What Superhero Means To Me

If you're reading this post, it's likely that you've heard at least an episode or two of the Okie Geek Podcast. If that's the case, then you've probably heard me wax poetic about one superhero or another. If I'm still describing you accurately, it is entirely possible that one of my statements on superheroes rubbed you the wrong way.

The bad news is, I'm not sorry about that at all! If you disagreed, then it means we can have a discussion. And there is almost nothing I love discussing more than superheroes. I love the actual stories, the theories of them, why they work and when they don't. I love it all.

But I also come at these conversations from a very specific view of superheroes. I firmly believe it's an informed opinion, but when I say that I mean informed by objective things like history (both in- and metafictional), but also extremely subjective things like my own tastes.

At this stage of my life as author and cultural partaker and commentator, I'm way past the point of apologizing for my tastes. However, it occurred to me that it might at least illuminate my future podcast commentary on superheroes if I spelled out a few things I feel are fundamental to the concept.

Conventional Wisdom on Genre Conventions

Genres are pretty fluid things. But while an individual genre is pretty malleable, they can be knocked all out of shape if you work hard enough at it. There's a moment after you strip the wings and jet engine from your genre that it starts to resemble a car way more than an airplane.

You all followed that analogy, right? Okay, good, carry on.

Superheroes are one of my favorite genres. I learned to read on superhero comics and have done more thinking about that subject than nearly any other in my life. I have spilled more ink and more pixels about superheroes than any two other subjects. In doing so, I've developed some absolute bare minimum requirements of the genre.

I've discussed on my own blog how superheroes are almost infinitely malleable. But while you can keep adding things to a superhero story and still (probably) have a superhero story, there must be a point where subtracting elements leaves you without one. Otherwise the words don't mean anything. So what are these bare minimum elements? I'm glad you asked!

First, a caveat. Although each of these elements is important, a story doesn't have to have every single one of them to be a superhero story. Neither do all the elements have to be of equal intensity. But you do require a quorum of these elements and at least a few of them turned up to 11. Otherwise your jet is just a car.

For instance, Batman has no super powers, but he's demonstrably a superhero. The Fantastic Four don't have secret identities, but they're also still squarely in the superhero genre. Sherlock Holmes and Doc Savage fight crime, but they are not superheroes.

Will there be fringe cases that could go either way? You betcha. But I think they're going to be the minority because I am aiming squarely for a baseline definition of superhero that makes sense with the history of the genre as well as pointing into the future of superhero characters.

Superheroes Must

• Possess Super Powers - Superheroes must have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Concussive force fired from the eyes. The proportional strength and speed of a spider. Unbreakable knives popping out of knuckles. Titanic strength, flight, freeze breath, et al. Bottom line, the superhero is super.


• Possess A Colorful Costumed Identity... - Superheroes wear costumes. You can call them uniforms or action suits if that makes you feel better. Whatever you name it, the superhero has a unique and visually striking outfit she wears when fighting crime (we'll get to that one) that could not possibly be confused for street clothes.
• ...Which Hides Their Civilian Identity - Only a handful of trusted associates or dedicated allies can know the true identity of our hero or heroine. Naturally, this brings with it the attendant hiding-a-double-life shenanigans.


• Fight Crime... - Superheroes punch muggers, bank robbers, mobsters, terrorists, Nazis and whoever else is foolish enough to commit nefarious deeds in front of our hero.


• ...Which Also Cloaks Itself In Colorful Costumed Identities - Run-of-the-mill gunsels and fourth columnists are fine for a while, but eventually a superhero needs somebody who does evil as flamboyantly as the hero does good. Superheroes simply must have supervillains.


• Battle Internal Conflicts Literalized Externally - This is admittedly a little esoteric. It also might be easier to explain with examples. Peter Parker's internal conflict is deciding what is the greatest good. On one side of town, his loving, ailing aunt needs the pills Peter just picked up for her. On the other side of town, the Scorpion is blowing things up and robbing banks. Peter is literally faced with the dilemma of having great power, yet not knowing where the greater responsibility lies.
  
  Or to take another example, consider a slowly dying Superman who has always been empowered by solar energy literally facing his own mortality by fighting an evil computer in the shape of a sun. The source of his power is killing him at both the micro and macro scale. That's pretty heady stuff.


• Be Better People Than Us So As To Inspire Us - For some reason, I feel like this statement is going to be the most controversial. But it's also the one that most defines superheroes. Superheroes are selfless. They sacrifice to protect their fellow men and women. And while they are people (albeit fictional ones) and far from perfect, they are still heroes. I'm going to quote Chris Sims of Comics Alliance at length here for a minute.

...superheroes are a fundamentally optimistic proposition. They all descend from Superman, a character who’s built around the idea that this person with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men would use them exclusively for the benefit of others.

They have to be better people, because they serve to inspire us to be better people.

Optimism. Inspiration. Selflessness. An example of how to be better. I'm down with that stuff. Somewhere along the line it became cool to be cynical. Like, hoping for the future or having compassion for your fellow man became less important than how hip you are.

To hell with that noise! I want to be inspired! I want to be inspiring! And if optimism is the new counter-culture, then Superman is the most punk rock thing in the universe! It also means all those guys who think they're too cool for superheroes the way they ought to be are really just sad sacks who want to drag down an ideal. Good luck knocking down a guy like the one pictured below. And me too, super powers or not.