The A-Team: observations
Nov. 6th, 2005 03:28 pmMurdock constantly plays at being a superhero, which is odd, because he is a superhero - so why the running Walter Mitty fantasies? Because he is a mis en abyme, a show-within-the-show: a boy in his baseball cap and sneakers, playing at being the toughest and cleverest and funniest. Fred Hembeck describes how the editor of Superman would ask kids for suggestions, and they'd want to see Superman being a fire chief, because they wanted to be fire chiefs. Boys want to be (for example) taxi drivers, so the A-Team are super-taxi-drivers, with car chases, gun battles, neat toys, etc; and Murdock is Captain Cab.
Face, a poor orphan who constantly cons his way into upper class life, is teased all the time that this makes him gay. A baddie calls him Hannibal's "pretty friend". Hannibal mocks him for exchanging strokes with a posh waiter ("When's the wedding?") and for stealing the identity of an interior decorator (who wears pink pyjamas). I suspect these jokes are possible because of Face's relentless heterosexuality.
Face, a poor orphan who constantly cons his way into upper class life, is teased all the time that this makes him gay. A baddie calls him Hannibal's "pretty friend". Hannibal mocks him for exchanging strokes with a posh waiter ("When's the wedding?") and for stealing the identity of an interior decorator (who wears pink pyjamas). I suspect these jokes are possible because of Face's relentless heterosexuality.