American Myth Story: Capeshit

 

    Good morning, afternoon, I'm late. Work kicked my ass today and I didn't get time to write anything up. I also did not have a "break glass in case of emergency" post lined up like I'd like to make a habit of having for situations like this. Still getting used to it.

That aside, I want to talk about Mythology in American culture. This topic has actually been sitting on a back burner in my mind for years, so I'm glad I get the chance to talk about it at length. This is going to be a three parter, where I discuss three areas in which I think America has manifested its own Mythologies. I always watch videos and read articles about how there's no modern myth, and I find that to be an incorrect conclusion.

There are mythologies, they just don't have the same religious control over our societies as Zeus did the Greeks.

First up is Superheroes. The pantheon of super powered humans, extra terrestrials, and in some cases, actual gods, have come to define and dominate a generation of pop culture across every perceivable medium. Whether it's music, movies, tv shows, comic books, actual books, video games, podcasts, videos, or whatever other medium one could possible conceive, superheroes have permeated through it.

From the moment modern Superheroes were really established in a commercial sense, they have pervaded almost every demographic they've come across; everyone knows who Superman is, everyone knows who Spider-Man is. Not just in (but especially) America, but globally. The breadth and reach of superheroes is actually only challenged by that of major religions.

When a child is taught the importance of kindness, persistence, hope, and fortitude by a 16 year old running around in red and blue tights, they believe in the hero. When that child goes on to see that hero fly through New York on thanksgiving, or visit them in a hospital while they're sick, when they have note books plastered with stickers of the hero, when a child chooses to wear that character's costume for halloween; they don't just believe in the hero, they fucking know the hero is real.

And, contrary to what older generations might squawk about, I've noticed that people of younger generations have actually continued to grow with these characters. Now, an 18 year old might know there there's no bulletproof alien that can fly faster than light, but they still believe in the hope that's been emblazoned on his chest for almost 90 years. The same children who were visited by Batman when they were sick might grow up to become the adult that dresses up as Batman to visit another sick child, perpetuating the narrative, the values, the myth.

The reason people gravitate towards these characters is that, despite their integral flaws, they are idillic in nature. Ororo Munroe represents the undying and infallible strength of a Black American Woman in the face of struggle. Peter Parker represents the persistence of the downtrodden in a world that constantly beats him down. Superman represents the defiance of xenophobia by proving that not only could your neighbor be perfect, but your neighbor could save your life.

While superheroes largely do not communicate stories and values that encroach on meta-narratives or prophetic clairvoyance about the future the way the Eddas might, they represent a much more tangible concept: today. You should help someone get their cat out of a tree today, you should stand firm in the face of tyranny today, you should juggle your personal and social responsibilities as earnestly as possible today. There's no looming threat of impending armageddon or threats of drought in the event that you don't follow the values of the Diana Prince. However, these stories make it imperative that you follow their values simply because it's the right thing to do.

We can get into all manner of inappropriate runs that have betrayed the core values of any given character all day, but when you reduce these characters to their most concentrated traits, they are nothing more than hallmark values of what could make you a better person, and in turn, what can make everyone better people.

Even characters rooted in tragedy have personable lessons to be learned. While Bruce Banner might be a muscled giant who throws vehicles around like softballs, much to the amusement of children, the reality is that he's a grown man who struggles with handling his repressed rage from being abused as a child at the hands of his father in constructive ways. However, regardless of how ineffective his coping mechanisms are, his mission remains the same save the day. Peter Johnson's current Incredible Hulk run sees the green behemoth crushing demons, witches, and the general supernatural ilk, but its story centers around a teenage girl, whose father abused her, who both Banner and the Hulk see themselves in. It is very directly addressing the ability of superheroes to connect with real children, real people, and use their own cornerstone characteristics as a vehicle to help people.

Not to get dorky about it but Merriam Webster defines Mythology as "a collection of myths dealing with the gods, demigods, and legendary heroes of a particular people", and my argument is that superheroes are legendary heroes of American people.

When Ryan Reynolds can promote his Deadpool movies by saying "I'm in the same sentence as Jesus", it may be humorous, but there's something to be said about how pseudo-religious the scale of the genre has become in the last few decades. Seeing Avengers: Endgame in theaters was a social necessity, for some fanatics it was damn near fucking pilgrimage. People can reference specific moments in specific books from specific runs that were published 20 years ago in the same way that a well-read Christian could reference passages from the Bible without hesitating.

People argue about the meaning of these characters, what they could or should look like, quite literally which hero belongs in a hypothetical pantheon, but there's nothing hypothetical about it, actually.

If an adaptation of a hero is not done in within the exact parameters of certain peoples expectations and desires, there are cries of blaspheme levied at whoever has the misfortune of creating that specific depiction. It's zealous at times. 

I'm not arguing whether or not heroes were modeled after Mythological Gods or whether or not their stories are structurally similar to those of Mythological Gods, I'm much more interested in thinking about how it actually worked. There is a float of Spider-Man in New York, a bronze statue of Batman in Burbank, and another of Superman in Metropolis (Illinois).

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While Americans argue about which historical real-life figures should have statues and which shouldn't (because, genuinely, a lot of those statues should be pulled down), no American will ever earnestly say that a statue of Superman should be torn down, it would be ridiculous; Clark Kent is infallible.

Similarly, you might find it quite humorous how even people who claim to love, cherish, and follow the values of these books, can be so violently against those values in practice. Someone might love the X-Men but, ironically enough, hate gay people. I don't think I need to be more blatant about how obvious the allegory to real life is.

"My favorite superhero is Superman," he tweets before posting another tweet about how all aliens should be deported or put to death for entering America illegally.

Superheroes teach us everything about being good people, everything about being kind and upstanding, they inspire us to be better people, for ourselves and for others. While these characters only continue to grow in popularity, their gospel will only reach further. As more statues are erected, more posters are hung, more pilgrimages to opening nights at the movies, more complete misunderstandings of these characters occur, one thing becomes clear:

The times of believing in the stories of the Greek Pantheon might be long gone, but the times of believing in the stories of the Avengers or the Justice League are right now.

They are the Mythology of America.