Ask A Genius 1402: Art, Gods, and Superheroes: Rick Rosner on Favorite Paintings, Mythology, and the DC Universe
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/06/03
Rick Rosner is an accomplished television writer with credits on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Crank Yankers, and The Man Show. Over his career, he has earned multiple Writers Guild Award nominations—winning one—and an Emmy nomination. Rosner holds a broad academic background, graduating with the equivalent of eight majors. Based in Los Angeles, he continues to write and develop ideas while spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.
In conversation with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Rick Rosner shares his favorite artworks—from The Raft of the Medusa to Hopper and Botticelli—while discussing mythological gods, superhero icons like Batman and Superman, and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. The dialogue explores pop culture, art history, and the narrative depth of modern storytelling.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What’s your favourite piece of art?
Rick Rosner: I like Jeff Koons in general. Jeff Koons’ pieces are technically very well done, and I appreciate that.
Jacobsen: What paintings do you like?
Rosner: The Raft of the Medusa—that’s the one I was trying to remember. It’s a bunch of guys on a raft. On one side, they’re in despair because they’ve been shipwrecked. They managed to lash together some debris into a raft. The guys on the other side, though, have spotted a ship in the distance that’s going to rescue them, so they’re excited and full of hope.
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Jacobsen: Dramatic contrast.
Rosner: Yeah. I like it because it shows men under challenging poses. I used to do those kinds of poses—I used to be an excellent art model—the Raft of the Medusa by Géricault. And then there’s this crazy Rembrandt with like 30 heads in it—The Night Watch. Or there’s another one where people are in a medical theatre watching a dissection.
Jacobsen: What else?
Rosner: I like Hopper in general. I also really like the National Portrait Gallery in Britain.
There’s one called The Swing—or Girl on a Swing. We saw it in a museum. It’s kitschy, but what I love about it is that the artist has filled it with Easter eggs. He was making a statement—it was a diss. There was some affair going on, and he embedded clues about it in the painting—scandalous stuff.
What is your favourite painting?
Jacobsen: Guernica by Picasso, 1937, at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.
Rosner: That’s a very famous one.
Jacobsen: Symbolic of so many things. It’s the kind of piece you can keep looking at and finding something new. Very strange. Cryptic.
Rosner: The Pre-Raphaelites were interesting. Botticelli—I love his stuff. Super decorative. Everyone knows The Birth of Venus.
Jacobsen: Who’s your favourite mythological god? When they were treated more like people?
Rosner: I don’t have a favourite. They were all kind of dickheads. The more powerful, the more dickish. Sleeping around, eating their kids…
Jacobsen: One of the famous atheists critiqued this stuff, saying, “As we all know, Poseidon doesn’t exist.” It was part of a broader critique of anthropomorphism in the context of gods. And then the hate mail pours in—”I’m a Neo-Pagan, and I believe this is real!”
Rosner: I might be better able to answer who my favourite superhero is.
Jacobsen: Who is your favourite superhero?
Rosner: I think, as an individual, I like the DC superheroes better than the Marvel ones. But the Marvel movies have generally been better. Still, I’m hopeful about James Gunn. Suicide Squad is DC, and that’s one of my favourite superhero movies. I fall asleep in Marvel movies.
I like Batman—in all his various incarnations. Different directors and actors have explored his sanity to varying degrees. There’s the ’60s Batman show, where he’s perfectly sane, fighting crime reasonably. He’s got many resources, but he’s not a psychopath.
Then you’ve got Christian Bale and the others—various Batmen. However, if you try to read the Batman comics of the last 20 or 30 years, the plots are convoluted and annoying. They need to be refined into movies to be tolerable—and even then, sometimes they’re still irritating.
And I’ve always liked Superman. Ever since I was five, he’s the most straightforward superhero—the prototype. Though this latest movie, coming out in July, seems like it’s going to complicate his whole deal.
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Jacobsen: Right—his secret identity as a reporter.
Rosner: That made sense in 1938 when he was created because being a reporter gave him the most up-to-date info on situations he could intervene in. But now it’s eighty-seven years later. Should Superman even have a secret identity, or should he be a guy who’s tied into some comm center? He has, like, his home farm and the Daily Planet—that’s where he works as a reporter.
Then there’s his Kryptonian base—his dad’s memory crystal cave—where his memory is stored. But he always gets discovered. What he needs is a news aggregator that pings him with developing situations he might be able to address. And that could be AI, or a team of interns or IT people trying to optimize his skills.
I also like Wonder Woman. She’s pretty. I want a six-foot woman.
Jacobsen: She’s six feet?
Rosner: Roughly. No—wait, the actress in the most recent film is petite.
Jacobsen: Gal Gadot?
Rosner: Yeah, Gal Gadot. She’s probably five foot ten. Chris Pine, her co-star, is probably around five, too. She might even be five-eleven.
Jacobsen: Wow. Jesus, she’s tall.
Rosner: Yes. She’s very tall. She had a massive blood clotting issue. Her career’s a little bit in limbo right now because she’s Israeli—and people don’t love Israel at this point. Plus, she did a bad job playing the Evil Queen in Snow White. Also, there’s a new regime in DC headed by James Gunn.
So, who knows if they’ll even make another Wonder Woman? Wonder Woman 1984 was decent, however. The big three for DC—I like all of them. And I liked Suicide Squad and the spin-off TV show, whatever it’s called.
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