Superheroes Tackle Disability In ‘Superior’

From BBC America:

If you saw Matthew Vaughn’s movie adaptation of the Mark Millar comic book Kick-Ass last year, you’ll know these are two men with a really good handle on the backstory behind superheroes, and how the mythology works, even when it doesn’t make logical sense. Having Nicholas Cage speak like Adam West’s ’60s Batman, for example, or having a super-hero with a MySpace page.

Now Matthew has once again bought the rights to a Mark Millar comic book, and once again, it’ll test the superhero conventions to the limit, as Mark revealed to Comic Book News: “Basically, my Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn has bought the movie rights to Superior from me and Leinil Yu. And Leinil and I am also teaming up with the MS Society, who want to use the character, as it’s the first superhero with multiple sclerosis,”

The hero of the story is a young boy in a wheelchair who is granted one wish. His is to become his favorite super-hero. And once he’s been transformed, he uses his powers to feed the world and rescue people caught by earthquakes and tidal waves. Batman, he is not.

Mark explained: “I wanted to write about a superhero with a disability and I chose MS because it’s something that touched one of my school-friends growing up. I’m acutely aware of the unexpected way the disease can strike anyone and the enormous difficulties it can cause.

“Superhero stories are essentially wish-fulfilment fantasies and nothing seemed more powerful to me than a little boy with a magic wish not only wanting to walk again, but to fly.” (via TotalFilm)