Our Superheroes, Ourselves
Robin S. Rosenberg
Language: English
Pages: 232
ISBN: 0199765812
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Superhero fans are everywhere, from the teeming halls of Comic Con to suburban movie theaters, from young children captivated by their first comic books to the die-hard collectors of vintage memorabilia. Why are so many people fascinated by superheroes?
In this thoughtful, engaging, and at times eye-opening volume, Robin Rosenberg--a writer and well-known authority on the psychology of superheroes--offers readers a wealth of insight into superheroes, drawing on the contributions of a top group of psychologists and other scholars. The book ranges widely and tackles many intriguing questions. How do comic characters and stories reflect human nature? Do super powers alone make a hero super? Are superhero stories good for us? Most contributors answer that final question in the affirmative. Psychologist Robert J. Sternberg, for instance, argues that we all can learn a lot from superheroes-and what we can learn most of all is the value of wisdom and an ethical stance toward life. On the other hand, restorative justice scholar Mikhail Lyubansky decries the fact that justice in the comic-book world is almost entirely punitive, noting extreme examples such as "Rorschach" in The Watchmen and the aptly named "The Punisher, who embrace a strict eye-for-an-eye sense of justice, delivered instantly and without mercy.
In the end, the appeal of Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and legions of others is simple and elemental. Superheroes provide drama, excitement, suspense, and romance and their stories showcase moral dilemmas, villains we love to hate, and protagonists who inspire us. Perhaps as important, their stories allow us to recapture periods of our childhood when our imaginations were cranked up to the maximum--when we really believed we could fly, or knock down the bad guy, or save the city from disaster.
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genes drive people to engage in ethically impeccable behavior, but only that people are innately prepared to learn to make and understand moral judgments. For instance, there is a great deal of evidence that individuals have a basic and strong aversion to being treated unfairly. In studies that investigate fairness in a laboratory setting by having individuals participate in an economic game in which they are asked to engage in a financial exchange with a partner, one of the most reliable
in our bare hands, it is through imagination and our vicarious adventures alongside of superheroes, that we can explore the world of possibilities, both outer and inner. These stories allow us to harness the power of imagination, that fertile field of possibility that lies within each of us. One of the most interesting roles that superhero stories play is in stimulating what psychologist Michael Pardales calls “moral imagination.”23 For him, moral imagination is a playground of sorts, on which we
(1988). Whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?: An examination of the American monomyth and the comic book superhero. Journal of Popular Culture, 22(3), 157–173. 3. Fingeroth, D. (2004). Superman on the couch: What superheroes really tell us about ourselves and our society. New York: Continuum. 4. Gravett, P. (2007). Superheroes: Nothing will ever be the same again. Retrieved May 20, 2010 from http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/ articles/article/superheroes. 5. Rubin, L. (2012). Superheroes
introduced a number of characters who changed from villains to heroes. Among them are the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, mutants who had been members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.42 After the Brotherhood were defeated by the X-Men, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver declared that they no longer owed a debt of gratitude to Magneto (the leader of a group the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and an arch enemy of the X-Men) and stated that they regretted joining him. The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver
and television—led Americans as well as people in other countries to feel more vulnerable. Common reactions, aside from horror, anger, and sadness, were “this could 16 Our Relationship with Superheroes happen anywhere,” “this could happen to me,” and “is there no way to stop this?” In a sense, we all became terror’s victims. Collectively, we began to yearn for larger-than-life heroes—to be inspired by them and to be rescued by them. Coincidentally, within a year of 9/11, the first Spider-Man
