superheroic folklore

Chatting with wytchfynder at lunch the other day, I was somewhat surprised when he said he seldom remembers his dreams. I remember mine pretty vividly on a more or less daily basis; last night, for example, I dreamed I was at a departmental meeting of some sort which entailed about eight of us seated at a long table, at which the guest of honour was Sheri Tepper. She was cool :>. Although always seated distantly from me at the table, so we couldn't chat. This was clearly career wishful thinking on my part, but I'm curious: how often do you witterers remember your dreams? do I dream unusually vividly?

Have just madly devoured the four volumes of Ultimate X-Men, lent to me by a kind first_fallen. Am v. impressed. The artwork is beautiful, and the stories gritty and real. It's a very, very interesting comparison to the Uncanny X-Men anthology I've just read, which hails from the 1970s, and which has a very different sensibility. Far more adult, the modern ones; far less cutesy idealism, far more accomplishment in the storytelling. (These new ones seldom feel the need to insert text boxes telling you what's going on).

I am fast realising, though, that superhero comics are very much a folklore for our society. Comparing the film versions to the earlier and current versions, what they basically are is a retelling of the same story, not only in different settings, but with variations in plot. Characters remain pretty much the same, and their origin myths are similar; often the emotional interactions between them are repeated, too, at least to some extent. But each version is different and unique. This is pretty much how folklore works: there is no one "right" version, simply different, equally valid iterations, each momentarily stamped with the identity of the teller, whether scripter, artist or director. It's testament to the strength of the X-men as icons that they cheerfully survive this treatment, becoming more complex and interesting instead of losing all character.