Why Do We Need Heroes?

ah comic books you've got to love them especially in the current year whether it's reimagining bruce wayne as an asian american teenager accompanied by his gay butler alfred or a body positive wonder woman that strikes fear into the hearts of all you can eat buffets everywhere or whatever these two are meant to be the entire industry seems to have spent the past few years self-destructing i mean reinventing itself into something more diverse and inclusive and what could be more diverse than inclusive than a year novel about the gay goth plus-sized daughter of legendary dc superhero starfire struggling to escape the long shadow cast by her famous mother and find her own sense of identity during her turbulent teenage years it's a good premise really allowing the writer to explore questions of family legacy personal identity societal expectations the real world implications of fame and the complex and often difficult relationship between mothers and their teenage daughters so let's take a look at this exciting new work shall we [Music] it does prompt a few questions though like why does her upper lip project several inches from her face why does one of her hands seem to be suffering from chronic gigantism why does this front cover look like it was drawn by me after several pints of methylated spirits i thought the whole point of ya novels is that they're intended for well young adults so they're supposed to look cool edgy sexy and compelling this looks like the kind of thing your weird hippie aunt would get you for christmas when you're five years old and you'd politely dump in some cupboard and never talk about again is there a reason the author might have chosen to style her main character like this well let's take a look at her shall we [Laughter] now call me crazy but i do detect a faint resemblance here the thing is it would be easy enough for me to point and laugh at what's clearly just another cringe-worthy self-insertion vanity project doomed to fall into the garbage can of history written by an author whose ego probably outstrips her creative ability and commissioned by a struggling publisher desperate to appeal to a woke audience that probably should have allocated its declining resources to something with a better chance of success like burning money i could do all of these things and probably have a good laugh along the way but really the bigger question that comes to mind for me is what exactly are we becoming if this is the new standard for our comic book heroes see we've been doing this kind of thing for a lot longer than you might think in fact ever since us humans have been able to conceive of stuff beyond our own experience we've been kind of fascinated by the idea of heroic characters embarking on epic adventures righting wrongs and defeating evil enemies it's kind of the basis for our whole civilization whether it's achilles and hector and the iliad or perseus slain medusa or beowulf fighting grendel or saint george killing the dragon you could pick basically any culture on earth at any time period and the chances are you'll find legends and stories of heroic men and women accomplishing great deeds characters who could best be described as more than human men of destiny men of great skill or superhuman strength that allows them to overcome the most powerful and terrifying enemies imaginable jumped forward a few thousand years and we're still doing the exact same thing with a new generation of heroes and villains that we've created all for ourselves the classical heroes gods and monsters from our ancient legends have been replaced by modern day reinterpretations and instead of storytellers spinning their tails around a campfire now we have comic books movies and tv to satisfy our needs the technology might have changed but the basic motivation hasn't we still have the same drive and hunger for stories of larger than life heroes and villains the same need to believe in things that are grander and bigger than our own petty existence the same aspiration to be more than we are and i guess this is the real point i'm trying to make here the heroes we create are a symbol and a reflection of our human potential not human reality they represent the very best of what we can and should strive for they encourage us to reach higher to try harder to go further than we ever thought possible they push us to see beyond the boundaries and limitations of our everyday lives to dream about what we could be instead of fretting about what we are and perhaps most importantly of all they remind us that there's still something fundamentally good in all of humanity for all our flaws and our mistakes and our weaknesses it's our ability to pick ourselves up to move forward to strive to better ourselves and overcome our limitations this defined all of our history it's what's driven us to build great cities invent new technologies compose great symphonies and works of art to explore the furthest reaches of our planets and to reach for the stars the potential that exists inside each and every one of us is as unlimited as our imaginations and the heroes that we create to inspire and motivate and guide us reflect the very best aspects of that boundless potential so i guess it's kind of sad and disheartening to watch today's cynical nihilistic mean-spirited attempts to undermine subvert and degrade those same heroes instead of respecting and looking up to them it's become fashionable to mock and belittle and criticize them as relics of a bygone era or symbols of oppression or discrimination without really understanding what they stood for in the first place people who once looked to our heroes as symbols to aspire to as a motivation to become more than they are now see them as an unflattering reflection of their own weaknesses and failures rather than try to better themselves and their lives through hard work courage and sacrifice they instead find perverted joy in tearing down anything that stands higher than them bringing everyone and everything down to their level instead of the harder but more rewarding task of raising themselves up and the end result of this way of thinking is a small petty envious view of the world the kind of thing that belongs in the minds of small petty envious people who hide their dark intent behind a facade of compassion and fairness the kind of people who hysterically preach acceptance of everything no matter how ridiculous harmful or pathetic because once you accept everything then there's no need to strive for anything and instead of the mighty and inspiring heroes we used to look up to well you end up with stuff like this now ask yourself who exactly do you think is going to be inspired and motivated by this anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 1,962,686

Keywords: Starfire, Mariko Tamaki, feminism, YA Novel, SJW

Id: ow79eUHFhp0

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020