Since a young age, Ace has been obsessed with writing and telling stories. Since 2004, he has split his time between writing and publishing Masterpiece Comics, and publishing the online magazine The Written Word, a place where he has tried to give other writers a voice.
Beyond Masterpiece Comics and The Written Word, he has written for other small press comic companies and wrote numerous short stories, the most recently of which, He Waited, was published by Long Story Short. In 2008, he branched out further by writing the play Fallen by the Numbers, produced by Cloverleaf Productions.
Recently, in addition to his writing, Ace has turned his hand toward acting and was cast in the lead of the short film Five Minutes for the Phoenix 24 Hour Film Challenge.
2009 is shaping up to be a great year, with new and better opportunities that Ace is fully embracing.
The Knight Transcends?
By Ace Masters
Did The Dark Knight truly transcend the super-hero genre?
That really is a loaded question. The answer can be yes and no.
Why? Because the question itself, appropriate or not, is broad and brings up more questions.
In asking if The Dark Knight transcended the superhero genre, you have to ask if it transcends comic books themselves. While comics are far more than just superheroes, the general public usually only thinks in terms of superheroes.
Then you have to ask which superhero genre we're talking about? There are three distinct superhero genres:
1) Adaptations: Whether film or TV, animated or live-action, adaptations of superheroes is a genre unto itself. Like most adaptation of "previously produced materials," the work differs enough from the source material to be its own universe, often contradicting the original.
2) Original non-comic superheroes: superheroes created strictly for film or TV that have no history in comics.
3) Comics and Pulp Fiction: the original universes for superheroes and masked crime fighters (who pre-date comics).
In essence that one question is actually four; the overall answer is no. Did it transcend original non-comic superheroes? Yes, since many of the non-comic superheroes are just thinly veiled knock-offs of established characters. Such as M.A.N.T.I.S., the nineties FOX TV show about a crippled doctor that fought crime in an exoskeleton. Or maybe Super Force from the mid-nineties, about a former astronaut who dons a suit of armor to avenge his brother's murder and fight crime. Sound familiar?
Heath Ledger's performance, and posthumous win of the Oscar for best supporting actor, as the Joker in The Dark Knight, did transcend the genre across all horizons. The Oscar win finally brought some credibility to the genre in film. It is just unfortunate that the win is tainted by his untimely passing.
But The Dark Knight film itself didn't transcend comic books or the superhero genre as a whole. How could it when it took its plot from comics and uses a character that has a history of questioning the value of good and evil in conflicts with Batman.
Outside of Batman, many other comics have covered the same question. The X-men have questioned whether their fight is worth it, especially since humanity seems to fear them.
Venom, or more specifically Eddie Brock, is a character that sees himself as a hero and Spider-Man as the villain. Since Brock blames Spider-man for his downfall, after Spider-man discovered the real Sin-Eater killer, exposing Brock's expose and revelation of the killer's identity to be wrong.
Brock brings the questioning of good and evil into light every time he comes into conflict with Spider-Man. It is even more spotlighted with the fact that Spider-man capturing the real killer did ruin Brock's life.
The philosophical argument of what is good and evil, and that they are essentially the same thing, is what many critics site as the reason The Dark Knight transcends the genre. Some have written that they would expect to see that argument in a Scorsese movie, but not a superhero movie. 
My response to that – Read Batman! Or Spider-man! Or go into a comic book shop and look at the racks. I'm begging you to actually research before you make a blanketed statement.
By their own admission, many critics don't read comics and look down upon comics in general. The persona of comics in the general populace is that of "kiddie books."
Forget for the moment that the comic book industry publishes far more than just superhero titles, or that superheroes are still mostly the domain of Marvel and DC. The philosophical question of what is good and evil is a constant theme in comics—with both villains and heroes questioning it.
On more than one occasion, Spider-Man has questioned whether what he does makes any difference. He's even pondered if he's any better than the villains he fights.
Characters like the Punisher and even Jonah Hex blur the line completely; they are so-called good guys, who are perhaps more violent then the villains.
The best villains are often the ones who don't see themselves as villains. In their minds, they are the ones who have been wronged, and they are in the right.
Yes, comics have a reputation for action, violence and simpleminded solutions to problems, aka "solving problems with their fists." And yes, that reputation is warranted in many respects.
However, the question of what is good and evil and how they are the same is more prevalent in comics than anywhere else. With the "anti-hero" becoming more popular, and a cliché, no other genre or form of entertainment showcases clear-cut good versus evil conflicts, or morality plays.
If you don't have a clear-cut hero and villain, then you can't poise the question. To poise the question, you have to show the conflict between the two sides; Even more you have to show the contrast of the two.
So, does The Dark Knight transcend the super-hero genre? No. What it does is showcase to the world the best of what the genre can be.
Now, here's a thought: just how far reaching are comics on a cultural level?
Think about it.
Later.
Ace Masters.
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