Incredible Four

When a friend shared a fun fact about “The Incredibles” the other day, it seemed like a great jumping-off point for this week’s blog post. The Incredibles are often celebrated and only occasionally criticized for being heavily inspired by another superhero family- one I’ve analyzed in several prior posts. In this post, I’d like to explore some of the symbolism and meaning behind the powers gifted to Pixar’s favorite family and how the characters are fundamentally different from Marvel’s Fantastic Four.

The Incredibles

The idea my friend shared was, I believe, based on this video. The theory expressed is that the powers of each member of the family is believed to be based on their role in the traditional family unit.

Mr. Incredible is the father and the man of the house. Traditional family values and stereotypes put pressure on men to support their families and be strong for them. Hence, Mr. Incredible has the power of super strength.

As the matriarch of the family, Elastigirl is expected to be flexible and able to handle everything around the house at once. Elastigirl’s body is stretchy and flexible to the extreme.

Violet is a defensive teenage girl. She puts up boundaries. She simultaneously wants to be invisible and to be seen. She has the powers of invisibility and telekinetic forcefields.

With the endless energy of a typical young boy, Dash has super speed.

Finally, Jack Jack is a baby with unlimited potential to fill any role in life. Therefore, his powers at the time are undefined and infinite.

The Incredibles’ powers are based on the types of people they are. While their abilities are similar to the Fantastic Four’s, I’d like to set forth a theory on the Four and add upon the list of reasons they differ from the Incredibles.

The Fantastic Four

Thinking about the theory that the Incredibles’ powers are based on what the people are, I thought about whether this theory also applies to their Marvel counterparts. Something didn’t seem to add up until it occurred to me that the theory could be applied in reverse. The Fantastic Four’s powers are not representative of the characteristics they have, but rather on the characteristics that they lack. In that sense, they were incomplete people before their life-changing event, and their powers complete them.

Reed Richards is and always has been an almost entirely logic-based man. He’s first and foremost a scientist, and he sees the world in terms of black-and-white. He’s utterly inflexible, and so Mr. Fantastic was given the power to stretch and contort his body, much the same as Elastigirl.

Susan Storm is, as mentioned in a prior post, perhaps the most empathetic character in all of comic literature. She is open with her feelings, she hides nothing, she keeps nobody out. Therefore, the Invisible Woman’s power is (any guesses?) to become invisible and create forcefields, much like the Incredibles’ Violet.

Johnny Storm Is a little bit of an odd-man out here because he’s always been a bit of a hot-head. He has always thought he’s the most popular, hottest thing in the room. There’s the key. He has always THOUGHT. In many portrayals, Johnny is shown to be a bit of a wannabe or poser, if you will. He wants to be popular, well-liked, included, but he’s still something of an outsider a lot of the time. Then, the Human Torch received his power of pyrokinesis, and legitimately became the hottest thing in the room.

Ben Grimm has always put on a tough facade, but underneath, he feels emotions quite deeply and often struggles with a hefty load of inner turmoil. He’s soft on the inside, so his powers made the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing literally hard as a rock on the outside.

While the Incredibles and the Fantastic Four share much in their conception, they are still fundamentally different for a variety of reasons. I hope you’ve enjoyed this additional take on the subject. Viewing both teams from this new point of view, It’ll be quite interesting to observe the subtleties in future installments of these franchises. At the time of writing, and so far as I know, there are no known plans for any more Four films, but “The Incredibles 2” is set to hit theaters in June of 2018. Personally, I can’t wait to see what new challenges face Pixar’s favorite family, and I’m fairly certain I’m not alone in that sentiment.

Until next time, all the best. Thanks for reading.

4 Archetypes

As movies continue to jet in and out of theaters, I’ve noticed something more and more in team-based films. Quite a few teams in pop culture adhere to a set of archetypes. Not all groups, mind you, but in films and comics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the A-Team, the Fantastic Four, and even the Penguins of Madagascar, members of these teams seem to fit quite nicely into four character types that, from here on out, I’ll dub “the Head, the Brain, the Muscle, and the Heart.”

The Head

The Head is typically a brash, yet charming character. He might be a bit quick to rush into battle, without considering all of the alternatives, but he certainly isn’t stupid. Oftentimes, the Head is the leader of the group, though this is not necessarily a requirement, as we’ll see with the Fantastic Four and the A-Team. The Head is generally pretty well- rounded and serves as a lynch pin of sorts, bringing the rest of the team together. From the four groups I will focus on throughout this post, Head characters include Leonardo from TMNT, Skipper from the Penguins of Madagascar, Face from the A-Team, and Human Torch from the Fantastic Four (One might expect Hannibal and Mr. Fantastic to be the Head characters, as they are the leaders of their respective groups, but it is my belief that they fit better into the Brain archetype).

Leonardo in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”

The Brain

The rest of the archetypes from here on out are pretty simple and self-explanatory. The Brain, as the name might suggest, is the smart one of the group. They are technologically proficient, gifted at the art of invention, and they excel in finding research and intelligence information. They often create the plans and strategies the team follows, and can sometimes be a bit slow to adapt to change. However, when they realize that their team is depending on them to figure a solution, they set to work and end up saving the day. Examples of the Brain include the aforementioned Mr. Fantastic, and Hannibal of the A-Team, as well as Donatello of TMNT and the Penguin Kowalski.

Ioan Gruffud as Mr. Fantastic, in “The Fantastic Four”

The Muscle

Again, the name of this archetype gives it away. The Muscle is the tough guy of the group. He is not necessarily stupid (though he can be portrayed that way if the author or screenwriter wishes), but he certainly is not the brightest of the four. He is there to do the heavy-lifting for the team (often literally), and he will fearlessly run headfirst into battle, sometimes to the detriment of the team.(LEEEEERROOOOYYYY…… JEEEENNNKKIIINNNSSS!!!) The muscle will sometimes feel underutilized or unappreciated, and so will challenge the leader’s authority, losing each time to the leader’s superior strategy. Examples of the muscle are Rico the Penguin, B.A. Baracus of the A-Team, Raphael the Turtle, and The Thing, of the FF.

Mr. T as B.A. Baracus, in “The A-Team”

The Heart

The Heart cares most about the team’s well-being and their overall togetherness. They are most likely to set aside their own feelings and desires if it means they can solve inner conflict and bring peace to the other members of the group. Oftentimes, the heart is the one who brings interest and personality to the audience– otherwise we are just watching three intense and focused characters solving external problems with no joy or fun. The Heart is usually the glue that holds the team together. Sometimes, however, the heart serves this purpose in a different way– by being so ridiculous or goofy that the team needs to unite to reign him in- as with the case of “Howling Mad” Murdock of the A-Team. Other examples of the Heart include the Invisible Woman, Michaelangelo the Turtle, and Private the Penguin.

Private, in “The Penguins of Madagascar”

 

This concludes my analysis is of the archetypes of Comic and Pop-Culture teams of four. Next time you watch a movie of this kind, watch it with this in mind and see if you can pick out the individual characteristics. You’ll be surprised how often you see it. Until next time, all the best.

(By the way, in case you were wondering about the feature image on this post, Ron Burgundy is the Head, Brian Fantana is the Brain, Champ Kind is the Muscle, and Brick Tamland is the Heart.)

 

If you’re interested to see another theory on archetypes within teams of four, check out this video.

http://wolfcrow.com/blog/the-four-major-group-character-archetypes/

The narrator of the video explains his own take on the archetypes, including the Lynchpin, the Thinker, the Rebel, and the Odd One, which roughly equate to my own Head, Brain, Muscle, and Heart respectively. He lists a lot more examples, and places each into their categories as he would. They don’t completely mesh with my own placement (for example, he places Mr. Fantastic as the Lynchpin, Invisible Woman as the Thinker, Human Torch as the Rebel, and the Thing as the Odd One) but I understand his reasoning.

Thanks for reading. Farewell!