When we heard the word “Superhero”, I’m quite sure that the first picture coming into our mind is almost mostly the legendary Superman. It is an inevitable fact that this character has placed himself as the earthbound angel, ever since his creation by Jerry Shuster in 1930’s. Begin in Action Comics #1, Superman has grown and develop many kinds of superpower, and once possessed all the other superheroes’ power, like running as fast as the Flash, time travelling like Rip Hunter, or even super strength and invulnerability. Thus, the word man in his name became redundant, for he appeared in front of us as “the God” before a man.
This almighty superhero was later retroactively revised by eliminating some of his ridiculous powers. But, once the image has been formed in people’s mind, it is hard to change the stereotype and the stigmatization. For most people, this hero is still the earthbound angel (even later, the infamous Alex Ross placed Superman as the symbolism of Jesus Christ in his most famous story, Kingdom Come). No flaw has been depicted in Superman’s myth for long (other than Kryptonite), and hence really smoothen his way to achieve God-like position, far from any other man. At this point, even Clark Kent is often depicted as Superman’s alter ego, which is so reversed.
Good guy, boy-scout like, man without flaw…………………… And thus come his dawn, when more and more human-like heroes emerged into the comics. The heroes with their own flaws and humane touch, humane problem, psychological stuff, and more. In short, heroes closer to human.
This emerged-later heroes are depicted with the flaws beyond their power. Okay, the classic one is Cyclops, with his “abnormal” eyes, or Wolverine with his enigmatic persona.
This way, the characterization of the heroes seemed real, or at least more real than those earthbound angels. We can see their own self, the human before the heroes, with all their problems. We can see the lover before Cyclops, or the loner before Rogue. Not to mention the regret and dark past of Gambit, the geek’s life of Peter Parker before Spiderman. This is much more real than the flawless Superman (with the power to create his miniature, duh!) and perfect woman in Wonder Woman’s character. (Yet, DC is not really behind this, for they also have Batman, whose development relies on his trauma and dark past, but even he has been depicted as cool and expressionless character, and thus also separating himself from the real world).
FYI, I’m talking about the DC’s Trinity traced back as their appearance in Golden Age and Silver Age Comics (with their silly sidekick, duh! Ace the bat Hound?? Streak the super cat????? What the heck??????)
Now, stepping into the more realistic character development, something is still hindering them from coming out into reality. Yup, you’re right. It’s the cape and spandex! Okay, it looks great on them in comics (not in reality…… Imagine you see Wolverine wearing his yellow costume, taking a walk in street…. You’ll certainly say that he’s crazy!). Hey, I don’t want to argue upon the costume, for I also like seeing Black Canary’s fishnet, but the point is, Spandex makes them unreal (for some, though!). Umm, for the comparison, try to watch Stan Lee’s Who Wants to be Superhero? It’s so unreal and unearthly seeing the characters among “us”, eh?
Therefore, when I first saw Heroes, I was very astonished. WTF!!!!! It’s all about superheroes….. Human life before heroes’ lives. No secret identity, no spandex, no silly power, no flawless character, with daily problems, family affair, and human drama.
Peter’s inability to control his power, Claire’s teenage problem, Nathan’s political affair, and even Hiro’s innocence certainly allow us to tap the bridge between reality and fantasy. This is one step closer to bring superheroes into reality. Congratulations, Jeph Loeb and Tim Kring!!!!!!
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