Another Comic Con has come and gone, and Eddy is left with an empty hole inside of his heart the shape of several thousand cosplay costumes, star-studded panels and epic movie trailers. Add this convention to the list of things I might commit a crime to attend one day, along with E3. Because of this, I’ve been in the superhero mindset as of late, which really doesn’t take too long, seeing as how I’m a bit obsessed, and have been since I was but a wee lad, as they say.
I’m not really sure what spawned all of this in my brain, but since I can remember, I’ve loved the idea of guys with secret identities and special powers. I’m not sure if it’s because I grew up always feeling like the dorky outcast and wanted a super gift of my own, or because the idea of flying guys in tights is just that awesome.
Perhaps it is a bit of both, though I have no clue what my power might have been besides awkwardness or my ability to read Calvin and Hobbes for hours on end. I was one of those kids that wasn’t good at much besides being a dork and sometimes saying funny things, but not on purpose. As it turns out, my favorite superheroes turned out to be dorks, too.
For awhile, Spider-Man was my masked crusader of choice, in part because Peter Parker seemed so much like myself, or what the eight year old version of Eddy considered himself to be, minus the smoking hot red head and the witty one liners. I remember buying comic book after comic book all throughout elementary and middle school, often times drawing my own stories of Spider-Man battling his foes. My terribly rendered spider guys would fight against Venom, Green Goblin and others. Eventually this transitioned over to X-Men, but maybe that’s because I wanted more friends. Not that I didn’t have any, but spending summers cooped up inside and playing video games wears on anybody.
But through it all, one superhero stuck above all others. Beyond Wolverine, Batman and whoever else’s issues I could get my hands on, the one hero that always fascinated me was Superman. Like Peter Parker, he was a dorky guy (or at least pretended to be), but unlike those others, his powers seemed almost limitless. Not only could Superman fly, but he could move planets, hurl entire buildings into neighboring or distant zip codes and could do all of this while still being invulnerable. On top of all of that, and I think this was most important to young Eddy’s still developing sense of self: Superman knew who he was and what his purpose was.
Today, most of our heroes are naturally post-modern. They doubt themselves, they don’t want to shoulder the burdens that landed precariously on their lives and they tend to be emo about the girls they like, their archvillains and what kind of condiments they want on their sandwiches. But not Superman. Superman was a modern hero in every sense of the word because he was a hero that knew he was a hero, and better yet, welcomed this responsibility.
For some reason, we tend to shy away from this in current superhero stories, and it tends to be labeled as boring. Heck, even Aragorn’s sensibilities were shifted between the pages of Tolkien’s writing to the script that Peter Jackson used for LOTR. Tolkien’s Aragorn was Superman, a hero that knew what his duty was and rushed into its jaws without fear or remorse. Jackson’s Aragorn needed a dying Liv Tyler to finally become who “he was born to be”. I know which one is more appealing to me, but apparently movie audiences differ.
Even to this day, my Superman obsession still lives strong. Superman Returns, while generally regarded as boring by my peers, had me enthralled for most of the entire film. Then again, I’m biased – Routh could have been in a Superman diaper the whole movie and I probably would have been fine. Before that, Smallville was a weekly Thursday night event for me, and I’m even considering tuning in for the final season. Heck, the base reason that Dexter appeals to me so much (besides being awesome), is that its formula is straight out of the pages of Clark Kent and co., with a modern hero who is sure of his “calling” hiding a secret identity and ability from those around him. He even has a bald counterpart in Doakes.
I honestly think that culture tends to prefer these postmodern heroes because that’s the way society at large feels. Unsure of their callings, not sure where the wind is going to take them, and trying to figure out their purpose without bumping into each other too much. But there’s something terribly inspiring about a figure who is completely sold out for a purpose.
I don’t think that’s boring at all. I think it’s poetic.
So the “tl;dr” version of it the post is this: I love Superman, and I can has Comic Con? What are some of your favorite superheroes, and what do you appreciate about them?
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