Superheroes have been my coping mechanism for reality since I was in my early teens. Ever since a period in my life where I felt my world was falling apart and I would turn to Spider-Girl to watch her life fall apart courtesy of “the old Parker luck.” Here was a teenage superhero that hadn’t had her Uncle murdered, her parents taken from her in a mugging gone wrong, or even been involved in a lab accident to gain her superhero persona! I could relate to this ordinary girl who only wanted to do what was right because she was raised with a great sense of responsibility. She wasn’t born of tragedy, but she was still going to do her part to save the day.
Even with this lucky break, hardship still attacks at every corner. Super villains abound (of course), selfish and hateful people attack her family, and let’s not forget the traumas of high school drama.
Why doesn’t she quit this gig? What has being Spider-Girl ever done to ease any of this suffering? Nothing! They say crime doesn’t pay, but superhero-ing doesn’t exactly count as a lucrative career either.
But our dear Mayday Parker isn’t a quitter. She cares too much about her family, friends, and even the innocent bystander to ever look the other way. Caring may not do you any favors, but that doesn’t mean that you stop. Selfless love and abandonment of self made May a hero in my mind. Her attitude towards struggle was quite an inspiration to me, as I’m sure you can tell.
Nowadays, I find it hard to fall back on such farfetched ideals. How can I read comics, write comics, and blog about comics when there are such serious issues going on in real life?
Seeing connections between Spider-Girl’s decisions when fighting the villain Carnage and my own struggles on whether I should live up North or down South...such childish notions! A correlation between May’s founding of the New Warriors against Crazy Eights and Funny Face and my own struggle to find a job? Seriously?
Just think of what respectable adults might think if they read these silly scribbles. It’s time to give up such silly ideas and grow up, right?
It is true; I don’t need my fictional superheroes to find someone to aspire towards. There are plenty of real life heroes that set great examples for us all every day.
Yes, real life heroes can let you down sometimes, but fictional heroes can do that too (just ask the Superior Spider-Man). These guys have been made up by flawed human beings, therefore they are imperfect as well. (That’s the logic that Hank Pym used to stop Ultron in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.)
I can’t justify my fascination with these caped crusaders. All I know is that thinking of the world I live in from their point of view helps me when things are tough. The secular world has wandered so far from what is good, is it so wrong to cling to this one shard of moral fiber?
Surely God uses this light in the darkness to help guide those who are lost. He is truth and goodness itself. If something reflects these things, do they not also reflect our Lord?
Maybe I am grasping at straws here, but I will do so for as long as I am able.
“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
— Puddleglum (The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis )
Thanks for reading. TTYL.
1 comment:
I sat through a talk recently trashing "escapist fiction," particularly superheroes. The speaker said it was ridiculous, harmful, and useless. I ignored the speaker. Tolkien had already spoken, and no one can call Tolkien stupid.
"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?... If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!"
The duty of an adult is to culture ourselves to better do our work and to help others do theirs. Enter fiction. Enter Superheroes.
When we use superheroes to escape our duty, then we have a problem- but that problem is in ourselves, not the comics we read. (Not to say comics in general are perfect, just that our approach to them is on us rather than on them).
When we use superheroes to escape confusion, apathy, and fear, then we are bettering ourselves- and no one can say that's un-adult.
The whole point of fiction (or of learning history, philosophy, theology, or anything) is to help us understand and cope with our own pasts, presents, and futures.
According to Tolkien and judging from your own blog post here, I'd say you're incredibly adult in your enjoyment of comic books and superheroes.
It's awkward trying to justify a hobby that others see as having no value, or as useless. They simply will not understand. Their loss. :)
And "kids' stuff" is what forms us as adults. If superheroes made you into who you are today, I'd say it's a more than worthy endeavor.
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