Falling from Grace“I want to be Superman”—said by the infamous Lex Luthor. Even if on a level of

principles we can’t be like someone admired, we still harbor that exact desire. Hero

worship is something that almost everyone grows up with. In her article, “Superhero

Worship”, for The Atlantic, Virginia Postrel states that this happens because we have the

need to project ourselves onto these ideals. That superheroes, especially in the cinema,

have an aura of glamour to them because they give us a goal to aspire to. But in this present

day, an issue is left almost ignored by those arguing for the virtue of these titans of fiction.

If the superheroes have glamour for the sole purpose of a point to aspire to, then why is it

that they have become darker and darker with every new reboot of their respective

universe? Why is it that all of a sudden in his newest reincarnation Superman, the epitome

of good, is capable of killing a man? There is a growing consensus amongst those who have

followed comics all of their lives that this darkening is the result of a more cynical

worldview. Entire blogs have been devoted to the scrutiny of modern comics and their

growing use of mature themes. (Are Comics Still for Kids?) Despite all the logic behind this

idea, it fails to explain why we still buy comics; why we still can look to the sky and imagine

the airplanes as men soaring. If the world both inside and outside of the comic books is so

dark, why do we still want to be those superheroes? In the face of a powerful tide of

pessimism and cynicism, my proposition is this: the American myths that manifest in our

comic books have become darker because the American people as an audience has matured

and they need something more plausible. Superman was created in 1938, towards the end

of the Great Depression. Everything about him was “the embodiment of all the values that

Americans cherished” (Lang 160) at the time of his creation. The article that quote comes

from, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” examines Superheroes as the new

manifestation of American mythology and goes on to describe how he was created that way

because that was what was needed. The American people, in their time of crisis needed to

know that Good would always find a way to win. Thanks to the power that glamour and

projection has over the population, they truly believed could win, because in a way the

Superheroes were America. This model for thought and writing would be adequate until the

aftermath of World War Two and the fight against the absolutely, unconditionally evil Axis

Powers was over. It wasn’t until after 1946 that the Golden Age of comics, the time when

Superheroes were infallible, ended that the glamour

began to fade again. To the right is one of the earliest

renditions of Superman from the Silver age of comics. At

this point, the influence from the Golden age was still

extremely strong. The only major difference was the

presence of the global politics of World War II. Aside

from the lack of Nazis to batter, the characters were still

the same. Here, we see Superman standing confident

and strong, breaking chains across his chest as if they

were paper streamers. Like the idea of the American

spirit, he could not be restrained. And even with this

god-like power, he remains humble, “[w]hen Superman

is not needed, he hides himself away in the weak, mild-mannered form of Clark Kent”(Lang

160). This humility in the face of the power to move mountains, or even, as seen in the

1978 movie, control the very rotation of the Earth and bend the flow of time, is as pure and

good as people want to see America in. Even the look on his face, the confident smile and

determined eyes, is representative of how to be a real man in Post-World War America.

That was three quarters of a century ago. Since that time, the

American people have grown and matured. The current

Superman has a brand new look and demeanor. His entire style

has become more militaristic. From the shorter hair to the

presence of body armor, the new suit even has the presence of

a high collar to suggest a total lack of vulnerability. Rather than

beam with confidence, the New 521 Superman has an

intimidating quality to him. On his face is a smirk, the

expression being the aftermath of thoroughly beating down

Green Lantern. As a whole, the new Superman embodies power

and strength, but with significantly less humility to limit the beating he is willing to give

1 The New 52 is the name of the most recent reboot. They use 52 weekly issues to reestablish and update the timelines.

those that oppose him. No matter how negative this idea may appear, it is what the writers

determined was needed to keep the glamour alive. They needed to tweak Superman on the

level of his personality to make his restraint that much more of a feat. The Lang article,

“Whatever happened to the man of Tomorrow” was written in 1988, so while it is one of

the purest sources of analysis on the idea of the comic book in relation to the idea of an

American monomyth at the time of one of the biggest changes in DC’s franchise history (the

Infinite Crisis2, the first of many reboots), its purity becomes its downfall. Since the Infinite

Crisis, there has been 5 other reboots, all needed to update the characters and stories.

These stories and reboots include: the Death of Superman, Zero Hour, and most recently

Flashpoint. In the Death of Superman story arc (1992), Superman came face to face with a

force of pure primal evil and hatred and lost. These trends persist across all characters in

addition to Superman. For instance, in Zero Hour (1994), Green Lantern, the hero without

fear delves into grief-stricken madness, becomes a malevolent god and tries to recreate the

Universe killing scores of his comrades in the process, all in the name of “justice”.

Flashpoint (2011), the most recent is the most human of all. In a desperate attempt to save

his mother from an enemy he hadn’t even made yet when she was killed, the Flash

effectively erases himself from the timeline, and creates a world on the edge of literally

destroying itself.In all of these stories, themes of heroism and sacrifice are obvious and

analyzed almost to exhaustion. However, when viewed as a series of events, there is a

growing influence of humanity. In each of these examples, every time more than the last,

the Heroes are less and less godlike, less perfect, and become and more and more human.

The heroes are darker than before because that is how they need to be to be more

believable. The more mature the audience gets, the less able they are to project themselves

into the adventures of their heroes. Otherwise, the glamour fades. When Aquaman flinches

after being shot in the face in this panel of The Brightest Day, Volume 1, he is more human

than Superman. The importance lies not in being bulletproof and thus immune to the

power of wrongdoers, but rather in the ability to take whatever may come from them and

then overcome it. He bleeds just as we do, so what stops us from being able to overcome

the conflicts in our mundane, daily lives. And that is where the glamour comes from. If 2 The Infinite Crisis is a 1986 Maxiseries in which the multiverse established during the Silver age was effectively destroyed. Every story happening outside of the main, Earth-1 timeline was either shuffled into the new reality, or completely erased from memory.

superheroes have the aura of glamour from their newfound humanity and mortality, then

their villains have gained new repulsion from their lack of it. Take the Joker for instance.

Marked for acts of utterly random violence, he is everything that Batman is not as a

character. The Joker has always been at the very edge of the line that DC Comics is not

willing to cross in terms of savagery. Presented with this, how did they make him even

darker for the newest installment? They literally stripped him of his humanity. With his

character design alone, the Joker is sickening to look at; muscle exposed, what is left of his

iconic face twisted and contorted by the metal hooks keeping it on. Now that it is separated

from the muscle, his face is perpetually frozen in the inhuman smile that at least in the past

could have some variation. The Joker has come to

represent chaos; his actions are dictated by

impulse and impulse alone, his plans devised to be a

game between him and his Dark Knight. When

looking into the dead eyes of this cover, one stares

into the abyss that contains his own dark impulses.

But then, that’s the point. By seeing the dark

reflection, and how inhuman it is, you develop this

need to be more like Batman. A champion of Order

who refuses to shy away in absence of the light.

The villain becomes an illustration of how far from

his own humanity one can fall, and that contrast

makes the glamour of the hero that much stronger.

By looking at characters in comic books and movies as reflections of ourselves, we place an

image of what we can become into our minds. Either that image will inspire us to be the

hero, or scare us out of being the villain. But the illusion −the glamour− can only last so

long as the image is plausible. This aura of glamour for the heroes can only exist if it can

adapt to the growing audience. As the audience matures and gains new experience the list

of what is impossible grows. The focus needs to shift from what is impossible within the

story to what is plausible. The heroes need to fall from their almost divine pedestals to be

able to withstand critical thought and the villains need to spawn from deeper and deeper

within the infernal Pit to be able to scare the reader beyond that reason.

ReferencesLang, Jeffrey S. and Trimble, Patrick. 1988. “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

An Examination of the American Monomyth and the Comic Book Superhero”. The

Journal of Popular Culture. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1988.2203_157.x

Lee, Jim. n/d. “Next: Superman vs. Batman.”. New 52 Justice League. January, 20 2015.

http://thefoxisblack.com/blogimages//26.jpeg

n/a. 2014. “Aquaman (New 52) issue 1 – Review”. Musings and Mutterings of an Idion

Scribe, September 21. https://jddunsany.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/aquaman-

new-52-issue-1-review/

n/a. n/d. “Silver Age Superman”. Action Comics. January, 20 2015.

http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-2083379/

No_Name 2013. “Are Comics Still for Kids?”. Comicvine.com.

http://www.comicvine.com/articles/are-comics-still-for-kids/1100-146707/

Postrel, Viginia. 2006. “Superhero Worship”. The Atlantic.

Simpson, Mark (Jock). 2012. “New 52 Joker.” Batman: Death of the Family. January, 15 2015.

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