The Real World Of Superheroes

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In this blog post I plan to address why superheroes are so important and inspirational in everyday life. To establish my answer I will be presenting information from two different articles. The first article I will be using is Why America Loves Superheroes by the Digital Universe and The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories by Smithsonian.com.

To begin with, lots of people have a general interest in superheroes and many look up to them even if they are just fictional characters. Why they are so important is that people can see them as role models and will try to better themselves based on the life of this fictional character. In the article by the Digital Universe, a superhero fan named Josh Melara lays it out perfectly. He states that “Superheros are strong, successful, able to make the best of any circumstance, they get the girl, they kick butt and they always come out on top,” and he continues to tie it into his life by stating “that’s like every guy’s fantasy and, if I could ever be even a fraction of that, I’d feel pretty good about myself.” So basically superheroes live the perfect life, and that is an unrealistic standard for anyone on the planet today. However, bits and pieces can be taken away to better your life and the person you are just from the ideals that can be presented in a comic book. Melara continues on talking about Batman and how he has inspired him. He states that Batman “he doesn’t have superpowers to rely on; he is just a man who has worked very hard to become what he wanted. It gives me the belief that even though I’m just a guy, I can become something great.” Even though Batman is an amazing fictional character, he still can inspire millions across the world. Melara continues on to talk about how Superheroes gave him faith in humanity again because maybe there are people just like them out there. It is crazy just how much good these characters can do even when they only exist in a book or on a screen.

The second article deals with the background stories of heroes and how strangely related they are to everyday human life. It describes the backstories of Batman, who had his parents murdered, and Spiderman, who got his powers by chance and lost his Uncle Ben, and more. Many people do not believe that these ridiculous stories have anything to do with our everyday lives. However, they would be surprised to how similar they actually are. In the article the author ties the relationship between these fantasy stories and reality by stating “I think origin stories show us not how to become super but how to be heroes, choosing altruism over the pursuit of wealth and power.” So granted you won’t become the Dark Knight after one life event but you can learn how to better yourself and your life through this story. The author states that these background stories tie into our lives in three ways. The three ways are trauma, destiny, and chance. Trauma is related to many superheroes as many if not all of them have lost something important. From Batman’s parents, to Superman’s home world, to Wolverine’s girlfriend, all of them have lost something important and it took a toll on them. Tying that into the real world, everyone has lost something important to them that can lead them to some emotional hurt and trauma. So in reality, these stories tie more into real life than one would think.

In conclusion, superheroes mean a lot more to society than I think they get credit for. I believe they give a lot to everyday society and can do a lot of help even if they are restricted to the fictional world.