Fantasy Writer Hal Duncan Superhero For A Day
Not Batman, Spiderman, Superman Or Wolverine.
Jul 5, 2009
Suite101: If you could be any fictional character for a day, who would it be, and why?
Hal Duncan: Well, I probably wouldn't want to be a character from most of the classic novels of literature, because they generally speaking have a pretty rough time of it. Or at least their lives are interesting but not necessarily something you'd want to experience first-hand. You'd kind of want it to be an adventure; you'd want to be a character who has fun.
So I'm thinking something heroic. Not superheroic though, I think. Superman himself is kind of dull. Batman is too grim. Spidey has a lot of potential, but his personal life is a bit soap opera for my taste. And he's got the death of Uncle Ben hanging over him, a complete downer.
Wolverine is cool, and I'd get to smoke, but the whole healing thing means that half of being him is about being able to kick ass even when you're really ****ed-up, which when you think about it means despite a shitload of pain. When it comes down to it, most superheroes are all about the slugfests, which is all very well, but I want something a bit more stimulating.
I want someone who deals with proper Bad Guys, but in wildly exotic locations, with mysteries and magic or something comparable. I want the whole pulp fiction spectacular, really. The original pulp characters are maybe a bit square though-Doc Savage, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers-and I'd want a bit more rogueish mischief in me, something a tad more Jack Sparrow maybe. But swashbuckling is definitely on the agenda.
When I was a kid I would have said Luke Skywalker, because you get the swordfighting but with extra vvvooommm vvvooommmm GZHZHzzzz! But he's kinda lacking in that rakish factor now, and I'd only end up in some New Revised Special Edition where Lucas had spliced in Jar-Jar Binks in place of R2D2.
Also, if it's only for a day, that's not really long enough to get a big quest going; you *could* defeat the evil villain, save the world and get the girl (or guy, if I get to invest the character with my own sexuality,) but I reckon it might all feel a bit rushed. It's not even really long enough for the less monomythic shenanigans of, say, Indiana Jones, which really require a bit of globe-trotting. Getting a proper bona fide adventure done all in one day... that's hard.
Again, I'm not too keen on the whole captured-by-the-bad-guys-and-pounded-by-a-goon scenario. Yeah, it looks cool when the hero casually spits a tooth at their interrogator, but that's got to hurt. I think I'd rather be dodging the punches than taking them, even with a smart-ass wisecrack.
So I'm reckoning Peter Pan. Swashbuckling against a fabulous backdrop, bickering with fairies, fighting the blackheart Hook and his scurvy pirates. And you get to fly. It's children's fiction, so even if there's capture involved, Smeeg isn't going to be going Jack Bauer on my ass. Given that it's all based on play, you can have expeditions and intrigues, mysteries and betrayals, capture and escape, a grand dramatic showdown-in short, the full Awfully Big Adventure-and all over in time for tea.
We're talking about a child's perception of time too, so that day is going to seem looooooong. Actually, we're talking Neverland where the passage of time is kind of ambiguous, so who knows how long that day might last in real terms.
OK, so I'd be losing out on the whole love interest thing, but with most other characters I could inhabit I'd be going after the ladies, so I'd kind of be temporarily suspending my own sexuality as it is. And this might save some confusion if there were any linger after-effects when I returned to reality.
Read More of Suite101's Conversation With Hal Duncan HERE
 |
