Tyler Halterman
Professor Morrows
English 151
October 4, 2011
Marvel vs. DC Universe
What have cartoons came to today? You would assume from the title that I would be talking about Wolverine, Spiderman, & Ironman matching up and fighting against Batman, the Green Lantern, and the Flash. Well if you are thinking that you are thinking in the completely wrong direction. I am talking about poetry and how a poem featuring the Hulk as well as Superman. The poems I have read dealing with these classic cartoon characters should not be in poetry. Or should they… The two poems I have read have taken these ultra-strong; super human characters and put them into poetry. The perspectives of each of them are completely opposite of what you would normally read in most texts about these characters and are also quite interesting.
The first poem that I read, note, passed to superman, obviously features Superman not the Hulk. This is a free verse poem that has no rhythm or rhyme scheme. I would consider this a “sneaky” poem for the simple fact that the meaning behind it is really obvious, but at the same time hidden. The poem being a “sneaky” poem, compliments the meaning behind the poem. The meaning in this poem is that nobody recognizes Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego, but recognize Superman. Superman and Clark Kent are the same exact person, but who knows who Clark Kent is? The reason I know that they are talking about Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, is because it says “if I had seen you dressed in your blue suit I would have known you.”
What I learned from the Incredible Hulk, was the second poem that I read. This poem also does not have any rhythm or rhyme. The focus of this poem is not about smashing things or the hulk’s heart rate. It is about the Hulk’s more feminine side. I think that the meaning behind this poem is that every guy has a soft side, no matter how angry or mean they might be. The reason I say this is because it talks about a woman’s soft touch and her smile can work wonders. I think that they use the Hulk as a reference because he comes off as being such an angry person. In the end though the woman he is in love with is always the only one able to calm him down. Therefore, it shows that no matter how angry a man gets “a smile and a soft touch along the bicep can work wonders.”
The reason for picking the two poems that I did is because they both were dealing with comic book characters. I thought it was interesting that the two poets could take these action packed characters and put them into a completely different “atmosphere.” When you think of poetry you normally think of a love story summed up into stanzas that rhyme or something along those lines. I understand that most of the poems in Seriously Funny are not about that, but for the average joe or somebody who has not taken writing and rhetoric would assume what was said in the previous sentence. Eye-catching would be a good word that would describe another reason for choosing these poems. I think that these two poems are part of the few that I have seen that involve a comic book character. I would also think that the majority of the people who do not read poetry would pick something along the lines of these instead of something such as My Beloved by Charles Simic. The funny thing is; is that I believe that My Beloved is more interesting than note, passed to superman.
Both of these poems are free verse poems that do not rhyme. Neither of these have any type of rhythm either. The obvious characteristic that these two poems have in common is that they are talking about comic book characters. This is basically all of the “likes” I could find between the note, passed to superman and what I learned from the Incredible Hulk.
The differences between the two poems are ongoing. The way that the first poet takes Superman and puts him into their poem is much different from the way the second poet does with the Hulk. The note from note, passed to superman is talking to Superman directly in first person through the note. To where in what I learned from the Incredible Hulk they are just using the Hulk as a reference. The way they brought the meaning out in the poem about the Hulk was much more broad; or easier to understand. Which I think is odd because you would think that since they are talking to Superman in first person through the note you would be able to understand it easier. I guess that you also have to think about the content of the poem not the perspective of how it is told. Something else that I thought was odd was that the Superman poem was more than half the length of the poem about the Hulk, but twice as difficult to understand. Something else I should consider is it is not the length of the poem, but the content in it.
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