Heroes are Mirrors of Ourselves; an opinion essay

2019/02/04

Heroes are Mirrors of Ourselves

I find it interesting when people tell me which comic book their liked when they were a kid. It tells a lot about the personality of the person. As a kid, they had the choice of hundreds of superheroes to pick from and all these heroes had a distinct personality of their own. Also, when we were kids, there was a lot less political correctness than today, so there was more diversity in the personalities of the heroes.

So kids like heroes with ultimate power, like Superman. Someone who was indestructible; who was stronger than anything else in the world; and he could make everything right for everyone. He could even go back in time to make things right.

So kids like heroes that crawled out of hell to rip someone’s face off out of revenge, like Spawn. Or what about a hero that turns into a skeleton and eats your soul, like Ghost Rider. I can appreciate the macabre art that comes with this kind of hero, but the plot is too simple.

Some boys were into ‘’my little pony’’ and became cuck mangina Bronies when they grew up and there is nothing wrong with that =P.

Me, there are 2 superheroes that I really associated with: The Punisher and Rorschach. Both of them were complete social outcast. Everybody hated them. The authorities wanted to arrest them because they respected no laws. These guys were the real anti-heroes. You couldn’t negotiate with them; you couldn’t bargain with them; you couldn’t intimidate them; and you couldn’t take anything from them because they already lost everything. They weren’t there to make things right; they weren’t there for justice or the good of mankind; they were the punishment. Throughout their lives, people made choices to do right or wrong, and at the end of the line, these anti-heroes were waiting for you to give you what you deserved. 

Often, the writers would give a human side to the bad guys. They showed that they weren’t monsters. They had families that they cared about, these bad guys were someone’s father/husband/son, they were loved by someone. But in the end, all that isn’t worth shit. You can spend the rest of your life living as a saint, there are some things that you have done in your past that can never be forgiven and now it is time to pay.

I love the fact that these anti-heroes have principals that they are unwilling to sacrifice, no matter what. I love the fact that they are not looking for any outwards validation. All of the emotional reinforcement and the justification they need to accomplish these acts are internalized. In a way, they are completely detached from the world and are icons of impartiality in its purest form.

I believe that Terrence Popp understands this. As a Sergeant, Popp did not try to be loved by everyone, he wasn’t trying to be nice, it wasn’t a popularity contest. He took pride in doing what he thought was right even when no one was looking. And in many ways, I believe that this is what being a real hero actually his about. I would be interested to see what his favorite superheroes were.

I know that Canadian Libertarian will probably read this, so I will try to guess which his favorite heroes were. Bennett is a strong guy, with a lot of self confidence, who takes pride in being a rock that everyone can depend on and someone that people will feel safe around, especially the women in his life. So I will take a wild guess and it will be funny if I get this right =P. I’m thinking of the Hulk and Captain America. This would combine the strength with the righteous hero. Leave a comment to see if I got it right =P.

I will also guess that Stefan Molyneux’s favorite superhero was Professor X.

 LOL just joking =P

I wasn’t trying to say anything about the state of the world we live in or to point our some terrible fact about society in this article. Sometimes it is important to take our heads out of the water, breath some fresh air and have a little fun. I hope you found this article amusing.

Gato Villano