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Heroes and Superheroes
JEPH LOEB and TOM MORRIS
Many writers, artists, and other people who are in the superhero business have taken up this interesting task because we believe that the stories of these characters embody our deepest hopes and fears, as well as our highest aspirations, and that they can help us deal with our worst nightmares. They chart out ques- tions we'll all have to face in the future. And they shed new light on our present condition. In addition, they do all this in such a way as to give us a new sense of direction and resolve as we live our own lives.
Defining a Hero and a Superhero
Let's start with a simple question. What is a superhero? What sets a superhero apart from a normal person? Well, first of all, they tend to look a bit different. Some wear capes and, since the time of Count Dracula, very few other people have donned this par- ticular garb. Some of them have cool gadgets they keep in util- ity belts. One has metal claws that pop out of his hands. Another is very green and you wouldn't want to be around him when he's angry. There's a lot of spandex involved, and movement high above the ground is common. Hyphenated or compound names ending in "man" or "woman" or "boy" or "girl" tend to be a dead giveaway as well. As a rule, superheroes have powers and abilities far beyond those of ordinary mortals. And to a per- son they pursue justice, defending the defenseless, helping those who cannot help themselves, and overcoming evil with the force of good.
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Some people think that the concept of a superhero is prob- lematic. Understanding a hero as a person who risks life and limb for the sake of others, and taking the prefix "super" to indi- cate the possession of superpowers, they reason that the more super an individual might be, the less heroic he or she could possibly be, and conversely, the more heroic a person is, the less super they'd have to be. The reasoning is simple. The more powerful a person is, the less he or she would risk in fighting evil or helping someone else. What's so heroic about stopping an armed robbery if your skin is bullet proof and your strength is irresistible by any ordinary, or even extraordinary, street thug? On the other hand, if you're actually heroic in your actions, it must be because you did indeed have a lot to lose, if things had gone badly, which can't be true unless you lack the typical pow- ers that are distinctive of superheroes. If this argument is right, then, at worst, the concept of a superhero, in it's extreme ideal- ism, is an (oxymoron,jwhich means that it's literallyC incoherent^ >
- a contradiction)in terms. At best, it would follow that the only super-powered individuals fighting evil and working for the good of others who normally could be considered heroic would have to be those on the low end of the power spectrum, with few protections and many vulnerabilities. Superman, for exam- ple, would be disqualified from counting as heroic in his nor- mal actions, except perhaps when he faced Kryptonite. As tempting as this reasoning might seem, it's just based on a simple misunderstanding of the heroic. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "hero" as a term coming down to us from Greek antiquity, and as meaning "man of super-human qualities, , favored by the gods." The second definition given is fiAustEoujT^ warrior," and the third is "man admired for achievements and noble qualities." This third definition is of particular interest. No level of achievements alone is enough to make someone a hero. That person must embody noble qualities as well. Go look up the word "noble" and you'll find phrases like "of lofty character or ideals" and "morally^ elevated." The concept of a hero is a moral category. The idea of a superhero is not an oxy- moron—a composite concept composed of two incompatible notions: that of an utterly invulnerable being risking personal vulnerabilities (which of course he can't have since he's invul- nerable) for the sake of a greater good. That's not the idea of a superhero at all. A superhero is an extraordinarily powerful per-
14 Jeph Loeb and Tom Morris
ought to be doing, too. The superheroes stand out, not just because of their outfits and powers, but because of their altru- jsiic.-activism and[dedication to what is gqpdL^ In an interesting way, we can and should extend our concept of the heroic beyond those occupations that obviously require facing personal danger for the good of others, or that involve financial sacrifice in the service of what is socially_ needed. We should realize that a stay-at-home mother can be a hero, as can a public servant, an_engineer, a musician, or an^artist. Anyone who stands for the_goqd_and_the_right, and does so against the jxill of forces that would defeat_their_effQrt can be seen as heroic. A person can make a heroic_ struggle^ against cancer, or some other terrible disease. A young man or woman can fight heroically for their own education, against all odds and expec- tations. Heroism as a concept should never be diminished by over-application, but at the same time, we do not properly understand it unless we see its application wherever it is appro- priate. • This insight can help us to address another worry about the term "superhero." Since the original Greek definition of a hero involved the attribution of "super-human qualities," we might be tempted to think that the word "superhero" intrinsically involves a clumsy .Redundancy,? But as the core concept of a hero has morphed over time from the ancient idea that did involve some- thing like superpowers to the more modern notion that focuses mainly on high achievements and moral_nobility, there is need for a term that brings the component of superior power back into the balance. And this is how we get our concept of a super- hero. A superhero is a hero with superhuman powers, or at least with human abilities that have been developed to a superhuman level. That gets Batman and Green Arrow, among others, into the fray, where they belong. But remembering the "super," we can never allow ourselves to forget the "hero" element as well. There are limits to the development of superhero psychology on the part of comic-book writers and film writers. There can be darkness in a character as well as light,^as there is in any human life, but that darkness must ultimately be constrained by the good and noble, or we have left the realm of the properly super- heroic. Not every costumed crime-fighter is necessarily a hero, _and not every one with superhuman powers is necessarily a superhero.
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How to Be a Hero In Superman for All Seasons, it was important to represent the true nature of the heroic choice that Clark Kent made, and had to continue to make, in order to be the superhero we know as Superman. To serve as many people who needed his help as possible, he had to leave the home of his loving family, the hometown where he had grown up, and the girl with whom he shared a special bond, and a secret, and move away, alone, to launch his mission of service. He had to make real sacrifices. And, when you think about it, .sacrifice — along with the ability to_make sacrifices — is something like a forgotten virtue in much of modern life. Or at least, it's under-appreciated. We tend to think of it in almost wholly negative terms, focusing on what we're being asked to give up, and losing sight of the value of the goal that cannot be attained without the sacrifice. K~ sacrifice is always a down payment, or an up-front cost. It's both rational and beneficial when what is being purchased by _ that cost is of great good, and can't_be_ attained_in_any other * ' "
Superman sacrifices a lot in order to be able to do the heroic things he does. So does Peter Parker, in order to serve as Spider- Man. Matt Murdock gives up his nights, and much of his time off, in order to protect the innocent people of Hell's Kitchen and beyond. And all this sacrifice takes self-discipline, which is just about as far off the radar screen as sacrifice is for many people these days, as something good, valuable, and important in the arsenal of human qualities that are desirable to have._ Power without self-discipline is either just wasted, or it's dangerous. Self-discipline is a form of focus that helps make the greatest goods possible. In the Superman for All Seasons narrative, Lois Lane is so taken aback by how someone with Superman's powers could use them the way he does precisely because it's so relatively uncommon to see such a thing. The more power we get, the more jividlv_we tend to serve ourselves, and our_pwn interests. But this is where the superheroes stand apart. They realize that there_is_nojreal self:fulfillmenLwithQUt self-giving. They under- stand that we have our talents and powers in order to use them, and that to use them for the good of others as well as ourselves is the highest use we can make of them.
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fronted and overcome. They display the power of character and £gurage_gyerjidversity. And so, even in dealing with our fears, they can be inspirational. We will all confront adversity in our lives. And that can be dispiriting. We are often inclined to just give up and find an eas- ier path. But the superheroes show us that nothing worth doing is easy. Even with their superpowers, the greatest of the super- heroes often prevail _against._adversjty only because of what philosophers know of as the classic virtues, and some neo-clas- sic ones as well, like courage, determination, persistence, team- work, and creativity. They don't accept defeat. They won't ever give up. They believe in themselves, and in their cause, and they go all-out to achieve their goals. By showing us how even very powerful people have to fight and struggle and stick to that fight in order to prevail, they help us deal with the fears that we all face concerning our own prospects in the world. So, it will be tough. So what? We can do it. There is even another sort of fear, less obvious, but perhaps just as important, that many superhero narratives bring to our attention. Many of us fear what we may have to do to stand up to the evil in the world. Will we have to resort to force and vio- lence in order to contain or defeat the forces that threaten us and those we love? The superheroes often do, but they know where to draw the line. Will we? Many great philosophers have understood that we human beings are creatures of habit. Once we resort to violence to solve a problem, we are a bit more likely to do the same thing again on a future occasion—whether that future occasion really requires it or not. We are inclined to do what we have become accustomed to doing, and any single act can begin to accustom us to something new. If we are sent to war in a foreign land, will we return as more violent people? Will it ruin our lives? Will we be forever changed in detrimental ways? That's a real fear for any good person living in the modern world. Along with our tendency to form habits, we all have some- thing like an ever-rising threshold of expectations that plays out in many dimensions of our lives. The rising threshold phenom- enon is a very general thing. The more money people make, the more they want, and the more they think is necessary for a com- fortable life. A glass of wine with dinner can over time very eas- ily become two glasses, and then three. The use of force and
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violence works the same way. What once was completely unac- ceptable can quickly come to seem unfortunately necessary, however regrettable, and ultimately even perfectly fine, as you move forward more deeply into new territory. We see this in wartime when accepted forms of violence can give rise over time to terrible atrocities. Good people rightly fear the effects that a use of force or violence could have on their own souls. If it comes to resisting evil with violence, what will that do to me? In violently defeating evil, will I actually have allowed evil to win after all, but in a different form, in my own soul? The superheroes give us examples of good people who are able to use force when it's necessary, even sometimes taking violent actions, within limits, to defeat and subdue otherwise unstoppable evil, but without letting that get out of hand or rebound in self-defeating ways on their own characters. Batman, Spider-Man, and Daredevil, along with Superman and many oth- ers, exercise a great deal of self-restraint, and are careful to draw a line they will not cross. They are able to fight evil without becoming evil. In doing so, they address our common fear that it can't be done. They show us that we can do whatever we have to do, in the face of evil, if we stay firmly in touch with our noblest motivations and our most cherished values. But that doesn't mean that this is not dangerous. It's very dangerous. But good can still prevail.
{,,. f? The Example of the Superhero ' * - * -.' ^^ (^) / ' * { - -. - ' /. Whether he's stopping a purse snatcher, foiling one of Lex Luthors evil plots, or even deflecting an asteroid from its colli- sion course with Earth, Superman gives us an ongoing example of what a commitment to truth, justice, and not just the American way, but the genuinely human way should look like. Many other superheroes show us this as well. We're all meant to be active in our creation of good lives, for ourselves, and for the other people around us. We're supposed to be concerned about our communities and our greater world. There is evil to be resisted and great good to be done. Life awaits our best contri- butions. The superheroes work for not just people who appre- ciate their efforts, but often for people who criticize and revile them. They don't do what they do because it's popular. They do it because it's right.
the cacophony of voices around us, who may be condemning us, belittling us, or just dismissing what we think of as so impor- tant. Daredevil can remind us that our limitations need not hold us back, and that we all have hidden strengths we can draw on when circumstances are especially challenging. The heroic path is sometimes lonely, but it's always right. With an image of the superheroes in mind, we may find it a bit easier to stay true to the high moral road that alone will satisfy us in the end. What would Superman do? Go do your version of it. The world always needs one more hero.
