their “fantastic” kitchen.
2. Captain Marvel having an adverse reaction to eating Earth food.
3. Tony Stark sitting in his living room while discussing what it’s like to wear the Iron Man armor with several of his past incarnations, including the teen-age Tony, the female Iron Maiden, and others.
4. Don Blake, Thor’s previous alter ego, sipping tea while watching Thor fight evil monsters without him. Hey, he’d be happy if he doesn’t have to slam his walking stick into the ground to stop evil, I’d imagine!
5. The Angel from the X-Men sitting and staring out the window, looking longingly at a bird flying outside, wishing he could do the same.
6. Every Avenger who ever was on the team in a ZOOM chat, catching up. Actually, that might take several weeks or months.
7. A Marvel hero (I don’t care which one) sitting at home while reading another company’s comic to escape being trapped at home. (Yeah, I know… that will never happen!)

Maybe I just don’t take all this seriously enough, but watching heroes like Wolverine chop up a photo and making it into a jigsaw puzzle is not something I enjoy reading. He’s as bored about it as I am, looks like. It’s cute, I guess, but I’d rather get away from all this, even temporarily, when I read my comics!

What do you think? Is Marvel on to something here? What would this look like if characters from other companies (like DC) were illustrated doing this? Why do Marvel characters sit around the house in their costumes, anyway? Whatever your opinions, please share your thoughts in the space below!

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