‘Villens United by Chris Haskell

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It’s a good time to be a nerd. Fanboy fantasies are becoming reality as superheroes have leapt off the comic book page and conquered both movies and television.  The much anticipated Batman vs. Superman movie hits theaters later this month. It’s a dream come true for both the casual superhero fan and old school comic book readers like myself. An epic heavyweight battle that looks to answer the great age old nerd debate of who would win in a fight between The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel. (I’m geeking out just thinking about it). Batman vs. Superman is just one of several Superhero movies that will dominate the box office this year with Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad scheduled for summer releases.

Twenty years ago the idea of superhero team and team-up movies was just a dream that my friends and I would fantasize over at the comic book shop. Old school comic book fans like myself would show up religiously every Wednesday to pick up the latest tales of our favorite superheroes and frivolously argue about who we would cast as our Avengers or Justice League.

Years passed and filmmaking technology and special effects had evolved to a point to where studios were able to bring our favorites like SpiderMan, The X-men, and many other superheroes to the big screen. Just as the printed page fell out of favor with the younger digital generation, the superhero genre found new life through other mediums such as television and blockbuster films. The popularity of the Marvel movies over the last few years has attracted a new younger audience while still pleasing the most hardcore fans who have been lifelong readers. Even lesser known characters such as the Guardians of the Galaxy have been box office hits enjoyed by people of all ages that have been very profitable for Disney and Marvel.

So what is it about these tales of super-heroism and evil villainy that we find so appealing? While we all dream of flying through the sky and hurling a broken down Orange Line train car into the sun, the real draw to these stories are the flawed heroes who overcome great personal struggles that often mirror our own. These sci-fi soap operas at their core are fantastical lessons of ethics and morality; much in the same way the stories of Aesop’s Fables or religious texts have been for generations. They take us on incredible journeys across exciting new worlds and pose interesting moral quandaries that we average human beings may never have to face.

We the viewers empathize with the heroes’ struggles. We grow with the characters and learn lessons alongside them that shape them to be the hero they are. Superhero stories mirror the one thing we all share, the internal desire to make the right choices and be a better person.

Superheroes have become our modern day pantheon of American Gods. Tales and feats reminiscent of the ancient Greek demi-gods with colorful characters in bright costumes and capes with cutting edge science. They have become such a staple of our culture that even someone who had never read a comic book or seen the movies could tell you that Superman is from the planet Krypton. Everyone knows the characters and what they stand for without necessarily being a fanboy or fangirl. A genre that was once targeted solely at young men has now caught on with a large female audience. The comic book companies in turn are creating more powerful female superheroes to match today’s stronger, more independent woman. With Disney and Warner Brothers producing most of the new Superhero movies it’s easy to see how the genre has finally caught on with everyone in the family and why the capes are now more popular than ever.

I believe that deep down there is a superhero in all of just waiting for the darkest hour to strike in order to tap into the best of us. Although you may never blow up a planet or walk through walls, sometimes all it takes is for the right choice to be made at that right time to make a hero. Just ask yourself: What would Superman do?