Every culture has its mythical heroes. Odysseus. Gilgamesh. King Arthur. Horus. The list goes on, each civilization has its own list of heroes that defines their culture. But where are these heroes now? Has humanity lost the heroes who define it? The ones that have spoken to us for ages?
The modern hero does not make appearances in epic poems or masterfully painted on the wall of a tomb. The modern hero comes in 24 page comics. They appear in our largest films. The new hero is a super hero.
The purpose of a hero is to tell a story to the reader (or watcher) while also teaching them a lesson. Modern heroes fight for good. The lessons can range anywhere from humility to the infamous line “with great power comes great responsibility.” Of course, the story should be entertaining, or nobody would listen to it.
Having a good story and a moral to a story are only part of the reason heroes are so important. When you read an old issue of Captain America and a new one, the differences are very stark (get it? Like Tony Stark? Ah, never mind.) Besides the fact that the quality of art changes, the issues being brought up are very different. Comics have had a history of bringing up topical problems (like racism and corruption) and putting them into fantastical circumstances. In fact, one of the largest villains in today’s Marvel comics is Roxxon, a giant corrupt organization led by a greedy business man. This, of course, compared to the Red Skull of the Captain America comics of the 40’s. Red Skull was a madman working with the Nazi’s to take over the world. The usual trope of villain in classic comics.
Just because the issues have changed, the stories have not. Our modern heroes are just reskinned versions of the heroes of yore. I’m not going to list off who is who. You can draw those conclusions yourself. Anyway, the stories are eerily similar in terms of what happens and how. If you know who Joseph Campbell is, you probably know all about the “Hero’s Journey”. To keep it short, it is a linear set of events that most (basically all really) stories follow. Think the stories of the original Star Wars trilogy. You can lay the plot of Star Wars next to the Odyssey, and the two are the same story with different faces.
Okay, I still have not answered the question of why we love these characters so much. To be totally honest, I have no idea. Is it because the stories are good? That these stories tell us what is important to us? Something else? We might have different reasons for loving these stories, but the fact that they transcend time and cultures. We see love to see hear these stories and hear about the struggles of these mighty characters.
The purpose of this blog is to look at our modern heroes (or anti-heroes) and try to figure out why we love them. Disclaimer, I’m a pretty big Marvel fan. I’ll probably stick to Marvel’s characters.