Scans_Daily

It's something that I think shows up outside superhero comics as well. In some ways, I might suggest it's the historical post-WWII socio-political shift, at least in the United States, when it comes to science/scientists, and media depictions therein.

Post-WWII, America was entering into a position as the economic and political titan, with only the recovering Soviet Union to be a major rival in political, military and scientific endeavors. The detonation of nuclear weaponry and ushering the world into the atomic age was the product of international cooperation, massive government support, and large scale and organization. Despite its destructive powers, there was the beginning of what many saw as a potential new age of technological and scientific advancement. Atomic technologies were touted as the future that your children would one day take atomo-rockets to the moon, atomic tractors guided by electronic brains to ready the fields, that the depths of the ocean would be opened to colonization.

In the 1950's, we often see scientists in films with some position of authority or respect by connection to authority presented largely in positive lights. Politicians and military men heed tend to at some point heed the words of scientists regarding the threat at hand. These men (and sometimes women, though not as often) are presented as working within the system to save the day. Any scientist who is presented in a bad light is largely presented as being either a misguided individual at best, or typical mad scientist at worst. They are outside the system, the order. They cause harm by not adhering to the social order.

But now we move onwards, and the counter-culture movement of the late 1960's, and the massive blow of Watergate, begins to shift the cultural view on authority, personified by "the Man" in whatever form you consider, whether the Man is government, academia, or sometimes business. The system then becomes a menacing, larger than life and impersonal to the conceit of individuality. Science is now not the progressive mover, but the continuation of control and threat to the individual through larger pressures such as geo-political conflict and the threat of armageddon through thermonuclear war, much easier to contemplate as the end of civilization than back in the early 1950' with a reliance on bombers and early missiles.

The 1980's saw a turnaround of scientific roles. Science could still be a force for good, but now it was brought out of the impersonal hands of corporations, governments, and academia. Ghostbusters for example positions a team of independents, thrown out of stuffy, hideboud academia into the world of business, and go their own way to provide a service, and fending off government stooges from the EPA. It is a period of the Reagan era, and we see independent scientific figures now being lauded. The quirky independent scientist/engineer/inventor now becomes the hero. While these characters may either still in some cases work for larger organizations, they are not part of some faceless bureaucracy, think tank or academic facility.

Indeed, there are several cases of the "quirky scientist/inventor working in their basement on some fantastic project," whether its "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Flubber," or "Cats vs Dogs." In other cases, we see instances of fears of research being weaponized, controlled, or destroyed by "the Man" or other outside forces that do not accept independent conceptualization or thought.

Science and scientists now face the great politicization of science. The Climate Change Conflict, continued Anti-Vaxx campaigns, etc, come from social shifts in regards to social views on authority and those connected with it. We even see conspiracy theorists presented in more positive light (if still ribbed at in general.) Take films like Godzilla vs Kong or Moonfall, which feature conspiracy theorists in prominent roles.

Now, the above isn't a hard and fast rule, and applies more to depictions of scientists/inventors/engineers, etc than science proper, though they are connected in degrees in the larger public and cultural consciousness. In general, the concept is that when science is perceived to be part of a larger system, impersonal and given to being abused, therefore societal culture will perceive a somewhat uncertain position on it. SCIENCE in all caps, can mean both progressive advancement and brutal or impersonal control and suppression or degradation/destruction.