A Glimpse of the Superheroes in Comic Books

Superhero super hero role model comic Today's children turn to a lot of things forentertainment or diversion. Sometimes its sports, television, or comicbooks. The latter is still used today by children for amusement. No doubtabout it, comic books are still a popular medium of entertainment forchildren. But over the years, comic book heroes have evolved to keep upwith today's generation of readers. The question has arisen a number oftimes: Are comic book superheroes good role models for children? Comic booksuper heroes are good role models. First, some background on the superhero persona. The very first superhero was Superman. He was an alien from a dying worldsent here by his parents. Earth's atmosphere gave him super-strength andflying capabilities (among other things.) All this was published in ActionComics #1, 1938. The comic was a phenomenal success. Superman was thecatalyst for the creation of countless more superheroes. During the WorldWar II period, Marvel comics introduced Captain America.

Captain Americawas a normal man genetically altered to become physically perfect. He wasthen sent around the world to do special missions for the government. Onthe cover of his first issue, he is pictured punching Hitler in the face. Obviously anti-Nazi. He also had a teenaged sidekick, Bucky. Now childrenthat read the comic could relate more with Bucky, who was a kid, just likethe reader. Later, in the 1960's, came Spiderman. Spiderman was actually ateenager by the name of Peter Parker. He was your typical nerd, trying tofit in with the crowd. For the first time, there was a comic with the maincharacter being about the same age of the reader, with social problems andfamily problems: real problems. Not the problems that heroes like Supermanhad, like whether or not he should be friends with an alien race. Spidermangained his powers by being bitten by a radioactive spider; a bit morebelievable than coming from another planet.

The radioactive bite gave himspider-like powers. He then decided to fight crime, and do his part for thegood of his community (New York City). Since Peter Parker had no parents helived with his Aunt May. She was pretty old, so he constantly had to runerrands for her. And he did all this in good will, never resenting her. Agreat example for children and readers alike. Up to today, all the characters mentioned abovestill exist. But they have changed to keep up with the times. RecentlySuperman died at the hands of Doomsday, an other-worldly creature. Thisshowed us a few things: that even the most powerful type of person, aSuperman, could die. At his funeral we saw that other superheroes care andthat they have feelings.

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We also saw that the character of Bibbo, Superman's friend, decided to put on a Superman costume and do what hecould for the good of Metropolis. He did not do anything spectacular, ofcourse, but he did help out the homeless, and save a few drowning puppies.A good example to set for children. In the Marvel universe, Spiderman wentthrough a series of changes. Most important of these changes was probablyhis marriage to his high school girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson. That showedus that how a superhero can have a family and also fight crime. This alsoadded an air of realism to the comic. Captain America also went throughsome changes. One of these was the death of his partner, Bucky. He grievedfor a short time, but he returned to his duties as "Sentinel of Our

Shores". That showed readers that when you are serving your country, dutycomes first. Today's superheroes are totally different from thesuperheroes of yesterday. One of these superheroes of the 90's is Spawn.Spawn's satanic origins may have parents in an uproar, but Spawn himselfdenounces his master and his powers. Instead of using his powers for evil, for which they were intended, he uses them to fight crime and protect hiswife. It turns out that Spawn was a soldier mysteriously killed. He lovedhis wife so much, that he made a deal with the devil to come back. The badside is he comes back five years later, and his wife has remarried. Readersget a sense of what love can do to a man. The comic also portrays the devilas an arch-villain of Spawn.

A fairly new hero in the Marvel universe isDarkhawk. Darkhawk resembles young Spiderman in many ways. Darkhawk'ssecret identity, Chris Powell is a teenager, just like Spiderman was, withall the problems that a teenager has. Darkhawk's cause for fighting crimestems from seeing his father, who is a police officer, take a payoff fromBazin, a drug dealer and mobster. Chris then finds an amulet whichtransforms him into Darkhawk. Since a drug dealer made his father gocrooked, he bears a grudge against all drug related criminals. Since hegoes to high school, he busts drug runners who are students as well. Thisis a great role model.

Children can relate to Darkhawk because of his ageand heed his anti-drug message. Another superhero of today is Shadowhawk,an African American hero. He is a bit more violent than most superheroesbut his cause is a just one. One time he had to fight a very racist killer, Hawk's Shadow. Knowing that Hawk's Shadow only killed African Americans, Shadowhawk got very angry. Angry to a point where he almost killed Hawk'sShadow, but he spared him because of his promise never to kill anyone.Shadowhawk shows readers that racism is wrong and that if he really existed, you would get a severe beating. And now the X-men. The X-men fromMarvel Comics have been around for a while, but have been through so manychanges that they are considered a superhero team of the 90's. The team ismade up of mutants; humans born with superhuman powers. Mutants in theMarvel universe are the most persecuted group of people on earth. Thepurpose of the X-men is to earn the humans' trust by fighting evil mutantsand other supervillains.

Despite all of the X-men's efforts, prejudicestill exists. Wolverine of the X-men said it himself when he said that hatewas the X-men's worst enemy. The X-men are good role models because oftheir anti-prejudice policy. What do the children think themselves, you ask? Well here's what some youngsters thought when asked what superhero theywould like to be: "The Incredible Hulk, because he helps in the innocentwhen there's a robbery. He beats the thieves up and throws them in thegarbage can--well, not always, but most of the time.","I kind of likeSuperman the best because he always saves people.

I like it when he turnsfrom a man into Superman.", and... "Rogue's the best. She's one of thefemale X-Men. Her special power is that she can take away the specialpowers of other things just by touching her skin. She can also fly, andshe's real strong." Well, the point has been made clear: superheroesare excellent role models. And not just for children, but for everyone. The word "superhero" implies somebody not normal; better in all aspects. It also implies some one who is genuinely good, someone to look up to, ahero. All heroes in today's comic books fit into this category of superhero". And lastly, remember that all superheroes are human, one wayor another, and that's what makes them all the more spectacular as well asinspiring.

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