Kit n” Caboodle: What makes a hero?
Growing up, I would constantly get into playful arguments with my fellow classmates over who is the best hero in Western comic books.
Superman and Spiderman always seemed to be everyone”s favorites, their arguments lying in the fact that Superman could do absolutely anything and Spiderman could websling with a cocky teenage attitude.
I never agreed.
I find Spiderman to be extremely corny and annoying with his constant inner-monologues and as for Superman?he may fit the bill of the clich? superhero, in fact, he started the genre but that doesn”t really make him a “hero” in the true sense.
Does anyone remember the movie “Angus?” It was a comedy-drama released in 1995 and there is a scene where George C. Scott gives his grandson some parting advice: “Superman is not brave. He”s smart, he”s strong, he”s handsome, and he”s loved by everyone, but he is not brave. He is indestructible. He cannot be hurt by anything on Earth, only a material, which falls from the sky and when you”re indestructible, you don”t need to be brave. It”s the people who can be destroyed, who can be hurt and know it, yet get back up and keep going who are brave. They are the real heros.”
My favorite hero has always been and will forever be, Batman. I love Batman, the stories, the villains and the pure psychology of it all.
It truly is a masterpiece of fiction. However, as my classmates would agree that Batman was awesome, they did not believe he was the best hero.
“He doesn”t have any powers,” I would always hear them whine. “He relies on gadgets.”
But isn”t that what makes him so awesome? The fact that he doesn”t have any powers and instead, must rely upon his wits, physical strength and knowledge of science and technology to fight injustices?
In the pilot comic released in 1939 by an 18-year-old, Bob Kane, it is revealed that Bruce Wayne, the son of the wealthiest family in Gotham City is a very nervous little boy. He is afraid of everything; especially of the dark and of bats. One evening as he and his parents are leaving a theater through the back entrance, they are attacked by a mugger who shoots his parents and leaves him to watch them bleed to death.
Now orphaned, he becomes even more frightened and insecure and grows up bitter and hateful of everything around him.
Eventually, he is pushed over the edge when the man who killed his parents is set free and he realizes that the entire city is filled with corruption, even among those who are supposedly moral.
Believing there is no justice, he contemplates killing his parent”s murderer and therefore avenging them, but after he grows too afraid to do it, he contemplates suicide, but fears death.
Having been completely broken, he instead runs away and travels the world trying to find meaning and purpose in life.
After years and years of studying and hard work, he acquires a wealth of skills and knowledge, realizing that the only way to be at peace is to not have revenge, but to use what he has gained to prevent others from ever experiencing the pain and fear he has spent his whole life knowing. He realizes that the only way he will overcome his fears is to completely expose himself to them. The decision to become a bat stems from his belief that he cannot save others as a mere man, because a man can be corrupted, instead he must become a symbol, something that will trick his enemies into thinking that he is indestructible and thence he rules over them through psychology.
As a bat, he has now become what he fears the most. Batman is a mortal man who had to dedicate his entire life to achieve what he now has; he wasn”t bitten by a radioactive animal, he”s not an alien, he wasn”t born with natural gifts, he didn”t obtain some relic which grants him powers, he instead set a goal to master himself, to not become a victim of the world around him.
When he fell, he simply got back up, dusted himself off and moved foreword.
I always felt, even as a child that this was the best role model anyone could have.
Superman can”t exactly say to kids, “Do your homework, eat your vegetables, exercise everyday and you”ll grow up to be like me.”
That”s simply impossible. Even Spiderman can”t teach anyone to follow in his footsteps, he”s genetically mutated.
But Batman can pass on his knowledge and help others gain the skills he worked so hard to obtain. As for the gadgets, ?tis true, as billionaire Bruce Wayne he can afford to have them built for his specifications, but honestly, when you read the comics you learn that he himself constructed many of them using scrap parts he”s acquired from junk. A real hero is someone who never gives up, never compromises their beliefs, conquers their fears and makes good use of what they have. Let”s all be like Batman.
When Michelle Berger is not writing, she”s usually re-enacting famous fight scenes from Kung-Fu flicks. Reach her at mberger_om@yahoo.com.
