Superhero Identity
Superher
Identity
American Born Chinese
American Born chinese tells the story of three characters: the monkey king, Jin Wang, and Danny.
All three stories tell a tale of characters denying their identity in some form, or a refusal to accept
who they are. They come together in the end when the monkey king attempts to teach them a lesson
about denying who they are after learning the hard way himself.
This story is a good primer into the issues of identity. Especially the refusal versus acceptance factor. American Born chinese suggests that identity isn't just something you can change or throw away unless you are "willing to forfeit your soul." It argues that identity is something deeper than personality, something the individual does not have control over, but must accept.
Just like the monkey king had problems accepting his identity at first, so too do many superheroes have trouble accepting their identity. Coming to terms with identity is a prevailing them in the superheroe genre, and it is a base factor in the other issues (mental and psychological) which superheroes face which we will come to see.
Runaways
Runaways represents another form of identity issue. The characters do not know who they are in the beginning, and are not even aware they have super powers. Early on they find out that they have special abilities, and worse, their parents are super villains! Runaways then is a quest of children rebelling against parents, but also becoming themselves. They are really forced to look at who they are as they develop their powers into their teenage years.
Throughout the series there is a trend of good versus evil in relation to identity. The heroes are tempted to be villains like their parents, in one case a character switches from villain to the hero team. But it does bring of questions of identity within this dichotomy. To what extent is a person just unchangeably 'good' or 'bad.' And to what extent are they capable of change. This becomes a secondary trait of superheros throughout comics.
Batman: Nine LIVES
I am of course talking about Batman, the first non-super, super hero. He is just an ordinary man, who with courage and a thirst for revenge decides to take out the evils of the city he lives in. I have chosen an unconventional batman text here, instead of a normal one. In the average batman comic batman has so many extraordinary devices and gadgets that he might as well be considered super-powered. In this comic however he plays a more noir-style detective. He still has the suit and some basic devices, but it much more exemplifies his human resourcefulness rather than his dependancy on technology. It goes to show that even an average man can live heroically. It becomes part of his identity and how he lives. His quest to do good, and rid Gotham City of bad is legendary, but even as an ordinary man he overcomes all he faces. Unlike other comics which show a superhero attempting to live normally, Batman shows a normal man attempting to live as a superhero, which is far more admirable.
Finally, the superhero identity has come full circle in this text. We have gone from superheroes fighting with their responsibilities and the sacrifice involved, to leveraging their personal lives with their super lives, to the realization that these two facets are inseperable, and to the outcome that real people can self-identify as super. The superhero genre has always been about accepting who you are, and exemplifying these message with glorified characters, but characters that have all the same problems as the average person, and face all the same difficulties of finding themselves. Of course, they ultimately prevail, but then I'd like to think so do we.
Planet Hulk
Planet Hulk follows this dillema to a science. Hulk is a character that grapples with identity. He has a desire to always use his power for good, and to help people. However, a byproduct of his incredible strength is an unfettering rage, and base level of conciousness. When in the heat of battle hulk often inadvertantly causes harm.
In this story he is sequestered on a faraway planet by The Avengers so that he can no longer harm earth. However, there are prophecies that he will destroy the planet he is sent to. The people fear Hulk, and the emperor seeks to destroy him. Throughout the movie his nature troubles him greatly, and he can't bear the thought of causing harm to another planet, so he refuses to make a stand with the rebels and tries to live alone. As time goes on he cannot avoid becoming a part of things that are happening, and he ends up saving the planet instead of being its destructor, the prophecy was misinterpreted!
This goes to show that ones destiny is not always carved into a wall and unwavering. The Hulks self-identification with good prevailed throughout the story. The Hulk simply was good, even if he grappled with the responsibility of being good. He simply could not be otherwise.
Nemesis
Nemesis is the story of two ordinary guys in the real world. However, they want to have super powers. They have always felt like they should be heroes. So, they decide to be nemeses in order to find their powers in the process. They never give up, but they never find their powers either. Except one day, while they are squaring off against each other an old lady is walking by, falls, and injures herself. They quickly go to her rescue, and when the paramedics arrive they call the two men heroes. Finally, their dreams are realized, and though they have no power, they are heroes.
At the end of the day, that is all they wanted. To be helpful. They didn't need to have superpowers to be and act heroically, they are how they are. See the common theme here? Throughout their journey they become content with who they are, rather than denying their identity. They are certainly not the only ones who decide to become something more than average.
Brett Robb
English 308
Project Rationale
This project started out with an idea, superheroes. The superhero genre is a favorite of mine, and when I started to think of what I wanted to do it immediately came to mind. What I wanted to say about superheroes came later, when considering which course texts I could use. I decided to use American Born Chinese because the monkey king can be seen as a sort of hero; he certainly has an alter-ego, and of course faces issues of identity in the text. That is when applying the theme of superhero identity occurred to me, and I saw how American Born Chinese was a great primer for the issues of identity which I wanted to confront.
After American Born Chinese I wanted to confront some other issues of identity which I saw related to the superhero genre. First, identification with good versus evil. For this I used Runaways, a story about adolescents who find out their parents are super villains, so they run away and become superheroes. The distinction is clear in that text. Next I went to Planet Hulk, an animated film about the Hulk which shows another trait of superhero identity, the desire to do good.
After these two texts I set out to dig deeper into the genre. Sure, they are heroes who want to do good, but how do they? Why do they? Simply put with power comes responsibility, and to assume that responsibility they must make sacrifices. These themes prevail in my next two texts Neon Genesis Evangelion and Spiderman, where the power and responsibility mantra comes from. In each case they are making huge sacrifices in their personal lives, and even risking their lives in the line of duty.
From here I talk about how superheroes leverage their personal lives with their superhero lives, but how ultimately these two facets of their identity are inseparable. Peter Parker is no more Spiderman than Spiderman is Peter Parker, they are unavoidably connected in this way, and their identity is neither one nor the other. To show this I used an ad campaign by Stori. Then I went in to what it was like for heroes who recognized how inseparable their identities were. Heroes who didn’t have the luxury of wearing a costume, but ones who always imbued both identities simultaneously. Such is the case with mutants. The Beast will always be blue and hairy, and he cannot escape that fate.
And finally, I wanted to explore the issues with identity in non-generic situations. I compared the movie Sky High with the other situations, showing how the non-super powered individual was the outcast in an all super-powered school. However, he ultimately faced many of the same issues until he obtained his own power. Then I went to a short film called Nemesis. This takes place with real people in the real world who want to be super. They search for their powers, and ultimately find none. However, they save an old lady and are called heroic, which makes them happy, to be identified with the way they see themselves. But it also shows the non-powered individuals can assume heroic situations. There is no better example of this than Batman, which is my final text and hopes to show the connection that non-super powered individuals have with superheroes. And I wanted to bring the issue of identity full circle. It shows how superhero identity issues are just exaggerations of the issues which normal people face, made in a sort of allegorical way.
I think I accomplished a primer on the basic issues of identity which super heroes face. I attempted to cover everything from the dichotomy of good and evil, to sacrifice, to power in relation to the individual, and the masked man versus the unmasked one.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis tells the story of Shinji as he struggles with his newfound identity. Like the Runaways, shinji thinks he is a normal person in the beginning. But he is given this responsibility to save the planet, a burden he doesn't want and didn't ask for, but only he can do it.
He still doesn't know who he is, and aside from sacrificing his teenage years to save the world, in this case he also risks sacrificing his life, because the technology they use to defeat the invading aliens is very risky.
The idea of sacrifice in this case then is closely tied in with identity. Specifically, heroes coming to terms with the sacrifices they make always represents a difficult force for them. Many go through a phase, like shinji, where they deny that responsibility, despise it, and want to be done with it. But ultimately, they come to see that they are the only ones who have the power to change things, its part of who they are, and it cannot be denied.
This story flips the traditional hero story around. Usually, the hero is the sole super powered person in a non super powered world, but here Everybody Will knows has super powers, his parents are the two most popular heroes in the world. However, when he goes to super hero school he has not yet developed his powers, and questions whether he ever will.
The lack of super powers is what sets him as the outcast in this story, rather than the possession of powers which heroes normally face, but nevertheless they go through many of the same things being outcasts alike. All Will wants is powers like his parents, and when he inevitably gets power he is accepted as normal. It kind of reverses the paradigm here because identifying with the hero group relieves him of his problems, and gives him the identity he seeks. Not all who want powers get them though, and some who are absolutely normal still manage to be heroic, as we will come to see.
Sky High
The X-Men continue along this theory of inseperability that the hero character imbues. They are mutants, genetically gifted (though some see it as a curse). Unlike other hero characters up to this point such as spiderman, the X-Men are not able to deny their abilities or powers, they manifest genetically. There is no turning away from who they are, because it will always follow them. The enemy in this series (along with the third movie) is a miracle 'cure' which will rid the mutants of their mutation. This is such a powerful villain because it is not a character, but an idea, and one which threatens the identity of these characters (not to mention their civil rights and liberties).
Another factor with mutants is that they cannot hide who they are. Spiderman can be Peter Parker, Superman dresses up and is Clark Kent, but the Beast will always be blue and hairy, and this seperates him from the rest of society. Hank (The Beast) believes in the civil rights of mutants as much as anyway, but in this series he is tempted to take the serum and be 'cured' so that he no longer has to live as an outcast of society. He does not take that option, because he realizes that he represents something. Like other heroes he cannot deny who he is, even if being so is more difficult for him than others.
Astonishing X-Men
I think this ad campaign shows that leverage with brevity and precision. We can quickly see that these heroes put on normal cloths like the rest of us at the start of their day. Yet, underneath (inside), they are still the hero.
This is a poignant statement on superheroes everywhere. A lot of them wonder when they are really putting on the costume. Are they really the masked vigilante, or the normal man? Whereas before I have talked about this aspects of the superhero identity as seperate, opposing forces, it is impossible to ignore how very linked they are! The hero is simultaneously Clark Kent and Superman, Bruce Wayne and Batman. It is difficult to see where the man ends and the hero begins, and individually the cannot ignore any aspect of their identity because they are so tied together, unavoidably connected.
Super-Ad Campaign
There is perhaps no better hero to examine the effects of sacrificing a personal life for the responsibility of saving lives than Spiderman and his alter-ego Peter Parker. He is constantly forced to give up what he wants in order to save the city once more. The Spiderman movies show this as much as the comics do, it is a centerpiece of the drama of the series. Will Spiderman fold under the pressure? Give in to his temptations to be normal?
But we see from the begginning of the movie that he doesn't. He risks his college career to save the city by consistantly missing class. And the biggest struggle of all is that he risks losing the women of his dreams, Mary Jane, because he cannot hold to the commitments he gave to her.
Like Shinji, Peter Parker goes through a phase where he denies being Spiderman, and seems to balance out his social and personal life. But he cannot ignore the trouble this causes the city, a guilt which rests on his shoulders since he has the power to stop it. Sacrifice is the story of the superhero as much as power, if not more. Sacrifice becomes engrained in their identities. Peter Parker must then learn to adapt to being a superhero and a normal person. Another struggle of the superhero identity is leveraging these two facets of their lives, the average and the super.