[BluesMan]

What is the role of the "superhero" in modern mythology? How do they shape and/or reflect our culture? Are their powers a direct expression of our societal needs at the time of their conception, and do they evolve with society?
Would it be easier to answer this question by looking at their Nemeses?

[rocket art]

In this present age, it is more preferable to seek the 'super' within each individual, rather than projecting it on a mythological character. Such perspective then would require transcending, holistic envisioning that encompasses views on individual, social, moral aspects of the evolving Human Consciousness.

Even the concept of 'good' and 'bad' is put in scrutiny. There is very much big difference on how the movies "Matrix" and the most recent "Superman" (why did he chose to save a bank from among countless screams for help? Is he a minion of the international bankers gripping the world's governments?) portrayed their nemesis.

In the earlier stages of human history, once there were needs to seek for higher guidance in its early path to development. But in the present as humanity progresses to its 'maturity', such control mechanisms can easily be used to manipulate those still gullible, for ulterior motives such as organized religion, 'sheep' or 'slave' mentality that may hinder the individual from seeking his inner sense of awareness.

[jungjedi]

and also,what is the role of the secret identity as a superhero in modern mythology.i take it to be more than a way of going incognito.if i put on a mask and a suit and ran off to solve the problems of the world.they would have me commited.come to think of it.there are a few superheroes on the verge of a nervous breakdon,who have their dark side.who embody the flaws we all can feel some mode of familiarity with.some superheroes have suffered a great loss,have even been drug addicts and alchoholics,and some run outside the scope of the law

[maikeru]

Originally Posted by BluesMan

What is the role of the "superhero" in modern mythology? How do they shape and/or reflect our culture? Are their powers a direct expression of our societal needs at the time of their conception, and do they evolve with society?
Would it be easier to answer this question by looking at their Nemeses?

Try reading this blog; it has a lovely post on why superheroes might not be so super anymore:

Comics Should Be Good! » Paradigm shifts in comics; or why Superman isn’t the Great American Superhero anymore!

[coberst]

It is human nature to constantly seek “fuel for one’s own aggrandizement and immunity”. Otto Rank says “The death fear of the ego is lessoned by the killing of the other; one buys one’s self free from the penalty of dying, of being killed”. Is there any surprise then to discover that human kind is constantly engaged in war?

The ego can consign others to death without a ‘second thought’, when such will provide a sense of personal security. This is why war comes so naturally for sapiens. Considering the fact that we now have the WMDs to destroy all citizens in one single cataclysm, is there any doubt regarding the necessity that humans begin quickly a process of self-learning in order to comprehend our nature so as to possibly prevent this logical fate?

The price of our natural animal narcissism is that we will, when pressured, willingly sacrifice another in our place; with one very remarkable exception; the exception to this rule is, of course, the hero. Heroism is an amazing reversal of the rule of routine values. Heroism is another thing that makes war so wonderful and uplifting. War has become modern wo/man’s ritual for the emergence of heroes. We launch our self into uncritical hero worship as a catharsis of own fears.

“The logic of Scapegoating, then, is based on animal narcissism and hidden fear. If luck, as Aristotle said, is when the arrow hits the fellow next to you, then Scapegoating is pushing the fellow into its path—with special alacrity if he is a stranger to you.

The logic contained in killing others in order to protect our own life makes clear anything that may puzzle us regarding the frequency of war in human history. When I kill an enemy and thereby affirm the power of my life, then, certainly the staging of massive life-and-death struggles affirms our whole society. The outsider ponders known incidents when the mob delighted in watching the prolonged death of someone; we need not ponder if we comprehend sapiens’ drive to survive. “They are weak and die; we are strong and live.” “My God is stronger than your God”.

The Nazis provide an example of this phenomenon. The dedicated themselves to the ‘final solution’, to large scale sacrifices of human life after 1941 when it was becoming evident that they were losing. The Jews were singled out as the scapegoat for the economic and political woes of Germany in the mid twentieth century.

Many of the quotes are from “Escape from Evil”—Ernest Becker

[ErlyRisa]

i cal it

SS syndrome (Sheep/Shephard)

...we as sheep will always 'use' the shephard to 'learn' their traits, the first gorilla that baked nuts on an open fire, Pythagoras, DaVinci, Einstein..etc

Problem is, sometimes the sheep don't understand or want to, in which case, the superhero musn't come up with things like copernicus, or it may just back fire.