Unmasking Superheroes
Early superheroes relied solely on their superpowers to fight justice. Being an outsider to begin with, they had to choose to fall to the shadows or fight for justice. They did not have the luxury of fitting in with the common crowd. We admire these superheroes for their courage to stand for good against evil, they are out of reach. But with their extraordinary powers they are out of our reach. Sometimes this is exactly what we want.
In September of 1929, banks closed their doors across the United States, leaving many families with no money, no way to provide a living. This fear spiked when the Great Depression became the norm. The people of America were looking for a way out. They were looking for inspiration.
Sharing traits of the old demi-god heroes from Ancient Greece, Superman rose to the challenge. Superman was the first superhero, staring in the first superhero comics, the “Action Comic Books” in 1938. With banks closing down and money drying up, America needed a supernatural hero with out of these world powers. The “Action Comic Books” began right after the Great Depression hit. President Roosevelt had begun to set up programs such as (), which soon failed. People were beginning to lose the belief that they could drag themselves out of the horrible situation. People needed a larger than life superhero. They needed the unbelievable to give them hope. Superman’s super strength and being born on another planet made him the perfect model. Although his nemesis, Lex Luthor, did not posses any superpower, he was incredibly rich. For people struggling to feed their family on a daily basis, that was close enough to a superpower, but an envious one. Superman’s superpowers were also amazing but they were so unrelated to the economic status that they were less envious.
If someone had super strength, then they could be strong. They might be able to get a good manual job, but it won’t change the economic state around them. They wouldn’t get paid more than they were then. Lex Luthor’s power of money was much more threatening. If someone had more money, then they could feed their children. They could stop worrying about how they were going to pay for food the following day. Lux Luthor had what everyone else did not. The man behind the alter ego: Superman was Clark Kent. Looking a little dorky in his glasses, he fit in with everyone at the Daily Planet. Although Superman’s power was able to inspire people, he was not a very well rounded character. It is true that at that time, people were probably not looking for a three dimensional superhero. They were looking for an icon.
Clark Kent felt like an outsider, alien to this world, and yet still chose to fight for the people, to always do what was right. It was what people needed, but it was not realistic. Who would not get mad at saving everyone every day and then having to slip into a simple newspaper boy persona? He was too perfect.
Batman was different.
Batman was a citizen of Gotham City. Human. He was Bruce Wayne, the billionaire inheriting Wayne Co. from his father. Witnessing the murder of his mother and father at a young age left Bruce declaring revenge for his parents. He formed an ideal form of justice that he carried to his adulthood. With conflicting feelings about his parents’ deaths, Bruce grew up under the guidance of Albert Pennyworth.
In 2008 the government’s debt dived from a previous million dollars to fourteen trillion dollars in an attempt to save failing companies. Three years earlier the movie, Batman Begins, came to theaters, bringing forward the old tale of the Dark Knight. Now as we face the biggest deficit our country has ever seen we don’t turn to the superhero in the skies with amazing superpowers. Instead, we turn to a billionaire vigilante. Taking some of the characteristics of a villain in the Superman comic books, Lex Luthor, and turning him good. Money is no longer the problem anymore, but the problem solver. Strapped in pricey gadgets and a memory cloth that stiffens for gliding, the Dark Knight has returned to the stage. In our time of crisis, seeing a superhero with a more “ordinary” beginning than being from another planet makes us believe that anyone can make a difference. But seeing a hero rise from a billionaire stance makes us believe that we can buy our way out of any problem.
In a time where when we fall into a crisis we pull out the credit cards without thinking if we have enough money in the bank to cover the expenses. We focus more on what we want instead of what we can afford.
Credit card rates soar high as people spend money they don’t have, buying other credit cards to pay for the debt on the first ones. The housing market drops as the number of houses for sale far exceed the number of people that can buy them. Unemployed people are not able to pay the mortgages on their houses, ending in foreclosures. Congress plunges into further debt, stretching the debt ceiling higher and higher each month. We think that we can buy our way out of these problems.
But we can’t.
We have forgotten that if we stripped of his expensive fighting tools, Bruce Wayne would still fight the darkness, both the criminals and his own demons. He would still be the same man. It is the man behind the mask who is our hero, not his large bank account.
Bruce Wayne is Batman, the Dark Knight. The man who lost his parents at a young age. The man who feels guilty when they were killed. The man ready to seek revenge for their death. The man with two masks: one he shares with the world in public as Bruce Wayne, the rich playboy, and one he hides behind a black mask, catching criminals in dark alleys. He became the Dark Knight, because he felt that he had a moral obligation to the city of Gotham. He could have simply stood back and philander in a playboy lifestyle. Instead Bruce Wayne became the Dark Knight, fighting criminals in Gotham City.
The Dark Knight fought not only the common criminals, but also villains. Villains are troubled individuals who turned to the side of evil in order to fulfill their selfish desires of destruction and chaos. Batman has had many enemies from the Penguin, Catwoman, Two Face. The most well known villain of the Dark Knight is the Joker. He did not have any superpowers. He was not rich and power hungry like Lex Luthor. He was, however, a psychopath, without any empathy. Many people think that he has multiple psychotic disorders. He did not. This character shows the fears of our time. That we don’t understand the unstable minds around us and fear them.
At a recent Comic Con convention in San Diego, California, mental health experts gather to discuss the portrayal of the super villains in comic books. H. Eric Bender, M.D., a mental health expert and a big fan of comic books, explains that “Psychopathy reflects interpersonal characteristics and behavior that are often rooted in a lack of empathy. In the comics, television shows, and films, the Joker is much more akin to a psychopath and is not psychotic.” Many serial killers have that same trait, being a psychopath. Psychotics hear things and have visual hallucinations visions. Psychopaths just don’t care. They don’t have any compassion for others.
Superheroes care about justice. They care about the people they protect. Unmask your superheroes and look for the true heroes underneath their alter egos.
Earlier superheroes relied solely on their superpowers to fight justice. Being an outsider to begin with, they had to choose to fall to the shadows or fight for justice.
In September of 1929, banks closed their doors across the United States, leaving many families with no money, no way to provide a living. This fear spiked when the Great Depression became the norm. The people of America were looking for a way out. They were looking for inspiration.
Sharing traits of the old demi-god heroes form Ancient Greece, Superman rose to the challenge. Superman was the first superhero, staring in the first superhero comics, the “Action Comic Books” in 1938. With banks closing down and money drying up, America needed supernatural hero with out of these world/ unbelievable powers. The “Action Comic Books” began right after the Great Depression hit when people needed a larger than life superhero and a little unbelievable to give them hope. Superman’s super strength and being alien made him the perfect model. Although his nemesis, Lex Luthor, did not posses any superpower, he was incredibly rich. For people struggling to feed their family on a daily basis, that was a superpower.
Clark Kent had very few flaws. He felt like an outsider, alien to this world, and yet still chose to fight for the people, to always do what was right. It was what people needed, but it was not a realistic hero. Who would not get mad at saving everyone every day and then having to slip into an annoying newspaper boy persona? He was too perfect.
Batman was different.
Now with as we face the biggest deficit our country has ever seen we don’t turn to the superhero in the skies with amazing superpowers. Instead, we turn to a billionaire vigilante. Taking the villain of Superman comic books and turning him good. Strapped in pricey gadgets and a memory cloth used with a signal running through it, making it stiff enough to drift. In our time of crisis, seeing an “ordinary” superhero makes us believe that any of us can make a difference. But seeing a hero rise from a billionaire stance makes us believe that we can buy our way out of any problem.
Credit card rates soar high as people spend money they don’t have, buying other credit cards to pay for the debt on the first ones. The housing market drops when the number of houses for sale exceed the number of people that can buy them. Unemployed people are not able to pay the mortgages on their houses. Congress plunges into further debt, stretching the debt ceiling higher and higher each month. We think that we can buy our way out of these problems.
But we can’t.
We have forgotten that if we stripped of his expensive fighting tools, Bruce Wayne would still fight the darkness, both criminals and his own demons. He would still be the same man. It is the man behind the mask who is our hero, not his large bank account.
Bruce Wayne is Batman, the Dark Knight. The man who lost his parents at a young age. The man who feels guilt and sadness over their death. The man with two masks: one he shares with the world in public as Bruce Wayne, the rich playboy, and one he hides behind a black mask, catching criminals in dark alleys. He became the Dark Knight, because he felt that he had a moral obligation to the city of Gotham. He could have simply stood back and philander in a playboy lifestyle. Instead Bruce Wayne became the Dark Knight, fighting criminals in Gotham City.
The Dark Knight fought not only criminals, but villains. Villains are a group of troubled individuals who turned to the side of evil in order to fulfill their selfish desires of destruction and chaos. Batman had many enemies. Most well known is the Joker. He did not have any superpowers. He was not rich and power hungry like Lex Luthor. He was, however, a psychopath, without empathy. Many people think that he has multiple psychotic disorders. This character shows the fears of our time. That we don’t understand the unstable minds around us and fear them.
At a recent Comic Con convention in San Diego, California, mental health experts gather to discuss the portrayal of the super villains in comic books. Vasilis K. Pozios, M.D., a physician specializing in forensic and adult psychiatry and a big fan of comic books, explains that “Psychopathy reflects interpersonal characteristics and behavior that are often rooted in a lack of empathy,” Bender said. “In the comics, television shows, and films, the Joker is much more akin to a psychopath and is not psychotic.” Many serial killers have that same trait, being a psychopath. Psychotics hear things and have visual hallucinations visions. Psychopaths just don’t care.
Unmasking Superheroes
Metal crushes metal as cars collide. Lex’s machine tosses the cars like matchbox cars. They topple onto of each other, trapping people inside. Blue, red, and yellow flash against the sky. He lands, red cape flowing in the in. Superman has come to save the day. He coughs. His throat closes up as he notices the green vapor surrounding the scene, emanating from Lex’s machine. The kryptonite gas ignites his lungs on fire. He crumbles to the ground, gasping for breath. Cries of terror fill the air. He crawls forward, determined to save the trapped civilians.
Little did Superman know on that date he would become a predecessor to a long line of superheroes. Although the funny comic books started in 1933, the superhero comic books didn’t begin until 1938 with the first “Action Comic books” staring a man sent by a dying race on another planet to save the day here, Superman. Although the super villain Lex Luthor wasn’t created until the 1940’s comic book and using Kryptonite as a weapon against Superman wasn’t used until the 1960’s comic book, we still depend on these factors in superhero comic books. It is why we cheer for superheroes as they fight for good against evil.
When superheroes first originated in comic books, the Great Depression was going on. People relied on them to lift their spirits and believe that good could conquer evil. According to Marvel archives, when we went to World War I in 1941, Captain America was created. Striping up in red, white, and blue, this patriotic Marvel superhero represented the Axis powers fighting in the war. This character having started out as a sickly man being turned into a strong superhero engrained the idea that even the weakest side could rise and win the fight. This superhero also led everyone throughI World War II’s fight.
In the sixties, some of the most well known ordinary heroes were first created by Stan Lee with Spiderman and the x-men and DC with the dark knight and the fantastic four. They rise from their tragedies into a life of fighting crime.
Now as our country plunders into the largest deficit in history we turn to our superheroes once again to pull us out of this difficult time. There have been thirty-one superhero movies in the last ten years. There have been a complete total of ( ) superheroes zooming in across United States film theatres.
Our dependency on things greater than our reality is only human. Robert Browning said, “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?” But we must caution ourselves. With two feet in the new technology age and new generations growing up in the digital age, we must remember why we have looked up to superheroes.
Scientists now tell us how plausible it is to swing from buildings like Spiderman or drift down through the air with his cape like Batman. If we pay too much attention to the possibility of being able to do these extraordinary things then we will turn a blind eye to why we have held our superheroes in such high esteem through the last eight decades.
We must take a step back and unmask our superheroes.
We will see that it is their human side of their fictional characters that they rely on to outsmart the villains not their superpowers. It is their humanness and their human struggles to fight good against evil. It is not their abilities that save them from the sword of their villains. It is their humanness.
Whether superheroes are large, green with a pair of non-shrinkable purple shorts or leaping off of rooftops while listening to their spidy sense, they have become our models. Before we have simply dreamed about what it would be like to leap from rooftops or race against rockets. Now as technology adapts quickly and we attempt to mimic superheroes abilities for our own personal gain, we risk bringing a Frankenstein story into reality.
Superheroes rose to lift our spirits. To help us believe that we can be more than ourselves and make a good change in the world. By unmasking our superheroes we see characters that we aspire to be like. We see their strength to struggle with their humanity.
