They come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Often they come in ridiculous dress codes. Sometimes they even have gender benders and have a fetish of wearing their underwear outside, even if they are females! But the scary part is that ALL of them are conscious schizophrenics. Whatever you say, they bring excitement, spontaneity and impossibility with them. Maybe that’s why they are called “Superheroes.” Such mortals can never be your next-door neighbours in real life. Still, they have been around as long as one can remember. For example… Peter Parker is always coming of age in the pages of Spiderman, even though he is now 50 years old. Also, who would have thought that being bitten by a spider would make life this exciting!
Living Legends?
Superhero comics have been an integral part of our childhood. We all have had our time when we used to read comics for hours together, worship the heroes like gods, and almost enact their adventures with a towel tied around our necks in the bedroom. Comics infused adventure, excitement, and danger and often peals of laughter amongst us. Also every kid had his own favourite character. Who can forget the heroic antics of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Phantom, Mandrake, and Flash Gordon and of course, our own Indian superstars like Chacha Chaudhary, Bahadur and the lovely Bela! Even Gardhab Das and Detective Moochhwalla deserve applause here. We used to stack their comics neatly in our bookshelves and we could tell every story from our private collection by heart. We used to scribble their drawings in our rough books and even dream of actually being one of them when we grow up.
Superhero comics have been here even before our entire generation was born, and even though this is not all that surprising, I always wondered what makes them tick, tock, and explode with popularity throughout the ages. If you think that it’s because they have amazing characters, or incredible stories, or super-intellectual properties, you are actually right. But for normal people, they are genuinely hilarious and can be read only if you are a toddler. I mean, jumping on rooftops in the middle of a moonlit night, dressed in what appears to be a Halloween costume, not to mention that you are blind anyways Come on, you can’t be serious.
But seriously. Here is this breed of usually loved, seldom hated bandwagon of crazy acrobats who make the impossible happen. (Of course, in the case of our politicians, it’s exactly the opposite). Ever since the advent of print media and eventually comic culture, we have seen superheroes swinging through newspapers, jumping through magazines and comic books, and now, they are proudly circussing on the silver screen. Not to mention so many of them also featuring in computer games.
remember drooling over the colourful pages of Daredevil when I was a kid, even though I couldn’t read one word in print. But you know what, come to think of it, reading between the frames is so much better than reading between the lines. But there’s a walking contradiction in itself. Because there is more to read between the lines in comic bubbles than there is in Sigmund Freud.
In a movie called K-PAX, when the Alien is asked by a human:
“How can you aliens not have laws? How do you know what’s right from wrong?”
To this the Alien calmly replies, “My friend, every being in the universe knows right from wrong.”
Well, albeit that’s true, humans need to be reminded of it from time to time. Kids, especially. All superhero comics are basically designed for young readership, but you might find adults browsing through them after their kids have finished consuming the recent issue. What’s in here that hooks them up for hours together? Maybe, it’s the colourful pictures and the insane acrobatics. Of course that’s true. But the “real truth” lies buried in a bunch of cheap paper. Tons of colourful frames, super powered action, kiddish hyper-emotional dialogues, and even the proverbial “eternal battle between good and evil”: They all eventually swing down to the real thing:
Right from wrong.
It is music to the mind to learn this from Superman than from Mommy. Also it is 87.36% easier to learn from Spiderman that “With great power comes great responsibility” than Daddy dearest. And life is much less complicated. The best things in life are always the simplest.
“You’re a big boy now!”
All superhero concepts are adolescent fantasies. Or are they? At first sight, sure. In fact these lunatics are always jumping around in multi-coloured drapery and fighting the baddies all over town. What’s more to that?
The common belief of comics catering only to kids or teenagers is far from true. Comic content has proved to express amazing humanistic and “mature” outlooks. The stories are usually very comprehensive and multi-layered. Surprisingly, they are much better than novels, films and other media, which claim to depict humanistic values.
A few years back, Spiderman saved the victims of the WTC when it was crumbling to ashes. Superman used his flying abilities to transport food and supplies in Somalia, and the Hulk is brooding on why he is the last living human on Earth. But all alter egos of superheroes common problems like being short of money, peer pressure and being lovesick. Some are very sensitive to personal issues while some others are fighting hard to gain respect in their families.
But here’s the most interesting part. Between the frames, there are secret messages written in invisible ink. E.g. every character is actually a personification of a certain human psyche. Superman is the depiction of nobility, hope and strength. Batman is a depiction of the mind gone over the edge. The blind crime fighter Daredevil turns his disability into his greatest asset. At the heart of each character, you will find a very simple one-liner. These characters are fitting metaphors to human behaviour. They may be normal people but they do superhuman things when they don their mental costume. But my favourite is the Hulk. Bruce Banner turns into the monstrous Hulk only when he’s angry. When we are angry, we become what we want to be. How simpler can you get!
So if that’s so bloody true, are there super-heroes in real life?
Not costumed, for sure. Because the “cruel hypocritical” world we live in, a real life costumed super hero will have far more problems than those essayed on printed paper.
Epilogue :
We thought that World Leaders were Heroes, and they failed us. We thought actors were Superheroes, but they ditched us. And when it comes to cricketers, you’re never so sure. So I guess the only option is to have a REAL Hero. It’s a surprise that isn’t a single real life hero/heroine even after 50 years and tons of icons.
Fact:
The world needs a superhero. Whether you call him an adolescent icon or kidish fantasy or a sheer impossibility. We need him now, when the time is right, and we need him even when things are going normally…. Like the 9/11 incident, for example.
“The World is a fine place…and it’s worth fighting for. I believe in the second part”.