I just saw a movie ‘Defendor’ and was quite impressed the way it was done. It’s a story about a delusional guy who thinks he’s a superhero. He dies in the end, but not before touching the hearts of everyone in the town and stopping ‘the Bad Guy’. The movie ends up with encouraging the viewers to try to make a difference and to act a little less selfish in their actions. We’ve seen a surge of superhero movies and series from Hollywood over the past two years. Incidentally superheroes were introduced in the media during the World Wars. It was a subconscious effort to instill hope in the minds of people, especially teenagers. Kids would look up to the superheroes and hopefully take inspiration regarding the virtues of good and acts of selflessness.
Admit it! Everyone has those days when you wish you could look up in the sky and wish superman would swoosh down and take your problems away. Even Homer Simpson says, “I'm not normally a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me, Superman!” So wouldn’t it be great to have a real superhero to look up to? Someone who doesn’t just make promises? Someone who is a spotless white sheet in the grim dirty world. We have leaders, we have social workers and we have the clergy men of various religions. But there is no one who the entire world can look up too. There actually is no one an entire nation can look up too. People don’t read comics anymore. Kids play extremely violent virtual games where the motto is to kill. Indoor activities are preferred to outdoor physical exertion.
Everything that could ever turn a kid into a superhero is being avoided. Even in academics we’re gaining more impractical knowledge, something that will never help us in life. It is sad to see that a kid will no longer get excited over a Spider-man or a Batman comic as they did a few years back. What I want to say is that right now more than comics, more than world leaders and more than a academic degree, we need a Superhero. When we read about him in the newspaper or hear about him in the news, we would feel hopeful. When we see him, we would smile and feel happy that he’s there for us. Someone to fill the air with all that is good!
Superheroes tend to have an extraordinary ability that separates them from normal individuals. Some have superhuman abilities such as super strength, flight, telekinetic abilities with prime examples being Superman, Wonder-Woman, Captain America, The Flash, and Spider-man and so on. Some have technology on their side; for example Oracle, and of course Batman. There are many who have both while there are some who have a very few but excel in those and strive to protect their ideals. In the end, what are common is their morale and the code they follow. They have the courage to protect others while risking their own life. History and comics show that superheroes don’t lead a good life. They tend to be alone a lot. They personal life is a mess and they never have a stable relationship. They tend to risk much more than their lives and are not afraid to take it to an unbelievable length to protect others and serve what all is good. And yes, it sounds very good and very idealistic. And it is all frictional. That is one reason why we need someone real. Someone to who can be a symbol to abolish the ‘unseen evil’ that is destroying out world. We would all agree that there is something that’s not right with the world. We can’t put a finger on it to define it but we do need something to take it away. Call me idealist, but what we need is a superhero (The more the better rule applies here quite well). Right now, in this time of depression we need superheroes more than anything else. We need a ray of hope. We need a fantastic escape from reality to bring us from the brink of despair to the peak of optimism.
The current events bring me closer to the conclusion that we need a superhero, desperately! Post 9-11, people said, “It would be nice if a superhero existed who could have stopped it”. A similar statement would be said about many other events that have occurred in the past few years. Wouldn’t it be nice to turn back the clock and prevent those bombings and killings? Wouldn’t it be nicer if an individual would have prevented a gruesome incident from happening and shown the world a single ray of hope, something we all been waiting for? After 9-11, the firefighters, policemen, and everyone involved positively in the incident were called heroes. They satisfied the definition of a superhero as someone who rose to a situation to risk their life to save others. Yet there are a very select few who can name and identify even one of these individuals. Their sacrifice is not only recognized but also ignored. Now we’re concentrating on the ‘plot’ of 9-11 rather than the lives lost in 9-11. Will an individual rise to a level where their deeds will be respected and known to the world to a level where they can affect and inspire others to follows their path? I do hope someone does soon.
I agree that the idea of there being "Real Life Superheroes" is a little crazy, but there have been times when I've gone walking late at night and not seen a single police officer for hours. What if something was to happen? If a superhero just happened to be there it may deter any such criminal acts from happening. The example as trivial as it seems, puts forth the importance of superheroes. I asked a few friends whether they would prefer if superheroes in the real world. I got various answers like “I wish for a superhero who would give me jobs” to “You should be looking for a money making position rather than a frictional comic book character.” And even a plain “No”. These are the people who believe that a superhero is too realistic. Why? Sadly the world does not work that way. There is probably never an easy solution to all the problems. This is the real world, where we live by solving problems, one at a time and consequently become a better human. The existence of a superhero will make a weakling out of us. Or will it really weaken us? Would it weaken us to see someone stronger than us, having the courage to do things we can’t? I guess this is what makes us human. We can’t stand the fact that there is an existence that is can be termed as an evolved human, a greater being. The TV series Heroes follows the fact that meta-humans or superheroes are feared and that humanity is not ready to accept their existence. Our nature will always create fear for things we don’t understand.
The question still stands. Do we really need superheroes? Wouldn’t it be nice to look up in the sky and for once smile because you know there is hope? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that if you take risks, someone will be there to catch you when you fall? When you save someone’s life, you would not be afraid of an entire gang coming after you? And even if they do, it would be ok, because you can’t put a price on life. Don’t you want your kids to hold a hero as their mentor rather than the lead of “Grant Theft Auto”? My opinion is strong and I stand by it. We need superheroes. As a friend of mine said, we need not one but many of them. We need a fantastic escape. We need dreams that inspire hope. We need Superman!
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