Pop Cult India Talks About the Superhero Stereotype
Stan Lee’s latest brainchild Chakra: The Invincible, an Indian superhero has been making news for a while now. Makes one think how that old-man-who-cameos-in-Marvel-movies has created so many heroes.
Interestingly we have many diverse supers in the fictional universe even though they are essentially variables of a simple formulaic creation equation. Most have distinguished themselves due to years of development. How many of you can put The Hulk and Batman in the bracket? Unless you’re rounding up people named Bruce. However we’ve created five broad categories of similarity.
So if you ever plan on creating a hero these are the things you should keep in mind or not keep in mind.
The Origin
This one is more obvious than the plot of an Indian serial.
The loss or non-existence of one or more biological parents before wearing the cape is fundamental. More people know about Thomas and Martha Wayne’s death than the JFK assassination. Supes, Spidey, Cyclops, Hulk, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Flash, Mr Fantastic and even The Powerpuff Girls are on this list.
The search for their roots is a typical story arc that often establishes solid supporting characters and villains in their mythology. Thus this gives a lot of fodder to writers.
The inspiration for this comes from mythological and religious texts. (Read: JC, Krishna and other cool dudes)
A normal average Joe as a hero would be nice but a family tragedy perfectly aligns a hero’s moral compass.
The Romance
What? Your hero isn’t even allowed to pop his lover’s cherry? And your femme fatale has to keep her chastity belt on for eternity?
No. Love is natural; they’re human after all, well mostly.
The point here is that there is always another significant other more significant than their actual significant other. These relationships are mostly platonic. But one thing’s for sure, the lovers are generally morally at odds. The best examples of this rule are; Batman and Talia-al-Ghul , Spidey and Black Cat, Cyclops and Emma Frost, Sue Storm and Silver Surfer, Sue Storm and Namor, Sue Storm and Reed Richards (whoops…got a little carried away there).
Not like they’re infidel or anything. Let’s just say variety is the spice of life.