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  • - I've been wanting to tackle a video about comic book

  • characters who break the fourth wall for a long time now.

  • The problem is that there's really just one main person

  • famous for it in today's culture,

  • and I've already done a Deadpool video.

  • Don't make me do another one.

  • But this trait isn't unique to Deadpool by any means,

  • many comic book characters have, at some point,

  • broken the fourth wall.

  • But there was one standout character who did

  • it so much that her comics were famous for it

  • before Deadpool was even created.

  • Of course, I'm talking about She-Hulk.

  • (rock music)

  • Welcome to Comic Misconceptions,

  • I'm Scott, and the fourth wall is a term

  • usually associated with theater,

  • so if you imagine a traditional box set

  • stage, you have three walls,

  • made from the backdrop and the left and right sides.

  • The fourth wall, sometimes called the proscenium,

  • is what we as the audience view the performance through.

  • It's an imaginary wall, obviously.

  • I mean if we all gathered to watch the outside of

  • a closed off room, then we wouldn't be able to see

  • what's going on inside, and that could be pretty boring.

  • But to the characters in the play,

  • the wall between them and the audience is very real.

  • They can't see us watching them.

  • But the fourth wall doesn't just exist in theater.

  • Instead, it's a term used to represent the window

  • through which we view and or experience works of fiction.

  • And this is when it starts to get a little more abstract

  • than the more literal theater,

  • but it should be made clear when I explain what it means

  • to break the fourth wall.

  • When a fictional character breaks the fourth wall,

  • they are typically in a situation where they show

  • an awareness of the fact that they are fictional.

  • Often this will include things like addressing the audience

  • directly or making references to how they are in

  • a movie or TV show or video game or comic book.

  • They could even acknowledge and use conventions

  • of their given medium, like traveling by map,

  • doing a training montage, hitting people with health bars,

  • or my favorite thing that She-Hulk ever did,

  • which was ripping through the pages of an ad in

  • a comic book, and traveling through it.

  • Glorious.

  • She-hulk demonstrates a sense of medium

  • awareness often, especially during the sensational

  • She-Hulk run from the late 80's and early 90's,

  • written primarily by John Byrne.

  • Take issue four for example.

  • I swear, an entire essay could be written

  • critically examining the themes in this one issue alone.

  • In the issue, she meets a Louise Mason, or Weezy for short.

  • She was a golden age hero named the Blonde Phantom,

  • and she too is aware that she is a comic book character.

  • The interactions between these two are hilarious.

  • When they first meet, Weezy talks about how she's

  • trying to get her boss to hire She-Hulk just so she

  • can be a supporting character in a comic book again.

  • And when Jennifer meets her new boss, she faints,

  • not having expected the introduction of a love interest

  • so soon into her new book.

  • But then, Weezy informs her that he's actually married

  • and has children.

  • Shocked, She-Hulk asks, "Since when is he married?"

  • To which Weezy replies, "Since now, I suppose.

  • this is the first time it's been mentioned."

  • Plus, there is a great bit at the end about how

  • She-Hulk's clothes never rip because they've

  • been approved by the comics code authority.

  • The two even make use of the mechanics of comic books

  • like when they walk between panels as a way of

  • traveling quickly to new locations,

  • when She-Hulk uses a montage to rapidly

  • try on different outfits in a fraction of the time,

  • or when they realize that there are two pages left

  • in the comic that need to be filled,

  • so they jump over to some sub-plot stuff.

  • There are a few other characters like this,

  • but for the most part, meeting another character who

  • can also break the fourth wall is pretty rare.

  • There are many instances where She-Hulk makes these

  • meta references while other characters around her are

  • either oblivious, or choose to ignore it.

  • There have also been times when other characters

  • react to her like she's crazy.

  • Like in Heroes for Hire number 14 when She-Hulk

  • fires the narrator of the story.

  • Luke Cage who is with her at the time is

  • super confused about who she's talking to,

  • and Scott Lang who is also there says that she

  • calls it "breaking the fourth wall", but he can't

  • explain it either.

  • Or one of my favorite moments in Damage Contol

  • number three when she declares outright that

  • she is a comic book character,

  • to which one member of the Damage Control replies,

  • "Boy, life sure feels that way sometimes, doesn't it?"

  • This might seem like a bit of a stretch,

  • but this makes me think about the philosopher Plato,

  • and his Allegory of the Cave.

  • For those unfamiliar, Plato was a Greek philosopher

  • and mathematician and was instrumental in

  • developing western philosophy.

  • He's a really interesting character who I unfortunately

  • don't have too much time to get into today.

  • But I do want to discuss one of his more famous writings,

  • The Allegory of the Cave, but I'm going to simplify

  • for uses today. Huzzah!

  • Let's say you have four people imprisoned in a dark cave.

  • They've been there their entire lives from childhood,

  • and are chained up in such a way that they can only

  • face the back wall.

  • They can't look around, they can't move,

  • their whole life consists of nothing but staring

  • at this one wall in this cave, forever.

  • Behind the prisoners is a bright fire.

  • When an object is in front of the fire,

  • it casts a shadow on the back wall,

  • sort of like a bat signal.

  • To the prisoners, who again have been locked

  • in this cave their entire lives,

  • the shadow of the bat on the wall is real.

  • How could they know the difference?

  • They've never seen a real bat before.

  • They don't understand that it's just a shadow,

  • nor do they understand that the shadow

  • was caused by a real bat.

  • Now imagine one of the prisoners is set free.

  • She's released from her chains,

  • and turns around to see the real bat that has

  • been casting a shadow on the wall.

  • At first, she wouldn't believe that this actual bat

  • is reality, the shadows are still her reality.

  • If she was forcibly dragged out of the cave,

  • she would be completely overwhelmed by

  • the outside world and blinded by

  • the intense light of the sun.

  • Slowly the prisoner's eyes would start to adjust

  • to the outside world.

  • It wouldn't be an instant transition though,

  • but a slow one, gradually being able to see the more of the

  • world around her the longer she's exposed to reality.

  • She would be amazed by this new world,

  • and would think it to be superior to the one

  • that she knew in the cave.

  • She would feel pity for the rest of the prisoners,

  • and go back down to the cave and try to drag them out

  • so they can experience the world for themselves.

  • But her eyes would have trouble adjusting back

  • to the darkness of the cave,

  • and when the other prisoners see that she's

  • stumbling around the darkness talking about what

  • seems like nonsense to them,

  • they might conclude that journeying outside the

  • cave harmed her, and they would want to avoid that.

  • If they could, they'd kill anyone who would try to

  • drag them out.

  • Gotta love happy endings.

  • Plato uses this story to illustrate a point.

  • If the objects are more real than the shadows,

  • then how do we know that there isn't something

  • more real than the objects?

  • With She-Hulk as the freed prisoner in the story,

  • we can start to bring everything together and see

  • how the Allegory of the Cave relates.

  • Unfortunately, we are missing a big chunk of her life

  • that's pretty important to the story,

  • the point when she first discovers

  • she's a comic book character.

  • When she starts to break the fourth wall in

  • Sensational She-Hulk it seems like she

  • has known for awhile and has already adjusted to it,

  • however, we know that she wasn't always this way.

  • It took her almost a decade before

  • she could make meta references.

  • We also know that there was a period of learning

  • about this sort of thing when she meets Weezy

  • in issue number four, She-Hulk is utterly perplexed

  • at how Weezy can travel across panels to get

  • to new locations.

  • This is a bit strange,

  • because we've already seen up to this point that

  • She-Hulk is aware that she's a comic book character.

  • She can talk directly to the readers,

  • capitalize on comic book tropes, et cetera.

  • But the fact that she's confused by walking across

  • the gutter between two panels shows us that this

  • knowledge doesn't all come at once.

  • This is like in the Allegory of the Cave where the

  • prisoner slowly adjusts to the real world

  • outside of the cave.

  • It's not instantaneous, it's a gradual process.

  • Weezy, as I said earlier, is really a golden age

  • hero named the Blonde Phantom.

  • She's been a comic book character for decades

  • before She-Hulk was even created.

  • Weezy can navigate the comic book world

  • better than Jennifer because she's had more time

  • to adjust to it.

  • And when She-Hulk breaks the fourth wall,

  • she's not talking to nobody, double negative.

  • She is talking to somebody, she's talking to the writers,

  • or the artists, or us.

  • There is a world outside of the one that she lives in.

  • She-Hulk is aware that her entire existence is

  • essentially just a series of drawings,

  • an imperfect rendition, or, shadows of our world.

  • While most other comic book characters see the comic

  • book world they live in as real,

  • they're really just like the other prisoners in the cave

  • who think that the shadows are real.

  • She-Hulk used to be among them,

  • but she was dragged out of the cave into the light,

  • and now can see what the real world really is.

  • But, as Plato proposes, who's to say that our world

  • is even the true reality?

  • What do you guys think?

  • When She-Hulk breaks the fourth wall,

  • is she demonstrating Plato's Allegory of the Cave?

  • Are you upset with me that I didn't talk

  • about Deadpool as much?

  • Let's talk about it all in the comments.

  • And if this is your first time hanging out with us

  • here at NerdSync, we make new videos every week

  • that ask questions and examine comics beyond the surface

  • because we believe that doing so can actually

  • enhance your comic book reading experience

  • and make comics just a little bit more awesome.

  • So make sure you hit that big sexy subscribe button

  • so you don't miss out on anything.

  • Once again, I'm Scott, you can find me on Twitter

  • and Instagram and I will see you guys right here

  • on Friday for a new video.

  • Subtitles by the Amara.org community

- I've been wanting to tackle a video about comic book

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