We Can Be Superheroes, Too...

I spotted in a NewScientist.com article today the interesting revelation that the archetypal hero of Marvel Comics (i.e. Spider Man, The Hulk, the X-Men, Captain America, etc.) is destined to always win due to their social networking ability. The superhero is always 'better connected' than the villain, instilling them with great power as a social hub. (The complex analysis is here).



We find in this not some affirmation of right over wrong, or the might of those with more contacts ferreted away in their mobile phone. We find here the significant social gravitational pull of the fictional hero as a social nexus and an idealised social network system celebrating the individual as central and, inevitably, righteous.



There is however a shadow-side to all this. The Comics Magazine Association of America laid down rules as to how heroes may or may not be represented. One of these rules is that:

"Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates the desire for emulation."

Villains are, quite simply, more likely to be plumbers or garbage collectors than lawyers, doctors or sports stars. For some reason I seem to be reminded of the Central Intelligence Agency's documented support and backing for the Abstract Expressionism movement in Modern Art as it (despite the thoroughly eccentric orbits followed by some of it's proponents) supported the idea of freedom and free expression as a uniquely American icon. Perhaps someone somewhere decided that the superhero in all it's inevitable educational power should celebrate an idealised, successful social role as to endow children and young adults with goals and value-attributions more amenable to a capitalistic moral and legal ethic.