Why the World Needs Superheroes

In the realm of imagination a multitude of characters exist; each created for an ideal or philosophy. Yet sometimes characters evolve beyond their original themes into something greater. Characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, Robin Hood, etc… America’s cultural icon, Superman, is an example of this. Originally intended as a political statement for the trying times of the Great Depression in which Superman literarily jumped around solving political difficulties and punching out wife beaters boldly announcing “You're not fighting a woman now!” The most famous of these stories is in which he leaps to Europe and after single handedly destroying Stalin and Hitler’s armies, grabs the two of them by the scruff of the neck and bounces them to the League of Nations to be put on trial for war crimes. In the birth years of the Man of Steel the idea of political corruption, or god forbid overdue library books, was a specialty that Superman dealt with similar to the way you would call a plumber to fix your pipes or a pool boy to clean the pool. Throwing hoods and gangsters into jails, crafted by the Metropolis Marvel himself, faster than the stereotypical jackrabbit on a date. Thus beginning the dawn of superheroes and changing humanities life for the better.

With a simple idea that laid the groundwork for many a rip off to come, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation spread faster than speeding bullets being shot at all the corners of the country to infect the idea of super people amongst the common broke populace of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. The golden egg that would be mined, ripped, and dissected in the many years to come by the hands of extraordinary and extraordinarily terrible writers alike.

If anyone has read anything remotely close to Superman in the last fifty to sixty years can figure this to no longer be the case. Now Superman is publically known for a strict Boy Scout moral code due to his vast powers, a characteristic that has caused fans to be alienated to other more “realistic” superheroes like Batman or Iron Man. Because of this superhero connoisseurs have started to become numb to Siegel and Shuster’s reasoning behind Superman. He was created not to be real, but to allow us a temporary escape from numbing reality. A chance for one moment for us as normal human beings to lose ourselves in the moment and be able to fly like Gods on clouds before taking a place in the stars. The people who turn their noses up at the mention of the Man of Steel fail to see what Superman really means and how he adapts to reflect the cultural ambitions and needs decade by painful decade. No child dons a red hunting cap and looks up at their parents to say, “I want to be Holden Caulfield when I grow up.” No other fictional character or genre has influenced such change and personal desire to be better, to fill every person with compassion, than he has done, continues to do, and always will do until human race no longer needs him.

With the arrival of Superman writers and businessmen scrambled to each buy a part of the hot new stock on the market. However this was a time when an original idea was cherished not ripped off with minuet differences such as a different costume and name. Thus enter the Caped Crusader.

Batman was the first of many broken goods heroes. Created by Bill Finger and drawn by Bob Kane Batman immediately captured audience’s attention. From the opening cover of Detective Comics #1 shows him grabbing a criminal while swinging on a rope that followed the superhero trope of ropes and wires that weren’t attached to anything yet still allowed heroes to swing through the sky, single handily defying the laws of physics every time. On a ledge stand two random people with pistols drawn. Sending the message that these two were police officers or they worked for an unknown mob boss in the largest underground sex trade ring. The message sent was simple, Batman was different, more relatable than the Man of Steel will ever be.

As the years have passed superheroes have continued to evolve to meet the needs and standards that its varying audiences crave at the time. From the goofy sixties to the dark eighties, superheroes shed their skins to reveal the updated versions that had to evolve to in order to survive. In the wake of the first fifteen years of the new century, a new type of superhero has risen to popularity and stayed at the top, anti-heroes.

Iron Man, Batman, Deadpool, Wolverine, the list does not end, are all examples of the most popular anti-heroes of this new era of superheroes. Each of them has rather giant flaws that are coupled tenderly with qualities that allow them to be redeemable in the public’s eyes. Iron Man is a jerk that could say the wrong thing at any moment and did during Marvel’s Civil War that led to the death of Captain America, but is witty enough so that his audience will let that slip under the carpet. Deadpool is so insane that he is not fazed when entire cities of are slaughtered in front of him, but is funny enough to warrant the public’s devotion at all points in his story. Batman, while not a true anti-hero, at times will break someone’s bones or cripple them in some shape or fashion. Getting away with this by keeping a moral code of not killing or using guns and being an all-around awesome character.

The question is this, how can superheroes that are as broken and black as these are revealed instead of hated? It is simple; they are as close to human that Superheroes could possibly get. Wolverine is the best example of an anti-hero done correctly. Wolverine at first was a bloodthirsty mutant that ran around slicing people up with his sharp metal claws with no empathy towards those he killed. Now he leads the X-Men when Cyclops went crazy and had to be locked up after trying to take down the Avengers and teaches the students to be good people and a help to society. No real human being could be as clear-cut moralistic as Superman can be but they could be like Wolverine with a giant flaw such as a beast like need for blood and redeem themselves later by doing good deeds. The taste in superheroes has changed but our need for them has never been greater.

Post 9/11 the public went away from the overly violent comics of the 90’s and became more grounded. No longer was it in good taste to level a city while defending earth from a hostile alien invasion. In our time of grief we needed superheroes to be relatable, to make them appear as ordinary people who could rise out of the crowd at any moment to save the day.

The public needs superheroes more than most would be willing to admit. In a world plagued by genocide, rising oceans, depleting resources, and other horrors who would not want a superhero to come flying out over the horizon to save the day?

In Grant Morrison’s epic novel/autobiography over superheroes he touches on our leaders and role models. “We've come to accept that most of our politicians will be exposed, in the end, as sex-mad liars or imbeciles, just as we've come to expect gorgeous supermodels to be bulimic, neurotic wretches. We've seen through the illusions which once sustained our fantasies and know from bitter experience that beloved comedians will stand unmasked, sooner or later, as alcoholic perverts or suicidal depressives.”

Our supposed “role models” show their true colors when it is revealed they are in involved shady dealings that cause us to slowly lose faith in leaders over the course of our years on earth. However our superheroes have become icons, infallible, incorruptible, one of the purist vein of human nature. Never once shall we see Superman beating up a hooker, Green Lantern cheating on a lover, or Spider-Man running an illegal dog fighting ring. Our superheroes are our champions, a lighthouse beaming out onto the dark stormy sea to guide us back to shore waiting with open arms at our return.

This is what we can learn from our superheroes. We can learn to be human. We can learn compassion. If we let them guide us to the truth, and show us how to be the best we can be, we can wake up to a brand new world. One we will be comfortable in giving to our children, our future.

Ask not what superheroes can teach us, but what we can learn from our superheroes.