Thursday, May 21, 2009

I realized some time ago that what I said about "Iron Man" can be said, in its broad outlines, about most superheroes. Certainly about Superman, for instance. The combination of power and goodness in one creation is unrealistic, not in the power, but in the goodness. Superman is a philosopher king just as Iron Man is. Spiderman, the same thing.

A ton of other comic book characters don't fit the mold, because their "goodness" is much more tenuous. Batman is often very dark. The characters in "Watchmen" are a much more obvious example. Not that I'm a huge comic book guy, to say the least.

Iron Man is more explicitly set in a political framework, compared to Superman / Spiderman, and so the comparision seems more relevant. But there's nothing special about Iron Man, the character, compared to a lot of other superheroes. And that bugs me about my conclusion. I really liked that post until I had that thought.

Oh, well.