Module 2: Superhero Storytelling

 

The Formula of Heroes

This week we explored two kinds of heroes— ones made and ones born. Spider-Man and the various and sundry Multiverse iterations of him are made; they had to be bitten and transformed in order to fall into their arc and eventually respond to a call to action. Their mantle as hero is borne of a sense of duty brought on by unforeseeable circumstances, and because of that, the dilemmas they face revolve around the different lives they must always juggle. Superman, on the other hand, was born with his abilities because he's an alien. He has had a lifetime to grapple with the differences between himself and the humans around him. The issues that early Superman deals with are often Promethean in nature— his superhuman abilities make him able to save humanity over and over from itself (and, typical of the 30s, certain nuclear disaster). It's interesting to think about the different ways heroes and built, made, and explored within the identities of the ordinary (or in Clark Kent's case, not-so-ordinary) people that become them.

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