by Russ Pitts

As the future of the world economy continues to hang in the balance, the polar ice caps melt, jobless rates climb and crime rates soar, audiences are simultaneously turning to superhero games, movies and comics in droves. Is this merely escapism or is there, perhaps, something bigger going on? What is it about superheroes that make them so damn interesting?

"Superheroes are our modern mythology," says Peter Tangen, a Hollywood photographer who has worked on some of the most popular superhero films in recent memory and was a producer on the recent HBO documentary "Superheroes". "They are fantasies of what we may become."

Superheroes, in other words, are about us. They are less about the adventures of people who wear masks and fight crime than the hopes and dreams of those of us who wish we could. But fantasy and dreams are the stuff of all genre fiction, not just superhero stories. Science fiction, fantasy and even romance thrive in allowing the audience to transport themselves to other worlds that are both simpler and more exciting than their own. Superhero stories, on the other hand, force the audience to remain in this world, accomplishing their escapist thrills not by wishing the world away, but by wishing the world were different.


"Generally speaking, I think I lean towards Kurt Buisek's position that the magic of traditional superheroes is that you introduce this fantastic character into our world ... and the world remains recognizably ours," says Kieron Gillen, the writer of "Uncanny X-Men." "The point of Spider-man is that he swings down New-York streets. The Fantastic Four make amazing discoveries, but in the streets below, there's people in cars. They're about overlaying the fantastical onto reality."

Superhero stories energize our imagination by weaving the fabric of an alternate world around the one in which we live in and helping us believe in it. By "draping an element of the fantastical over our world," as Gillen says, and so reinventing it, allowing us to conceive of the idea that through the superhero's daring actions, we may discover the strength to be daring ourselves.

"We resonate with the themes in the stories, with the dilemmas and problems that superheroes face, and we aspire to their noble impulses and heroic acts," writes Dr. Robin S. Rosenberg, Ph.D., on Psychology Today's The Superheroes blog. "We identify -- or would like to identify -- with them. Superheroes are models for us, and they are modeled after us."

I may not be Superman, but I have a boss and a job, and gosh, wouldn't it be nice to be able to leave in the middle of the day and forget about those drudgeries to go out and right some wrongs? To step into a closet as myself and step out as a man powerful enough to fix the things that are broken. To fix myself.

"By giving characters power beyond normality you can use it as a focus on various problems of the human condition," says Gillen. "In short, superhumanity is a device to look at humanity, and what it means to be human."

Most of us will never be superheroes. Many people have been bitten by spiders, yet did not turn into Spider-man. And although staying up late, looking for bad guys from the roof of a building may be an entirely possible way of passing one's time, actually doing something about it when spotting a crime in progress is a lot trickier. Bullets hurt, and there aren't a lot of people able to dedicate the time and energy required to become Batman.


That's why games like this year's Arkham City are so exciting. All the escapism of superhero fiction with the added interactivity of putting on the cape oneself. Minus the bullets. And for most of us, the videogame version is enough.

"You can imagine what it would be like to be Daredevil and jump across rooftops," says Gillen, "but unless you are THE PARKOUR KING, you won't ever get a chance to feel like that. Games? They're good at that basic phenomenological thing. What it feels like to do something."

Although Dr. Rosenberg cautions that the roleplay inherent in playing a videogame character may not be enough:

"One could make a case that playing videogames in which the player assumes the role of a superhero enhances an 'identification'" with that superhero," she said, via email. "However, I'm not sure it's a good comparison, since … the game is structured and restricts what you can do, whereas reading -- and fully immersing yourself -- in a comic book allows the reader more creativity and fantasy as you mentally fill in the blanks between the panels."

Reading about the adventures of a superhero, in other words, may be more immersive because your mind is engaged in helping create that hero's world. What to do, then, if reading about superheroes and playing superhero games doesn't fill the bill? To where does one turn when they really want the best in feeling like a genuine superhero? To the tights, Robin!

"If you're just a civilian in civilian clothes and you help somebody or do something, it's not as likely people will even notice it, but believe me if you see Thanatos give something to a homeless person on the streets you're going to potentially tell someone about that," says Tangen who, in addition to making Thor look good on movie posters, has been active in promoting the community of "real life" superheroes like Thanatos.

Thanatos is a masked crusader living in Vancouver who, for years before putting on a mask, would walk the streets handing out food to his city's massive population of homeless people and generally do good deeds - yet no one noticed. As soon as he put on a mask, suddenly people remembered him and talked about him and began paying attention to the problem he was trying to help to solve. And Thanatos was born.


Thanatos is one of 20 Real Life Superheroes Peter Tangen flew out to California recently for a massive production and photo shoot conducted to help raise the profile of modern-day masked avengers and help normal, ordinary civilians to get a better idea of what these guys are all about. Or as Tangen calls it "marketing good deeds." Tangen says it's not just about flouncing around in capes to get attention. Most of the RLSHs are in it to make a difference.

"There are many reasons why these people do this," he says. "Many of them do it because of personal experiences they've had in their past. Often cases of tragedy. Some of them do it as a form of redemption. I know one man had a drinking problem, another man was in a gang. Someone who saw and did nothing as another person was beaten to death in the streets and saw a form of redemption looking for ways to do good in the world."

Tangen admits that, for some RLSHs, putting on the mask is "fun," but for others like Thanatos, they realized that wearing a costume would help them draw attention to the problems that need solving.

"I believe the problems our world faces will not be solved until people believe one person can make a difference," Tangen says.

And in the end, isn't that what Superheroes are really all about?



Russ Pitts is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Escapist and the former Producer of TechTV's The Screen Savers. He is currently writing freelance and blogging at False Gravity. Follow him on Twitter.

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