"Misfits"

The multi-award-winning E4 series Misfits presents a very British look at teenage superheroes. Well, superpowered individuals, as their actions are often governed by selfishness and result in a number of deaths, even while also being driven by some basic ideas of morality. Misfits takes Stan Lee's idea that Spider-Man, and various other of his creations, are identifiably like 'real' teenagers and places it in a recognisable modern London, where the characters' motivations are not changed into sudden nobility and maturity (signified by teen Peter Parker taking on the persona of a Spider-Man) by their gaining of powers, but where they are also not actually bad - just young.

The trailer for the second series linked above also suggests the ways that the programme engages with one of the issues of superheroes on television - the question of spectacle. That is the question we will return to on Friday for a longer look at international superheroes on television.