Teen super heros of the 2000's trend

K

Kauai Girl

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Anyone notice this about the shows about teenage super heros this past decade, about how they follow similar formulas.

First of all the hero socially just an average person, not real popular, but gets picked on like a nerd by the popular kids for some reason, even though he or she is not really a nerd.

But the one thing I really noticed, and I guess it began with Danny Phantom, is the sidekicks. Of his or her peers, it is always two that know the secret identity and provide support on missions. Most of the time, one is a boy and one is a girl.

Examples being Danny Phantom, American Dragon: Jake Long, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and even though he is not a super hero it still follows the same forumula Speed Racer: The Next Generation.

Kim Possible is one that doesn't follow that formula, but than she is not a super hero.
 
That's not really part of the first formula you set out though. Tony's not an average kid, he's a super genius who's been home schooled and hasn't attended school at all until the series beginning. He also isn't picked on by "popular kids", no one is in this series, and is even friends with the only jock in the series. He's also definitely a nerd.



She's just your basic average girl, here to save the world. :D (sorry couldn't help myself)
 
That part of the song always confused me, as Kim was never, EVER depicted as average. From the beginning she was a popular overachiever with a genius family. ron was the average one.
 
Yeah but he does fall under the second formula.

BTW, I don't see why Danny Fentom is picked on and so low on the school social poll, he is just an average guy. Tucker I can see, but why Danny? I guess that Dash has it in for him, and every one else just follows his lead. Though also maybe his dad has a lot to do with his low social standing, though his sister doesn't suffer so much from that socially.

Also Jake Long is form what I see popular for the most part. He just has one jock pick on him, but the rest of the school looks on him favorablly. Brad is kind of a Dash clone, but he apprently doesn't have the same influence to make the rest of the school pick on someone like Dash does.
 
Of course, but this decade seems to overdo the formula.



Funny.:D



Plus, he actually does earn the affections of the girl who normally would be the unobtainable crush. And while DP has the occasional moments with Dash showing some decency, Brad is a jerk through and through.
 
Yeah, i really think that the "kid who has to battle evil while also dealing with normal kid-issues" formula is going to be looked at as something very typical of 00's (and possibly also this decades, it remains to be seen) American TV animation. Probably the closest thing the last decade have had to what "a group of kids and their non-human sidekick solve mysteries" was for the 70's or "a group of non-human heroes (mutants, robots, aliens, ect) battle evil with the aid of one or a few token humans" was for the 80's and 90's.
 
That's true. Even though they had similar roles in their shows, I thought that Dash had more of a personality than Brad. They were the typical high school jock/bully, but there were moments that showed Dash being a decent person, as well as a bigger threat to Danny than Brad was to Jake. In fact, Brad didn't really seem like a bully since Jake wasn't too intimidated by him by somewhere in season one.

I didn't really think that this trend was just limited to the 2000's. The underdog kind of character being the hero by secret seems like a standard formula that has been used for a long time. I could see that the decade overused that formula. Almost every teen super hero show followed that kind of formula. The only exceptions I can think of are Teen Titans and Kim Possible, if you consider Kim Possible a super hero.
 
One difference between those two characters. Brad is not so obcessed with picking on people particular the main character as Dash. There are a few times, Jake and Brad co excisted without Brad picking on Jake. Early in the series, it seemed Brad was so conceited and didn't realise Jake didn't like him and they was a rival for the same girl. Dash on the other hand, it seems he wakes up everyday thinking "what can I do, to ruin Fenton's day".

Here is a little crazy fact, DP and AD:JL second episode to air and third episode in production and canon order "Parental Bonding" and "Dragon Breath" were both about a school dance. Even the villains in each episode were similar, as they contiously didn't know the trouble they were causing and weren't really evil. And had a sub plot of deceit and betrayl of dates that reveal what kind of jerks they really are, in DP's case Paulina and AD:JL case Brad.
 
Because the rich kids bullied Butch Hartman (The creator of Danny Phantom) as a kid. See also: Fairly Odd Parents and that episode of FOP that was a poorly disguised pilot for a Crash Nebula tv show.

And, really, while none of the superheroes you mention were portrayed as popular, Danny Phantom is the only one where it was taken to such unbelievable levels, where the bullies were seeking him out rather than just bullying when their paths crossed.
 
Spidey is sort of the teen hero archetype so it doesn't really shock me that creators use some of those qualities with their characters. Maybe I'm mistaken but wasn't Brad less jerky during season 01 ? I remember thinking that it was kind of weird that he was just an airhead. Then he went into full jerk mode after that reformat.
 
Well he was a jerk in his debut canon apperance, only it wasn't to Jake, it was to Trixie and Spud in "Shapeshifter". And he was kind of a jerk in "Ring Around The Dragon". And of course he was a jerk in a non bully way in "Dragonbreath".
 
Well, regardless of whether the kid-hero in these shows are and underdog or a popular guy/girl or somewhere in between, the point is that animated American TV series with that basic premise of "action-comedy where a kid/teen-hero fights evil villains while also dealing with normal kid/teen social issues" have been much, much more common in the last decade than in any other preceeding it.
 
I agree with you on that. It's really hard to find a cartoon featuring an adult hero these days. Back in the 80s-90s, we had series like He-man, GI-Joe, Transformers and most superheroes catoons like Batman and X-men, where the main characters were adults and didn't have to deal with school and all those teen problems, just with kicking the bad guy's butt.

In the 2000s, it's like animation compagnies said to themselves : "Kids won't identify with characters who aren't their own age and deal with the same problems they do. This show won't sell unless the hero is a teenager."

In my opinion, teen heroes series are lacking something important: role-model characters, characters we admire and want to ressemble. I'm 27 years old. When I was young, kids wanted to grown up to be like Duke or Optimus Prime or Superman. Cartoons now (with a few exceptions) don't really have these characters that make the kids say "Wow, he/she is so awesome, I want to be just like him/her when I grow up!" Kids now don't really want to grow up to be like Danny Phantom, because, super-powers aside, they already are.
 
I see your point, but then again, the fact that these kid heroes might be characters with whom many kids can relate to (better than to adult characters) might make these shows more engaging for that audience. My major beef with these "Go to school, save the world" shows is that the very typical "kid problems" that are present in them are hard for many adults to truly be engaged by. That sure is the case for me. I mean, i can still enjoy these shows if they have witty humor or exciting adventures, but those "i have a bully problem" or "i gotta get a date for the prom or else the other guys will think im a loser" stories hardly ever seems to connect with me...
 
That's probably why I enjoy Iron Man: Armored Adventures so much. The biggest 'kid problem' Tony's ever had was passing a drama test in one episode to keep his GPA up so he can inherit his family's company (which he actually cheated on to pass, which I found humorous). Outside of that, the high school is just a setting and all of his problems stem from his company's technology falling into the wrongs hands and his hunt for the Makluan Rings. I wonder how kids feel about that, or if that can relate to him when he doesn't care about being popular, wooing some unobtainable popular girl, organizing the bake sale, finding a date for prom or any of the typical stuff you see in those kinds of shows.

On the flip side, I think those problems worked pretty well for X-Men Evolution. X-Men was always about racism and fitting in with the public, which seems like a natural fit for a high school setting which also deals with being accepted for who you are. I think one of my favorites was Kurt being afraid of what his girlfriend's classmates and family would think of her dating a mutant; a nice analogy to problems interracial couples have to deal with in society.
 
Sure, but considering that super hero shows (Justice League and The Batman) and funny animal cartoons (Spongebob and Penguins) done well with little to no children in the cast, one would think that programs with adult protagonists could still be just as successful as the 1 millionth cartoon set in high/middle/grade school.

Now sure for The Batman some will argue that the show had a teen and child in the later seasons, but the fact that the show was picked up for a third season despite lack of young characters would indicate that the show had a healthy audience as is.
 
Another example could be Samurai Pizza Cats, probably the earliest too.

I agree with these points, plus in some cases I dunno how teens get so strong or smart but I can understand someone thats been around for awhile.
 
While i do agree theres a lack of adult heroes, Powerpuff Girls (ok, theyre toddlers, not teens, but still) showed that shows with kid heroes can have adult fans as well as younger fans, meaning kids can relate to the PPGs while adults can enjoy the clever writing. I wonder if this trend of teen heroes is based on the number of kid/teen heroes in anime (sailor moon, tenchi muyo, bleach, and to a lesser extent, dragon ball/z).
 
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