"What Makes a Hero Super?" by Bryce Vander Stelt

The mythology that we put around superheroes is nearly as vast as the mythology of ancient Greek gods. Stories are written of their heroics and their choice to stand up against the evil in the world. When thinking about all of the attention that we have in superheroes the question comes up “what makes them a superhero?” In our world we have our everyday heroes. The single mother, the fire fighter, your local policeman, but superheroes are held to a higher standard. There is a great variety between all of the heroes so we have to look for a common line between them. Many heroes have special abilities or powers and others are just normal people. To compare both sides of this spectrum I will be looking at Batman and Superman. Because of the vast varied stories of Batman I have decided to focus mostly on Christopher Nolan’s Batman character. To find what makes them super we will examine their original intentions, Plato’s idea of perfection, and Nietzsche’s view of mastering one’s emotions.

When studying heroes like Batman and Superman, one key issue is to understand their origins. Their differing back stories show their motivation and drive for doing what they do. When a reader thinks about why heroes react to villains the way they do in different situations, knowing the hero’s original intention helps shed light on their actions. In the world of Christopher Nolan, Batman’s journey begins as it does in most of his origin stories, his parents are shot and killed in front of him in an alley. In Nolan’s version this alley is outside of the opera theater that the three have just left. It is in this instant that Bruce’s life is changed. In the movie Batman Begins, Bruce goes through his young life angry at the world; he takes on crime everywhere, even if it means going into a prison to fight them on the inside. As he gets older he learns fighting techniques and tactics to help him go back to Gotham as Batman so that he can rid the city of crime. In stories like Jeph Loeb’s and Tim Sale’s Batman Ghosts Bruce says, “I made a promise. To honor my parents. Someday to rid Gotham City of the crime that took their lives.” Batman never says exactly this in Nolan’s movies, but the idea that he is fighting crime due to his parent’s death is still the backbone of his motive.

The question is why does he make a promise like this? It is an impossible task for one man to get rid of crime in Gotham – or anywhere for that matter. Many believe that Batman takes on this impossible task because of a moral code that he thinks is right and can hold to whether or not people in the city agree with what he does. I think that someone could also argue that some of his reasons are prudential. He feels that if he fights and does what is right, in the end he will have some sort of honor for his parents. Following this reasoning, his reasons for being moral become getting something that he wants in the end. When he goes out every night in a way he is going after his own parent’s killer. In Batman Begins the killer is already dead and gone, but it was not Bruce himself who was able to do it. The drive for vengeance is still inside of him and that feeling is part of what pushes him out of the cave every night. In Nolan’s second movie, The Dark Knight, Rachael (Bruce’s best friend) says that she does not know if there will come a day when Bruce does not need Batman. This statement points to the idea that Bruce goes out for himself (prudential motives) and for the city (motivation by a moral code).

Batman is the prime example of a completely human superhero. These heroes have no super powers but create themselves to fight crime for their own reasons. In the world of comics there are also the superheroes that get into the business by having or receiving special powers and abilities. If Batman is the prime example of the human superhero, then Superman is the prime example of a superhero with powers. Not only does he have powers, but he is also special in the fact that he is an alien. Superman’s origin is a planet called Krypton. The planet was about to explode when his father sent him away in a small spaceship as a baby. Jor El (his father) sent the ship to Earth. The ship made it off the planet and landed in a cornfield in Kansas; it was here that Superman was brought up as Clark Kent, son to Jonathan and Martha Kent. When he grew up, some versions include Jonathan’s death in Clark’s later teens. Other versions have Jonathan stay alive throughout Clark’s life. In both cases Clark moves from Smallville (his home in Kansas) to Metropolis and gets a job at the Daily Planet, one of the largest news papers in the world. It is here in the city that he introduces the world to Superman. An alien with the powers of super speed, super strength, x ray vision, heat vision, flight, and a couple other tricks, his only weakness is – oddly enough – Kryptonite. This is fragments of his home world that also made their way to Earth.

Superman is known by other heroes as the big blue boy scout. His entire life he was brought up to do the right thing. Jonathan Kent is one of the most noble, descent men to ever have walked the earth, and he imparted this on his son. Clark was brought up to respect good values and care for all people. Jonathan and Martha believe that Clark is meant to help people and encourage him to exercise his powers for this means. When Clark goes to the Fortress of Solitude, he learns from Jor El that he was sent to inspire good in people by using his powers. Superman’s reasons for being moral are embedded in this ingrained understanding of his duty to protect and inspire the people of Earth. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant believed that an action is moral if it is in line with a duty that you have. The duty of trying to save the world is Superman’s understood duty, so in Kant’s view we see Superman is a moral character.

A case may also be made for Superman having prudential motivations. On the TV series Smallville, we get a picture of a young Clark Kent coming to grips with his future. He seems to understand that there is a greater duty for him in the world. In his early years he does what is right so that he can protect his own identity or so that he can live happily ever after with Lana. It is prudential reasons like these that he has to overcome and try to understand his real reason for acting morally is to put the good of the world above his own personal desires.

Batman and Superman are both trying to fight to protect their cities; however, we can see that their motives for doing so are different. Where Batman has made a promise of his own accord, Superman has been brought up and taught that he has a purpose. While both may be protectors, Superman seems to have the more moral and righteous understanding of his cause.

Both Batman and Superman act the way they do for similar and different reasons, but whether their justification for their actions is not the only thing that makes them a superhero in our minds. The ancient philosopher Plato believed that evil is the absence of good. Humans live our lives attempting to achieve perfection in something that we can never actually attain in our physical world. This ideal or perfection in a goal or object is what Plato calls a form. We can attempt to make our city the perfect place to live, but it will never be a reality. Although we cannot achieve it that does not mean that we do not have an idea of what a perfect city would look like. When Batman comes back to Gotham to rid the city of its crime, he is attempting to achieve the form of the city he protects. It is impossible for him to achieve this; however, in his head he has a picture of what Gotham should be like. He believes that he can actually make this form become a reality. In his head the way to create this form of the city is to create the form of a hero: a symbol. Batman is the symbol that he creates as his form. He works to make him incorruptible and everlasting. Bruce’s goal is to make Batman an otherworldly ideal using the skills from his training and the weapons that he obtains. Perhaps if he is able to achieve this ideal in his symbol, then his goal to rid the city of evil and crime will work after all. Just because no one has ever achieved it before means nothing for Bruce Wayne. No one has ever run around in a city dressed like a bat either, but he does it. The problem is that no matter what he can do to the crime, the city is still filled with a lot of normal people. All of the citizens are far from perfect. This lack of good and perfection is what will give Batman job security until the day he dies. Perhaps this is what qualifies him for superhero status. The greater majority of people would turn the other way and say forget about it when faced with an impossible task. Even with incredible odds Batman endures and continues to fight. In The Dark Knight the city begins to turn against him, and they do not see the real need for Batman. He stays, he fights, and in the end he is even hunted for trying to do the right thing. Batman is dedicated to the form of Gotham.

As Batman sees a perfect “form” of Gotham City, Superman has a similar view; however, his is of humanity in general. Superman does not seem to plan on getting rid of crime, but rather just helping where he is needed. He is helping a system that is not as corrupt or ruined as is the tarnished police squad in Gotham. Rather he is working with the local authorities. He says he stands for truth, justice, and the American way, and it seems that he strives for perfect form of justice in our country. In America we often speak of our ideals and what our country was founded on, but our government is still corrupt. Superman believes in these values and fights to uphold them. At face value Superman also appears to be the form of a superhero. He has all of the powers that a hero could ever need, he respects everyone and never kills, and he does not wear a mask to hide himself from humanity. Unfortunately, as good as he seems, a deep look at Superman reveals that he is a complex character who constantly tries to find ways to use his gifts and try to have a somewhat normal life. He would love to take a vacation with Lois and not have to worry about saving the world. At times if he is slipped red Kryptonite, he loses his inhibitions and does not care what he does or who he hurts. While it sometimes seems on the outside that Superman is a form of a superhero, this critique shows that Clark is sometimes as far from a form as Batman.

Batman and Superman also differ in their use of anger. An interesting way to look at how Bruce is able to channel his anger for the death of his parents into something useful is to think about the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s view is that when a person has strong feelings of anger, destruction, or other types of negative feelings, that rather than ignoring them or giving into them we should sublimate them. In other words, one should try and take the energy from those feelings and use them for something positive. Bruce decides not to just go out and start shooting up the mobs in the streets, but rather figure out a way to fight back while staying on the right side of the moral line that he has drawn for himself. When Ducard is training Bruce he asks if Bruce feels responsible for his parent’s death. Bruce responds by saying, “My anger outweighs my guilt.” It is likely that without the energy that he derives from his anger he would not be able to be Batman. The ability to sublimate to those feelings is also something that I feel is what people could use to classify Batman and others as superheroes. The ability to control your emotions and use them in a way that betters you and the world around you is an important ability.

The difference between Batman and Superman here is that Superman does not seem to have as much anger to use as Batman does. Superman did have three parents die, but it does not translate in the same way that it does for Batman. I think that Superman does have a lot of feelings that he has to sublimate to with all of his powers. It only seems natural that with that much strength he would have the constant temptation to take over the world. It might be a stretch to say that he wants to take it over, but maybe it is more realistic to say that he is tempted to stop protecting it. Any hero has to ask themselves whether or not they want to continue doing what they are doing. When the battle they are fighting never ends the frustration must build up. Superman takes these feelings and acts as though even though it will not end, he can do what he can to make it better now. He sublimates his feeling of being overwhelmed and channels it into good. Like Batman, the fact that he continues may be another reason why we see them as superheroes.

There are many different ideas and themes to study as to what makes these two characters and others like them superheroes. It doesn’t take perfection or completely morally right actions. Society holds these characters in such a high regard because they put the good of the planet above themselves. Their ability to control their emotions puts them on a playing field above the rest of humanity. For Batman and Superman sacrifice plays a key role in making them superheroes. When a person puts the good of the cause above themselves to the level that these characters do I think that is where we see Superheroes come into play.