Superheroes

When most people think of a superhero, they picture a strong, masculine, straight, American, white male such as Batman or Superman.  However, it seems that considering how much our culture has changed since the original comics were created, there should be more diversity when it comes to superheroes and heroines.  The question that I took away from the texts for this unit was what makes somebody or something heroic in our eyes?

I did find the different approaches to the portrayal of King Arthur interesting.  In the story, the focus is on Arthur’s background and his family history.  The story ends just as Arthur pulls the sword from the stone and is declared the rightful king.  The reader learns about the strange and complicated incidents surrounding Arthur’s birth and childhood, so does his this knowledge further our notion of him as a hero?  Or is our idea of Arthur as a heroic character merely based on his ability to remove the sword and prove that he is the king? In the Camelot trailer, the attention seems to be focused on Arthur’s love life and his reign as a middle-aged king.  The narrator says that it is “the most poignant legend of love in our language; the immortal tale of King Arthur.”  Lancelot is also recognized in this trailer as “the perfect knight,” leading the viewer to believe that there may be more than one heroic character in this film.  The clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail depicts Arthur as a boastful and proud king, disconnected from the common people.  In the short story and the Camelot trailer, the reader/viewer was given the impression that Arthur was well liked, adored, and somewhat idolized by the people.  In this satirical movie, the primary reason that Arthur became king—pulling the sword from the stone—is mocked instead of praised.  With these three different representations of Arthur—as a young, noble, innocent child; as an older and romanticized king; and as a pretentious and self-righteous ruler—the reader is left wondering what exactly about the legend of King Arthur makes him such a heroic character?

            The remaining texts more closely examined how gender, race, sexuality, and identity affect how society classifies superheroes or icons as heroic.  In the NPR review, “Superheroines, Fighters, And Why Isn’t There A Wonder Woman Movie,” Linda Holmes discusses the somewhat subtle presence of female superheroes throughout time, but also wonders why there has been no film about Wonder Woman.  It seems that in most comics or superhero movies/shows, women are usually portrayed as either victims or love interests.  In the superman comic (I had a difficult time connecting this one) Superman rescues a woman from taking her own life.  Though the woman eventually makes her own decision, she is portrayed as an emotional, mentally and emotionally weak victim.  Most of the rescuing is left to the men.  Holmes also alludes to the fact that Wonder Woman was formed as a response to WWII and the political and social issues of the time.  There has not been a new film or show about Wonder Woman since the Lynda Carter show.  Was Wonder Woman considered a hero because she was created during a time of war?  Why do female heroines not seem to prevail through the decades in the same ways that male heroes do?  Similarly, the lack of racial diversity in superheroes is discussed in “Who Gets to be a Superhero? Race and Identity in Comics” by Gene Demby, “Meet the new Muslim-American Green Lantern” by The Week Staff, and “What if the X-Men were Black” by Orion Martin.  All three of these articles point out the domination of white males in the world of superheroes.  Orion and Demby argue that X-Men is furthering discrimination and promoting assimilation because of the lack of characters of color.  However, the idea of creating brown X-Men brought about criticism from white fans.  They felt that changing the race of superheroes would “confuse a lot of people.”  For some people, it seems that the fact that superheroes are strong, white, heterosexual males is what makes them heroic.  But, in reality, it seems that the idea of superheroes is based on so much more than these characteristics.  Although one Green Lantern was recognized as being gay, my impression was that he was recognized as being gay only after the comics about his specific Green Lantern character were done being made.  I think that The Week does make a valid point that political overtones are fine in a comic, but they need to be sharper and more suiting to the plot of the comic.  Creating superheroes and heroines that vary in race, gender, sexuality, and identity is something that can and should be done, but I believe that these traits are still not what make a hero heroic.