Super Hero Psychology

Yesterday was fabulous. Despite the world’s apparent need to injure me (and the gloomy, windy, cold, rainy weather when Saturday was so fantastic) I had a great, but tiring day. We were up at 8:30 am, which is very early for 3 out of 4 of us. We had a fast food breakfast then hit the first showing or Iron Man.

The awesome, it is awesome. The trailers were, as usual, hit or miss.

Prince Caspian- Looked rather good. I haven’t seen the first movie, nor have I read the book Prince Caspian. But despite the religious overtones it does look intriguing.

The Incredible Hulk- Even the kids got chills. We will definitely be trying to catch this one in the theaters.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan- Okay, ridiculous, but I think it looks funny as hell. I doubt I’ll catch it in the theater because it’s rare for us to not have kids in tow and children are apparently not even welcome in super hero movies these days by some people. So I’ll watch for it on HBO or Showtime. Maybe rent it onDemand.

The Love Guru- Meh. But then, that’s pretty much what I thought about Austin Powers when I first saw the concept.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- Another onDemand rental, or an early showing.

As for Iron Man… oh it will be mine. It’s porn in three different ways. You have Tony Stark, and I am an absolute sucker for the snarky sort of reparte and the egotistical-invincible aura of both the actor and role. Then there’s geek porn, it’s a flipping super hero movie, the best one I’ve seen in a long time. And of course there’s writing that makes my little writer heart sing and the hair stand up on my arms.

The Iron Man/terrorism plot works on so many levels. Super hero psychology is not an uncommon topic in my house. What drives someone to go out and try to save the world?

Spiderman is at its heart a tale of fate playing a joke on someone. Peter Parker wants to be a normal, goofy geek. Sure he wants the girl, but he doesn’t want her very badly because he’s not doing much to get her. What he’s most interested in doing it just living his life and following his impulses (which just happen to be college and work). This doesn’t change when he gets his super powers, but what does change is that apparently after imbuing him with power the world thinks Peter Parker owes it for the gift. Peter tries to live his life as he always had before (which does include a selfish side, as evident by his days as a costumed wrestler), but any failure to act in a highly moral, protector of the people way is immediately punished and drastically. Did Peter deserve to have his father figure murdered simply because he, himself was greedy and selfish and used his power for personal gain? Probably not. But what fuels this hero isn’t any true sense of good and evil. Spiderman is forced into his role which is what keeps that dark, resentful fire burning.

Superman is a tale of isolation and also has its share of resentment. Here is a man who is not only literally an alien, and set apart by his god-like abilities but he’s also set apart because unlike many humans he protects he is a highly moral, tireless force. With Superman protecting them humanity doesn’t have to be globally responsible. (Why stop polluting when Superman can just reverse it?) They don’t have to be personally responsible (how many idiotically walk down that dark alley because they know Superman has super hearing?) Superman is better than the average human in every way, yet his morality chains him into the endless protection of people who are at times not worth it. If it wasn’t for a complex system of personal checks and balances this hero could easily be a vicious bad guy. That is part of his charm, but day to day it’s easy to forget that for the convenience of laziness.

Very few superheroes are fueled by self loathing. Blade is one of them. Blade falls neatly into OCD, mercilessly tracking and destroying vampires because they’re evil. Except that the very thing that give him the physical power to do so is the fact that he’s half vampire. Sure, he can cloak it under the guise of wanting to get justice for his mother who was killed in a vampire attack (and others, but those others that he grew close to he might have never known if it wasn’t for his genocidal quest). But at the heart he hates vampirism because of what it does to him. He hates the vampires and wants to destroy them because he hates the vampire in himself.

I have to say though, that I miss the Blade TV series. I really liked the characters and I was fascinated by the premise that blood drinking was an addiction that if indulged (like most addictions) caused real and evident psychological changes.

HellBoy is another monstrous hero, like Blade. He’s a full demon in a world of humans and, if the movie storyline is true to the comics then he’s destined to open the gates to destroy the world. But he’s not fired by self-loathing like Blade. HellBoy is probably the first true good guy I’ve listed. He’s not forced into his role by his powers or some sort of epic karma. He appears to love his job and just generally wants to make the world a better place. I also like that he’s not facing muggers and tech gone wrong. HellBoy is facing the unknowable phantoms of other dimensions and mysticism, concepts other heroes have had trouble tackling.

Iron Man is one of my favorite kinds of characters, the flawed/reluctant hero. As they said in the movie: (to the best of my memory)

“Tony Stark built this thing in a cave with spare parts in a week.”

“Well I’m not Tony Stark.”

And that nails it. Tony is one of those genuinely different people. He’s plugged into something most other people never touch and furthermore he’s good at it. He tries a myriad of ways to feel what normal people feel, the booze, the women, taking crazy risks… But in the end none of those things does it for him. He’s almost insane in his genius, and mad in his need to feel human. He has what most of us would kill for, he’s rich, he’s incredibly intelligent, he’s handsome, powerful… But Tony Stark was never complete until he put on a metal costume to hide who he is. He was never truly human until he became Iron Man. The movie plot line setting Stark against the terrorists is perfect not just because financially using the Iron Man suit to stop a purse snatcher is overkill and exceedingly expensive, but because for Stark it’s not about the bad guys, it’s about the people, the ones who have no hope at all.

Spiderman also has an element of dual identity. In Spiderman’s case the costume is metaphorically (and at times, literally) the monster, the fake, the thing keeping him from being true to himself. But with Tony Stark and Iron Man Tony Stark is the fake, vices played up, and Iron Man is the man’s soul laid bare.

Comics are far, far more than kid’s stories or geek stuff. Some of the best character storytelling can be found in comics, and some of the flashiest, most valiant characters are far more human than you might think.