Monday, August 18, 2014

Superheroes

Hey Internauts,
It's that time of year again. You know what I mean, those few weeks a year where a lot of horrible stuff seems to happen all at once. For those of you like me, that's kinda how I feel most of the year anyway. So in the spirit of positivity, let's talk about a topic I love.

I love superheroes. In books, comics, graphic novels, movies, stickers, action figures, and whatever other medium they may appear. I love superheroes. I have my whole life and I probably always will.

But let's talk about the problems with crime fighting as a central theme in a world where laws are very often not a good basis for morality and those who enforce them often act like more like badguys.

How about violence as not only the main way but often the only way to solve a conflict, when in real life it tends to only make more conflict.

Not to mention that even though we're slowly getting better at writing female superheroes, we still draw most of them like they're bikini models, even when it makes no logical sense to do so, and dole out decent characterization in film adaptations, in large part, to the dudes.

And what's up with changing the main character in a lot of these films from a complex and well-rounded (thought admittedly most often white and male) misogynistic douchebag? [i'm lookin at you GoTG]

But like I said, I still love superheroes. I love what those stories can teach us and inspire in us and reflect back at us when they are at their best.

At the end of the day, I would rather boys and girls grow up wanting to save people and work as a team and believe that good can prevail than I would have them think that all they have to offer can be counted in dollars and cents.

And for those of us who are no longer so little, remember that we can still be heroes when we work together to stand up against the forces of injustice in the real world.

"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world, 'No, you move'." -Captain America

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Pigs on Patrol (Acoustic)