Christopher Wright
Sage
This is a question about genre placement that I've idly wondered for a while.
Stories set in modern day or near-future times that deal with superheroes... Science Fiction, or Fantasy?
Essentially I see very little difference between, structurally, between those stories and Urban Fantasy (like the Dresden files). The mythology behind the stories are different, but on an abstract level the conceit is very similar. And the idea of people walking around with super powers is "fantastical" on the same level as "magic is real" so in one respect I'd lean fantasy.
On the other hand, the superhero genre is primarily leveraged on science -- pseudo-science, yes, and that pseudo-science is stretched so thin that basically you can't even start to take it seriously, but... you know. Radioactive spider! Cosmic rays! Gamma radiation! Genetic mutation! Suits of powered armor! Unstable molecule costumes! SCIENCE! So in another respect I'd lean science.
And yet... there is a blending of science in magic in comic universes. Iron Man and Doctor Strange co-exist and even have crossovers. Death as a cosmic entity. Superman and John Constantine and Morpheus. So... both?
There could be cross over. I know steampunk is primarily considered science fiction, but there have been steampunk-influenced fantasy works (including a few samples shown in the Showcase forum here on Mythic Scribes). And if you were to say "comic book" I don't think your first knee-jerk reaction would be "science fiction," but if you look at Batman, stylistically he'd be more science fiction than fantasy. Superman, though? Well, he is an alien.
Dr. Fate? Dr. Strange? Different. But they're all in the same mythology.
So what do y'all think? The more I thought about it the more my brain hurt, so I thought it'd be an interesting discussion here.
Stories set in modern day or near-future times that deal with superheroes... Science Fiction, or Fantasy?
Essentially I see very little difference between, structurally, between those stories and Urban Fantasy (like the Dresden files). The mythology behind the stories are different, but on an abstract level the conceit is very similar. And the idea of people walking around with super powers is "fantastical" on the same level as "magic is real" so in one respect I'd lean fantasy.
On the other hand, the superhero genre is primarily leveraged on science -- pseudo-science, yes, and that pseudo-science is stretched so thin that basically you can't even start to take it seriously, but... you know. Radioactive spider! Cosmic rays! Gamma radiation! Genetic mutation! Suits of powered armor! Unstable molecule costumes! SCIENCE! So in another respect I'd lean science.
And yet... there is a blending of science in magic in comic universes. Iron Man and Doctor Strange co-exist and even have crossovers. Death as a cosmic entity. Superman and John Constantine and Morpheus. So... both?
There could be cross over. I know steampunk is primarily considered science fiction, but there have been steampunk-influenced fantasy works (including a few samples shown in the Showcase forum here on Mythic Scribes). And if you were to say "comic book" I don't think your first knee-jerk reaction would be "science fiction," but if you look at Batman, stylistically he'd be more science fiction than fantasy. Superman, though? Well, he is an alien.
Dr. Fate? Dr. Strange? Different. But they're all in the same mythology.
So what do y'all think? The more I thought about it the more my brain hurt, so I thought it'd be an interesting discussion here.