SuperHeroes: Characters or Icons

So I had a conversation with a few friends of mine last week that was sparked by superheroes being such a huge trend in movies at the moment (loved The Avengers: Age of Ultron by the way). When looking at most stories (be it in books, video games, movies or television shows) we look for some sort of character development or advancement; one of the joys of following a particular character is enjoying how they evolve and become better. But this isn’t really the case when it comes to comic book characters; they are generally static and are subject to a static lore surrounding their creation. The main reason is because these heroes are not characters, they are icons; ideals that represent what we wish humans would be, someone that more than we currently are.




One can take it further and say that super heroes are myths of the modern age. Think about it. Their creation stories remain virtually constant (Spiderman always has his Uncle Ben die and Superman is always shipped away from an exploding Krypton as a baby), their powers are generally constant (Dare Devil is always a blind badass that can see via something akin to sonar as well as utilising his other senses and Green Lantern always makes constructs based on his imagination) and they always have the same struggle they deal with (The Hulk is constantly dealing with alienating himself from the rest of the world because he feels he is too dangerous and Shazam never fully utilises his power because even though he has the wisdom of Solomon he is still a kid). Greek mythology always had Zeus depicted as a womaniser who was never satisfied with his current lifestyle, Egyptian mythology always depicts Set as being jealous of sibling and Norse mythology always describes Loki as a trouble maker seeking attention. However when you look at it these icons they are generally unchanged with each passing century and each icon describes an aspect of humanity (be it for the worst (Lex Luthor) or the best (Baulder)). Each story of these deities was meant to impart a lesson; yes, today most superheroes are made to sell merchandise or tell a story but each story does leave you with something to think about.




Odin’s wisdom (Norse mythology) is renowned throughout the world, but he didn’t just become smart over night; he sacrificed one of his eyes for that knowledge. Now that isn’t something many of us would give up, but the lesson there was that if you want something then sacrifice is necessary, nothing is obtained for free. Now the Spiderman story tried to teach that “with great power comes responsibility” because if Peter Parker had taken his powers more seriously his uncle might have still been alive. The Hulk being a giant unstoppable beast that gets more powerful the angrier he gets is a lesson in how we each need to learn how to control our anger because the Hulk might be unstoppable but when he becomes Bruce Banner people are genuinely afraid of him; within his human form he spends most of his time distancing himself from the world because he is afraid of himself. Really when you think about it Banner generally ends up spending most of his time trying to tame his rage; at least he is always depicted as doing so. The Green Lantern (look I know the movie wasn’t the best but they tried) teaches us that we are only limited by our imagination; human innovation almost seems endless, especially when you see innovators like Elon Musk (you owe it to yourself to google his name along with “Tesla” and “Solar power”)(Go ahead, this article will still be here) creating like there is no tomorrow.




Experience teaches, even if it comes from a fictional character.Pick an icon, learn from them and excel (did I mention one of my favourite Icons is Deadpool? I dare you to google him too….that actually sounds kinda dirty).

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