Chapter 882: The Background Story Of The Superhero
Cui Geng suddenly understood Boss Pei’s intentions.
“For example, Struggle is actually reflecting the deep contradictions of Western society and a.n.a.lyzing this social phenomenon. It tore apart the warm and beautiful cover in Western works, which was why there was such a deep reaction!”
For a long time, the domestic cultural industry had been relatively weak.
Be it for games, movies, novels, or even ideologies in certain fields, they were all completely suppressed by the Western world.
There were many reasons for this. Most importantly, it was because of historical issues. This phenomenon did exist and was very serious even though many people were unwilling to admit it.
The cultural output of the Western world had always existed and had a very complicated effect.
Of course, it was undeniable that there were some positive elements in Western culture. Some movies could indeed be encouraging.
However, many people mistakenly thought that everything in Western culture was good and perfect. They even loved everything in the West because of the beautification of these cultural works. This was a cla.s.sic example of being brainwashed by the beauty of artistic works.
For example, many people thought that everyone lived in a huge villa with a swimming pool in the United States. The houses were cheap, the medical services were free, and the dishwashers could live the dream life of the people. That was obviously a misinterpretation.
As a developed country, the living standards of the people in the United States would definitely be better. However, that only applied to the rich in the United States. Their lives were still very difficult for the middle-cla.s.s and bottom tier of the society.
However, the Chinese had long accepted the export of many American cultural works. Many people had the illusion that the Western world was heaven on earth under the packaging and beautification of these cultural works.
One of the main reasons why Struggle was successful was that it broke the illusion and allowed more people to see the Western world from a more objective perspective. It was equivalent to deconstructing the “ideal country” in Western culture works.
Cui Geng suddenly realized, could it be that that was Boss Pei’s intention for him to write on a superhero theme?
He did not want to write a superhero story that was in line with the mainstream values of the West. Instead, he wanted to deconstruct the mainstream values of the West like Struggle. He wanted to write a story that reflected deep problems and broke the illusion of some people.
Cui Geng realized that he could match many things once he accepted this setting!
Why did Boss Pei say that it did not matter even if he wrote these superheroes to death or made them suffer?
That was because this was not a traditional superhero story to begin with. The superheroes in the story did not represent fairness, justice, and beauty, but something else. Thus, their deaths would naturally not make the audience feel extremely disgusted.
Cui Geng subconsciously thought of a question: If superheroes existed, would they do what they did in movies?
Of course, there was good and evil in human nature. When humans had the power of superheroes, kind people would become superheroes, and evil people would become super villains.
However, would a kind superhero be able to persevere as described in most stories?
If he were to make a bolder a.s.sumption, if the superhero’s power was not innate or mutated but obtained through other means, what would the story of the superhero become?
It was just like how the West had been sparing no effort to export their “freedom” and “democracy”, was this seemingly perfect system really a perfect system?
There seemed to be a similar effect.
Cui Geng suddenly found the inspiration he wanted. He rushed to the work area, opened a new doc.u.ment, and wrote down the background story that suddenly appeared in his mind!
…
The story happened in the United States, similar to other superheroes.
However, the story of this superhero was different from the stories of other superheroes because in this story, the superheroes were not born with strength, nor were they relying on mutation or money.
About two hundred years ago, the first local superhero appeared in the United States.
His superpower was to obtain strength from people’s support and trust. Once people’s support and trust towards him weakened, his superpower would also decrease. It might even cease to exist.
However, this superhero had many virtues such as fairness, integrity, courage, and so on. This superhero had played a key role in saving countless lives and was deeply loved by the American people in all the major historical events.
Thus, he became more powerful. Not only did he become a symbol of the spirit of the United States, but he also shouldered the heavy responsibility of maintaining world peace. The people of the United States affectionately called him the ‘world leader’ because the people of the United States believed that his existence would maintain world peace and save mankind from war.
However, no matter how powerful a superhero was, he would always age and die.
Seventy years ago, the Captain World, who was more than a hundred years old, was dying of old age. He still had people’s trust and support. He still had powerful superpowers but his body was no longer able to support him using these powers.
Politicians, media, tyc.o.o.ns, and all sorts of people from the United States took turns to visit the world leader in the hospital ward. They hoped that the world leader could choose a person from among the many carefully selected successors to inherit the world leader’s superpower and ident.i.ty.
The Captain World saw through their thoughts. Obviously, different factions were coveting this superpower that could affect the world. They wanted to use the chess pieces they cultivated to inherit the Captain World’s powers and status. Everything would be disastrous if this superpower fell into the hands of bad people.
Thus, the Captain World did not give his superpower to any “successor” carefully selected by politicians, tyc.o.o.ns, or other forces. Instead, he scattered his superpower all over the entire country, giving every citizen of the United States the possibility of becoming a superhero.
The strength of this power depended on the support and trust of the American citizens.
The world leader firmly believed that only people with integrity, justice, and kindness would be able to obtain the support, trust, and love of most American citizens.
Even though it could not guarantee that all of his superpowers would be concentrated on one person to play the greatest role, it could at least ensure that most of his superpowers would be controlled by a kind and upright person. At the same time, it would not completely fall into the hands of a bad person.
Many people, including politicians, businessmen, and the media, tried to dissuade the Captain World, but he was unmoved. Obviously, these people’s flowery words were only to keep the world leader’s power for themselves. They were not trustworthy.
The world leader believed that the United States as a whole would make the right choice.
The American people deeply remembered Captain World after he died. They built a huge statue and monument for him to commemorate the first and most respected superhero.
That was the background story. The real beginning of the story was almost seventy years after the death of the world leader.
The protagonist of the story was called Phil Simmons. He was a carefree, rich second-generation heir who spent money freely every day.
Phil Simmons’s father, Ryan Simmons, was a wealthy man ranked in the 150th place in the United States. He had a personal wealth of 4.2 billion US dollars. He started with real estate and owned chain hotels and office buildings in many cities around the world.
Phil Simmons was just like the other rich second-generation heirs born with a silver spoon in their mouths. He was 31 years old this year and was unmarried. He was 1.92 meters tall, had a standard white face, was handsome, and had a body that was well maintained like a model.
He was a Harvard graduate with a law doctorate and an MBA degree. His current position was the CEO of Simmons Media Corporation. He was rated as “the most influential business figure under 40 years old” by Fortune magazine.
His degree in Harvard might have been obtained through a large sum of money donated by his family, it was not a shameful thing in the elite families of the United States. It was a very common occurrence.
Phil Simmons did not have any special abilities apart from driving super sports cars with one hand. He had many professional staff to manage his company, but he was still on the verge of bankruptcy.
However, none of that mattered. Phil Simmons’ own media company was just a drop in the ocean compared to the real estate company controlled by the Simmons Family after all. It would not affect the foundation of the entire Simmons Corporation even if his company went bankrupt ten times.
There were many types of rich second-generation heirs as well, and Phil Simmons was obviously not the hardworking type.
He was managing his own company and expanding his network. However, most of the time, he was still living a luxurious life, partying on a yacht.
He did not need to worry about anything at all. His family business was enough for him to live a carefree life after all.
Until one day, when his life changed because of a superhero.
Thus, Phil Simmons made up his mind. He wanted to become a superhero by hook or by crook. He wanted to become the strongest superhero. He wanted to get rid of all the superheroes that stood in his way.
…
Cui Geng quickly wrote an opening to the story.
Cui Geng quickly settled the background of the entire story, including the character of the protagonist. Everything was very natural.
However, Cui Geng had no idea why Phil Simmons had made up his mind to become a superhero or how he had managed to do it.
However, he was not in a hurry at all. It was a fixed-rate contract after all. Cui Geng did not feel pressured to create anything. All he had to do was slowly acc.u.mulate the materials and carefully work on it.
Next, Cui Geng planned to look through all the films, television dramas, comics, and works related to superheroes, as well as works that reflected American politics.
There was a lot of content in these works. It would probably take him at least a week to read most of them even if he watched them with a high intensity of eight hours a day. Moreover, it was unknown whether or not he could find enough inspiration during this period and write a good story outline.
Yet, for some reason, Cui Geng was filled with confidence in himself because Boss Pei himself had set the theme!