Incredibles 2 shows how superheroes don't need to choose between raising a family and saving the world
Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's Man Friday, knows a thing or two about family. From Jeremy Irons in Zack Snyder's 2016 film Batman Vs Superman to Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight franchise, Alfreds have come and gone but two character traits of the iconic butler have remained intact — his quick wit and determination to get Master Wayne to start a family."I had this fantasy that I would look across the tables and I'd see you there, with a wife and maybe a couple of kids," says Caine's Alfred in The Dark Knight Rises. Irons' rather slim Alfred agrees as well, "I hope the next generation of Waynes won't inherit an empty wine cellar. Not that there's likely to be the next generation." Little does he know that Bruce Wayne's belief in having a family died along with his parents, who were shot dead in his childhood. Additionally, starting a family of any kind will amount to exposing his alter ego to a woman, a strict no-no in the superhero rulebook.
But Alfred would have been more than happy to butler the La Familia of Incredibles 2. Mr Incredible is not only married to Elastigirl but also has three kids to take care of in Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. In the first instalment of the franchise that released in 2004, the government bans superheroes in an attempt to contain the collateral damage of their (is?)adventures. Elastigirl accepts this macro constraint as a blessing in disguise to lead a 'normal family life'. But it does not help that their kids also have superpowers, the baby Jack-Jack having at least seven of them as he baba-booboos his way to destruction in the second part.
A promotional still of Incredibles 2. Twitter
What is also at play is the unspoken cosmic rule of trouble brewing only when a superhero has decided to quit saving the world. Right when Batman decides to leave Gotham, Superman's mom (her name is Martha, remember?) schools him that he does not owe anything to this world, Lex Luthor unleashes hell on Metropolis; or even when Tony Stark Jr tells Pepper that he wants a baby, supervillains step in to play spoilsport. Incredibles 2 is no different as the gimmicky antagonist Screensaver decides to disrupt the city right when Elastigirl and her family have hung up their suits.
The screensaver is an apt villain for the fam-bam storyline of Incredibles 2. It not only aims to eliminate all superheroes as they make people lazy and competent but also serves as a symbolic threat that addiction to technology is to family bonding. Smartphones are as common an object placed on the dinner table as salt and pepper. The most close-knit of families are enslaved by the screens in front of them. Screenslaver takes a page out of the book of Black Mirror to pose itself as a formidable evil pitted against a rare superhero family.
this post is published on https://www.firstpost.com
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