Heroes and Superheroes

This topic submitted by Shiree Campbell and Jocelyn Haugen ( haugenjr@muohio.edu ) on 2/17/06. [ Human Nature Team: Shiree Campbell and Jocelyn Haugen-Section: Blaisdell/Feister]

Introduction-

Part of human nature is to strive to be better and stronger individuals in our everyday life. We are motivated to achieve this calling by finding heroic real-life personalities or even fictional superheroes and matching our behavior to theirs. This trait of our human nature is the desire to imitate those around us who appear to be more successful, possess greater strengths than us, or are more popular and looked up to by the general public.
This addresses the notion that humans are insatiable beings. Everyone is always wanting more than what they own and possess. In a world that is limited by time and available resources, people will often go to great extremes to reach their personal goals. In our project, we will question what it is that pushes people to expect and want more for themselves. We also plan on determining what causes us to identify with certain heroes and superheroes, thus identifying which traits are the mostly sought out: strength, intelligence, popularity, or versatility, amongst many others.
Basically we are looking at the notion of heroes and superheroes in the human species, and how it is within our human nature to look for those we can imitate, strive to be, or admire greatly from afar.

Relevance of Research Question:
Armstrong, K. (2005). A Short History of Myth. Canongate Books. Ltd.:Edinburgh, Scotland.

This very helpful book covers mythology all the way from c. 20000 BCE to modern day. It is helpful because heroes have been around about as long as mythology has been. The idea that myths "told them how the gods behaved, not out of idle curiosity or because these tales were entertaining, but to enable men and women to imitate these powerful beings and experience divinity themselves" (5) forms the basis of our project historically. This book also confirms that "all cultures have developed a similar mythology about the heroic quest" (36). Which makes mythology centered on heroes for the sake of humans' abilities to imitate them a universal occurrence and therefore an intricate phenomenon that is part of human nature.

Berger, A. (1970). The Comic-Stripped American. Walker and Company: New York.
This book examines various comic strips and draws its own conclusions on how comics reflect our culture? The author states that individuals have forgotten many things about the "common man" and that we now live under the false assumption that "the culture of the common man is insignificant".
Arguments made in this book are that much of our high culture is influenced by popular culture. The author demonstrates that a great deal of our culturally interesting material is to be drawn from comics. He also classifies the different generations of comics and their respective heroes and superheroes. Once again, this source will be useful to our project because it outlines the different superheroes, their traits, and their importance and roles within each generation of our culture.
Bongco, M. (2000). Reading Comics: Language, Culture, and the Concept of the Superhero in Comic Books. Garland Publishing Inc.: New York.

What we found at once intriguing about this source, is that it treats comic books like any other art form that exists today, and addresses its increasing popularity through the years. It mentions that in the 1970's, "new demands for a broader and more penetrating approach to communication and media studies [appeared]: how ideas, images, attitudes, forms, and contents of specific medium can exist within texts and reproduce themselves in readers." This in itself reflects our views about society reproducing behaviors, attitudes, and values that were expressed by real-life heroes and fictional superheroes.
This source associates comic books with our culture and attempts to answer to the sudden popularity of this art form and who allowed it to make its comeback. To do so, it defines the term "popular" and "popularity" and explains what it is that allows comics to be qualified by such a term. Also, it ties in human nature through its assertion that "commodities like mass-produced texts are selected, purchased, constructed, and used by real people with previously existing needs, desires, intentions, and interpretative strategies." This addresses our theories that humans are insatiable beings that are in search of bettering themselves and changing themselves to follow someone else they look up to, admire, or idolize.

Brozik, M. & Weinstein, J. (2005). The Government Manual for New Superheroes. Andrews-McMeel Publishing.

This little book offers a comical approach on how to "become" a superhero. It lists strengths, skills, and ensembles that should be targeted in order to be competitive on the superhero market. Also, it helps you pick names, costumes, supertools, and superpowers for your newly created superhero. This source will prove useful for our project because it seems to identify the main aspects of a superhero and those that are really important in understanding their identities. This is a fun book for a fun topic.

Cohen, J. (2001). Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the Identification of Audiences With Media characters Mass Communication and Society. 4(3), 245-264.

This journal article explores the idea of identification and how people identify to media characters. It thoroughly discusses the difference that exists between identification and imitation and proposes that imitation is part of/a consequence of identification. Identification and imitation are similar but separate responses an audience member may have to a character in media. Identification is more of an internal process while imitation becomes an outward action. The article sites many other articles regarding how much is learned about self-identity and social roles through identification with characters. "Huesmann et al. (1984) found that identifying with aggressive characters on TV increased the learning of aggressive behavior by children. Basil (1996) found that identification with celebrities who were promoting health messages increased the adoption of these messages" (246)
The role of heroes is also mentioned: "the importance of children's tales to child development. He argued that by identifying with the hero of a tale, children psychologically experience the triumph of good over evil and learn that being good pays" (248) It is clear in this article that identification/imitation of heroes in the media is greatly imbedded in our human nature and plays a significant role in forming who we become. This journal can become even more relevant when we start watching movies/TV shows involving heroes.

Fingeroth, D. (2004). Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society. Continuum: New York.

The author of this book attempts to learn why people have been deeply involved with superheroes for so many years. It addresses the pertinent question, "what does the perennial popularity of superheroes tell us about our own society's needs and values?" This source also provides us with a complete definition of what a hero is and what exactly are that person's strengths and qualities. It then does the same for a superhero which gives us great grounds to compare the two.
This book categorizes the different types of superheroes and delves on the traits of each particular group. Many aspects of our project are covered by this amazing book, such as the differences between male and female traits in the characters, the comics, and the readers/fans. It also directly links comic books to the multimedia world through movies and television series, as well as back to the myths that used to hold such a dominant place within various cultures and our society.
It seems that out of all of the books we have found so far, this one really addresses our project 100%. All of the information that is located in the pages of this book will prove very resourceful as it seems to answer all of the questions we are asking ourselves such as "what is it about human nature that makes superhero tales so compelling?", "why do we always reinvent the more-than-human ideal?", and "how have superheroes affected our culture?"

Garry, J. & El-Shamy, H. (2002). Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature: A Handbook. M.E. Sharpe: New York.

This book serves as an introduction for those who are not familiar with Thompson's great Motif Index of Folklore Literature, and presents in-depth essays of a few of the thousands of motifs that his work classifies. After introducing folklore and elaborating on the concept of archetype, this source defines the various motifs that exist today, such as mythological motifs, mythical animals, the dead, and ogres, amongst many. It also addresses sex, the nature of life, magic, and chance versus fate.
This source should allow us to further our theories on today's heroes and superheroes being linked to past mythical figures and characters. We hope to be able to relate some of the elements found in this book to those that the people of our society choose to imitate and model. It also ties into the historical perspective of our project as a whole.

Goldwater, J. (1974). Americana in Four Colors. Charlton Publications Inc.: New York.
This source provides basic knowledge about comic books. It tells us what they are, why they are popular, and how people relate to them. It is another book which serves our project, despite the fact that it is relatively short, not as scholarly as the others, and appears to be more of a summary than any new and critical information. What is good about it, is that the information we have found within it so far confirms the information we have found elsewhere. Verifying our statistics and facts is a very important part of our process and we do not wish to make any false statements or arguments.

Grunwald, A. & Gutmann, M. & Neumann-Held, E. (2002). On Human Nature: Anthropological, Biological, and Philosophical Foundations. Springer: Germany.

In the Spring of 1999, the European Academy organized a symposium based on "human nature: biological approaches and philosophical reflections". This book constitutes the main results of this symposium and presents complimentary approaches of certain invited authors. It invokes a comprehensive and inclusive discussion on the modern "concept of humankind".
As a general source which answers the question "what does it mean to be human?", this source will prove to be a great transdisciplinary contribution to our research. It provides us with great resources regarding the differences between the spheres of science and morality; contemplating themes such as identity and self-explanation, ourselves and our bodies, and self-image. This section will be useful when it comes down to determining which aspects of human nature push us to question our identity and image and seek external models to imitate. Another useful section concerns human cultures' natures. It addresses the many theories of human beings by first defining human beings as well as what constitutes humanity. It also addresses culture as a character which will be interesting to contemplate in our research because culture is such a high determinant in who we choose to be in life, what we strive to accomplish, and how we want others to perceive us. Finally, this book also talks about genetic determinism and begins discussion on female and male differences and influences.
This source should prove relatively useful in the completion of our project because it will allow us to use scientific and scholarly facts and findings to back up our arguments and lead our query.

Mataric, M. (1997). Learning Social Behavior Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 20, 191-204.

This study was done with the use of robots "initially equipped with a strategy for foraging. [to] learn the following social behaviors: yielding, proceeding, communicating, and listening, which serve to effectively minimize interference and maximize the effectiveness of the group" (191). The study focuses around social learning which involves imitation, and the imitation involved in the experiment was imitation of peers. The study showed that groups using imitation/social rules "consistently outperformed groups with only greedy individual strategies" (199). This experiment shows that imitation is a beneficial trait to have and thus poses the question to us whether or not imitation is a selected trait that is part of our genes as humans. We believe that it is and ask a new question of how imitating heroes/superheroes may benefit us.

Meltzoff, A. & Moore, M. (1994). Imitation, Memory, and the Representation of Persons. Infant Behavior and Development. 17, 83-99.

This study is done on imitation in infants and asks how memory plays a part in the imitation/progress of imitation abilities. It is in the beginning of this experiment that we get most of our needed information. First, that imitation is indeed a part of our human nature to help us learn motor skills and communication at a very primitive non verbal level. It is also said in this study that "the double significance of early imitation is that it is not only a marker of such a representational capacity, but is itself an important engine in infants' developing understanding of persons" (95). Perhaps in adults we learn how to understand ourselves and others even more through the imitation of heroes/superheroes.

Reynolds, R. (1992). Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology. University Press of Mississippi: Jackson, Mississippi.

This book gives a quick history of the development of superhero characters. It also does a great deal of linking of superheroes to ideals that were present in past mythology such as wisdom, strength, stamina, power, quickness, courage, etc. The book also addresses the fact that "superhero narratives clearly give substance to certain ideological myths about the society they address: the USA. A narrative such as Thor confronts ideological myth-making very directly: it places the traditional hero or God on the stage of American society" (74). This book draws a very nice connection between comic book superheroes and mythology.

Skidmore, J. (2005). Mythweb. Heroes. Retrieved February 16th, 2006 from World Wide Web http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/heroes.html.

This is a website that has links to each of the Greek heroes' stories. These stories are really cute! There are cartoon pictures! There are also links provided to help understand each hero. This is a helpful page because it was these sagas that were written down that are most remembered/recognized heroic stories.

Superheroes Live. Retrieved February 16th, 2006 from World Wide Web http://xoomer.virgilio.it/amasoni2002/shl/.

This website includes a plethora of information regarding superheroes not only in comic books, but also in movies and TV shows as well. There are links to find out more about heroines specifically. There are also links to look at information regarding films that will be coming out that have to do with superheroes, and a link to real life superheroes which proves to be most interesting in that they are divided into heroes for fun, heroes for hire, etc.
Weiner, S. (2003). Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel. Nantier Beall Mnoustchine Publishing Inc.: New York.

This looks at comics historically and particularly mentions how the "comic book world really exploded, however, when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, a couple of Jewish kids from the Midwest created Superman, ushering in a new tradition in heroic storytelling". It shows the progress of comic books from cheap children's entertainment to a teenager craze to finally "modified to interest adults". It also tells how the heroes were originally patriotic because of the second world war and how after the war, their popularity almost died until writers started to give them "problems everyday people face as well as the problems that went with battling super-villains". This book also comments on how comic books are starting to gain prestige and consideration as a respected art and literary form which compliments the idea that superheroes are well known and popular in American society where we will be performing our studies.

(1999). The Times. Heroes and Icons. Retrieved February 16th, 2006 from World Wide Web http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/.

This is Time's website with links about each of their 20 heroes of the past 100 years. They are even described as "superhuman" on this page. The list includes a wide variety of figures and is quite eclectic including: Muhammad Ali, The American G.I., Diana, Princess of Wales, Anne Frank, Billy Graham, Che Guevara, E. Hillary & T. Norgay, Helen Keller, The Kennedys, Bruce Lee, Charles Lindbergh, Harvey MIlk, Marilyn Monroe, Mother Teresa, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, Pel�, Andrei Sakharov, Jackie Robinson, and Bill Wilson.

(2000). Comics and Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics. Museum Tusculanum Press University of Copenhagen: Copenhagen, Denmark.

This book is an anthology of talks given at a conference "Comics and Culture, held at the University of Copenhagen, 24-26 September 1998" (7). The various talks include all the ideas of cultural/social studies, semiotics, and literary theory all revolving around comic books.
This book is not so useful in that it encompasses mostly the business side of the comic book process. However, this book is useful because it was in the comic book that superheroes were born and a large part of our study is based on superheroes and peoples' identification with them/desires to be able to imitate them. As Chris Murray mentions in Popaganda: Superhero Comic and Propaganda in World War Two: "Soon the Axis enemies, and in particular the Japanese, became the villains and the American troops became stereotypically heroic figures" (142) and there was a very specific connection drawn between a superhero and an American soldier. Murray also discusses how the superheroes of the time represented the myth of America and how the comics were used to gain support for governmental policies regarding the atomic bomb and what women's roles should be during the war.

(2002). An International Database of Superheroes. Retrieved February 16th, 2006 from the World Wide Web http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/nonus.htm.

This website is an international catalogue of superheroes. This site does not focus on just the popular American heroes but also on the lesser known ones across the globe. This site is very useful in the finding of examples of various heroes with a multitude of superpowers that may come up in our surveys.

(2005). Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way. Open Court: Chicago Illinois.

This book is composed of a series of essays regarding philosophy and superheroes. Much of it shows the connections between human nature and the nature of superhero characters as well as discusses what separates normal people from them: "superheroes have powers and abilities far beyond those of ordinary mortals. And to a person they pursue justice, defending the defenseless, helping those who cannot help themselves, and overcoming evil with the force of good" (11) It also talks about how superheroes usually deal with the same kind of goals and fears that us normal people face all the time. It also has a section where it gives "Reason to be Moral" which goes along with our hypothesis that there might be a connection between what qualities people wish they have and what superhero they might wish to be.

(2005). The New Heroes. Retrieved February 16th, 2006 from World Wide Web http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/.

This site is dedicated to 14 people from all over the world who are considered "the new heroes" or "social entrepreneurs". This website tells their stories and shares how they are heroic. This site is helpful because it gives us an idea of who are real life heroes and what they do for us/our world.

Interdisciplinary Approach:
Ideas about heroes and superheroes have also existed in the disciplines of religion, mythology, and history. Every religion has its heroes. Islam has Muhammed, Christianity has Jesus, Buddhists have Buddha, and Judaism has a myriad of heroic prophets and judges. Mythology which goes along with religion has the great Roman/Greek Prometheus and Aeneas. There, as mentioned above, are all of the great historical figures and pop culture idols. Even all of the technology and media involved in the discipline of communications is used greatly in the perpetuation of heroes in our society i.e. movies, TV. and even comic books. There are also large social and cultural factors closely tied to the idea of heroes and superheroes.
This project is interdisciplinary because it concerns various disciplines across the board. From a social perspective, this project outlines what external factors will influence any individual's desires. Why aren't we satisfied with what we have or what we are capable of doing? Do societal trends pressure us into wanting change or do we just feel suffocated by the entire buzz going on around us?
Another social perspective of this project is what makes particular personalities and superheroes more popular than others. Why do women choose to identify with Mother Theresa, Lady Di, or Oprah Winfrey whereas men choose to identify with Batman, Superman, and Flash? This can also be analyzed through a biological perspective which would determine the differences between men and women and what each of them wants respectively. Are these different choices caused by biological differences, or by the demands of gender roles placed on society?
One more perspective is the cultural aspect of this project. Not only do our real-life heroes and fictional superheroes have their own real or created history, but some are more or less embedded with our society's culture. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. has left a legacy behind him that will never die out over time; one that has created social progress that was once unbelievable. Others, like the heroes of Star Wars have now maintained years and years of reverence by many members of society; people who are willing to camp out in front of movie theaters for weeks on end in order to be the first to reach their heroes. How has our culture become so obsessed by what we see as a fictional reality? What aspects of our culture have allowed us to embrace, idolize, and imitate specific characters?

Specific Research Design:
In order to complete our experiment and find the conclusions to our research questions in the various fields that our project embodies, we will complete surveys. By choosing a survey format, we will be able to ask all of the questions we feel are necessary and collect a large amount of data. This will allow us to randomly sample a large amount of our population, in this case college students of average ages from 18-24, whose names will remain anonymous and whose participation will be entirely voluntary.
We will be asking precise questions so as to retrieve all the information necessary to answer our many questions. Our questions will be: When you were little, what did you want to do when you grew up? Who is your real-life hero and why? Who is your favorite fictional superhero and why? What do you think are your main strengths and weaknesses? What do you wish you could do better? If you could have any superpower, would you want one? If yes, what would it be and why? These questions should allow us to identify the similarities and trends that appear throughout the answers we receive. We will then be able to use these commonalities to draw conclusions and further our research of deeper and more precise areas.
Another method we will be using to complete our research will be through the popular media. In the past couple of years, there has been a sudden surge in the number of movies which star fictional superheroes such as The Incredibles, Star Wars, and Smallville. This increase illustrates the growing popularity of this "fictional reality" and will hopefully prove useful in our research. We will evaluate a few movies and their characters so as to determine the traits that we believe individuals will choose to imitate. The exact media we use may change depending on the results from the surveys. For example if everyone puts down their mother as their real life hero, then we will be looking further into the mother child relationships and how a mother attains a "hero" title.

Materials and Methods:
The materials that will be key in the execution of our project are the survey, the paper material we find on our topic, the movies, and possible interviews we undertake. Regarding the survey, it is important that we ask pertinent and precise questions so as to obtain the right information but also direct our participants so as to encourage voluntary and honest answers. Also, it is crucial that we find books and journals that we may use to base our research and back our arguments and the conclusions we find through the surveys.
Because our experiment regarding imitating superheroes and possessing superpowers is not necessarily a mainstream research project, we must broaden our research to looking for sources concerning imitation, social behavior, human nature, myths and folklore, superheroes, and culture, amongst many. This should hopefully provide us with enough information to narrow our subject back down.
When viewing the movies, we must make sure that we choose a variety of fictional movies: animated or with real actors. It is important for us not to single out one particular movie or style because then we will not obtain information on which to base generalizations. Finally, there is a possibility that we may find some die-hard fans to interview on why they are so obsessed by specific fictional characters. This would give us a first hand and direct account of the inner-workings of certain individuals' minds; those that fit the description of our participants. We may also be able to interview David Munier who works as an artist for Pixar which is the company who is at the root of Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles. He could provide us with some great insight on how movies companies choose which stories to create and what traits each of their characters must possess to interest the general public.
In order to execute all that we wish to complete, we have created the following time-line: we are currently submitting our project proposal which includes an annotated bibliography of the books and journals we have already found on our topic. These sources have either been evaluated as potentially useful for our project or not useful, in which case we will continue our research to replace those sources that did not prove helpful. We will then begin working through our good sources in more depth, taking note on the main themes that will prove relevant in our final write-up. Also, we will type up our survey questions and hand them out to a large sample of participants and then, as they come back in, begin compiling our data on possible data sheets. Once data is compiled, we will start to link our results with the notes and statistics found in our sources, allowing us to draw preliminary conclusions; possibly altering our initial hypotheses. Then, the next steps will be to obtain the interviews that are aforementioned and begin screening movies to get complimentary information to complete our initial research.

Discussion and Conclusions:
We expect the surveys to confirm that the most popularly desired superpowers are the ability to fly, being invisible, and invincibility. We also hope to determine whether people consider being successful, rich, and intelligent as superpowers or if instead, they are simply other more natural traits that are possessed by many. We also expect that men will desire more powers that have to do with physical attributes such as strength, whereas women will desire more powers regarding mental attributes such as intelligence. These results would confirm the common stereotypical beliefs regarding gender roles and gender attributes that society portrays currently.
We believe that while everyone possesses strengths and weaknesses, all participants will not choose to recognize their weaknesses or even their real strength because there is a conscious aspect of not wanting to appear too "pompous" or "weak". On the other hand, we believe that everyone will name a real-life hero which will probably be a close relative, a highly respected friend, or a popular figure. Also, people will name a fictional hero, probably one that they have followed for a good portion of their life; a childhood hero.

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