Paragons Design Journal #5
Paragons and Popular Culture
The Breakout is an event without precedent in human history. No other moment has so redefined the nature of the world and the future of humanity (and para-humanity). So it’s something of an understatement to say popular culture around the world has gone paranormal-crazy. People around the world are positively obsessed with the living gods who walk amongst them, with all the good and bad that implies. The paranormal is the driving force in popular culture, drawing everything else along in its massive wake.
Print Media
Traditional magazines and newspapers have found a great deal more to report, and discuss, in the wake of the Breakout. Print news coverage of paranormals, or stories involving them in some fashion, is almost continuous. Print publications try to make up in depth and accuracy what they lack in speed and immediacy compared to online venues. They’re only partially successful, since a great deal of the facts concerning the paranormal remain unknown or in dispute. The best they can usually do is provide in-depth information about the paragons themselves, and investigative journalism has come under fire in a few cases for invading the privacy of otherwise ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. Journalists involved counter that the public has a right to know, especially when someone with the power to level a city block might be living in their midst.
Book publishers have tell-all accounts of the Breakout, individual stories about paragons, and endless books of theory and speculation on the paranormal pouring into bookstores or waiting in the wings. Biographies and books by known paragons top the sales charts as people hunger to know everything they can about these new icons.
Reality Comics
The existence of real, live people with superhuman powers has led to a massive revival in the comic book publishing industry, but also an equally large change in focus. Readers are far more interested in “reality comics” based on real paragons and their supposed “adventures” (or other activities) rather than stories about fictional superheroes, repackaged and retold for the umpteenth time. Readers both young and old snap up these stories—in both older, traditional art styles and Japanese-influenced manga—as fast as they’re published. The shift to “timely” reality comics (often based on real-world events) has also revived the monthly publication of comics magazines, which had been flagging compared to book-length graphic novels.
Naturally, comic book publishers seek to license hot new paranormal talents to publish reality comics about them, and such comics are typical elements of a widespread marketing campaign involving paragons. Comic publishers and creators are even called upon—by the paragons themselves or the companies that sponsor them—to provide designs and inspiration for paranormals, from costumes to “code-names” and more.
With the decline in popularity of fictional superhumans, major comic book publishers have hit upon a new idea: Licensing their properties to real, living paranormals! After all, if you were a paragon with amazing athletic abilities and the power to stick to walls, would you rather build up your own “brand identity” or associate yourself with one of the most famous in the world? The idea has proven popular and has the potential to tremendously revitalize existing comic properties, while bringing in considerable licensing income. There remain some concerns over finding just the right “fit” for an existing character identity and just how much (if at all) such characters should be tailored to their new “wearers.” Publishers are also considering the eventuality of having to transfer a property to a new licensor, much like having a new actor play a popular, long-running role.
Film & Television
With the appearance of paranormals, the line between “news” and “entertainment” in the public broadcast media has become almost non-existent. People watch 24-hour news channels in hopes of seeing exclusive footage of their favorite paragons, catching all the current gossip, and just finding out what incredible new things have happened in the world today. The new Paragon Network provides continuous news coverage of all things paranormal. In fact, so many people spend time glued to their televisions (or online news feeds, or both) that a certain amount of “news fatigue” sets in after a while.
Paragons are the hot new topic for all kinds of television and film. The biggest explosion is the immediacy of “reality TV” dealing with the paranormal in some form or another. The hit series Prime Paragon! is the biggest example, featuring paranormal competitors for existing costumed identities and fat endorsement contracts, showing off their powers and performing for the cameras. The XTREME! Action Combat Championships combine the spectacle of professional wrestling with amazing displays of paranormal power.
Story-driven television and conventional film are somewhat slower to catch up, although Hollywood is rife with proposals for vehicles based around this or that aspect of the post-Breakout world, from dramas to situation comedies. The potential for casting paranormal actors is there; people able to do their own stunts and “special effects.” The formerly unknown actor Mark “Masque” Doucette has a promising career ahead using his paranormal ability to change his appearance to imitate famous people (depending on the resolution of pending court cases claiming violations of personal intellectual property and “human copyright”).
The Internet
The Breakout has brought the Internet into its own as a medium for news and information, and a great many people get their up-to-the-minute updates on what’s going on from online news feeds, blogs, podcasts, and similar resources. Indeed, with ubiquitous digital cameras and Internet-capable cell phones and the like, a good deal of the “reporting” about the paranormal comes from ordinary people who happen to be in the right place at the right time (or wrong time, as the case may be). They capture images the traditional news media is to slow to get.
The number of websites and blogs dedicated to paragons grows exponentially, with popular sites having millions of hits daily. Paranormals are by no means immune to this phenomenon; in fact, some of the most popular sites are those run by paragons, or featuring them speaking in their own words to the public.
As much as the Internet is a source for information, it’s also a source of misinformation. In particular, the “origin chaser” subculture has its primary home online and at various websites. In spite of attempts to shut down, or counter, such things as spark party networking sites and the like in the interest of public safety, authorities have been only partially successful. The ’net is jammed with various scams claiming to make people into paranormals, cults for or against paragons, and endless theory and speculation about the Breakout and what it all means, much of it uninformed at best, paranoid ranting at worst.
