It’s a bank robbery! No! A fire! Someone’s drowning, the world is ending, there’s chaos in the streets of Gotham or New York or whichever overly populated city you live in. Behind the scenes, a villain laughs maniacally as they watch the chaos unfold. Then suddenly, a flash of color races through the sky as the local superhero rushes off to save the day, once again. The story ends with the hero, once again, having saved the day. Since the first Superman comic was released in 1938, superheroes, no matter their
origin story, have always been the unequivocal good that stands in the way of evil. Everyone knows this formula and it’s monotony. This is what gave rise to the antihero, although it’s hard to track their exact origins. While Deadpool and Punisher are probably the most well known, the trope did lead to the evolution of some villains and heroes. But even that, while still widely beloved, has reached a form of monotony. That brings us to today. Instead of making “not quite a hero,” shows have started to question what really makes a hero and what happens when the hero goes bad. Specifically, we have shows like Invincible that show us what' could be called the modern hero.
Invincible is a show based on the amazing comic written by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley. First published in 2003 and finished in 2018, it started streaming on Amazon Prime in 2021 and quickly became a hit. If you haven't watched or read Invincible and you're still reading this, go binge it and come back. There aren't any spoilers, it's just that good. Why? Because it shows us something different than the Superman - a character whose sole purpose is to do good for the sake of doing good. It deconstructs what a hero might look like in the modern day and what they would look like if they lived under modern expectations. It shows that, while they're all people with super powers, the main cast are, mostly, just humans. They show them with human flaws and emotions. They're the teenage heroes who act like teenagers.
Now, I know I said there wasn't a Superman in this - the pinnacle of all that is good and right who does good and right just because he should - but that was a bit of a lie. But only a bit. The show does give us one character who is clearly supposed to represent the Superman but in a modern day - Mark Grayson, the main character and a teenage half-human, half-Kryptonian-but-not-really. He's the go too good boy. All he wants is to help people because it's the right thing to do. But unlike many superhero movies of the past, that doesn't mean everything gets wrapped up in a nice little bow. Avoiding spoilers
as much as possible, Mark Grayson lives his life like a superhero in disguise and actually faces major repercussions for it. His powers, while being showed to be extraordinary, don't end up actually helping him all that much.
The modern hero is transforming into something both more grim and more realistic. Film and comic makers are stepping away from the idealized version of heroes and making them into something more relatable. Sure, Mark Grayson is a overpowered half-Kryptonian-but-not-really, but the show goes to great lengths to show that those powers don't mean all that much to him. What ends up being his greatest asset is his love for people and his courage to protect them. The modern hero is transforming into something more realistic, grim, and, in a way, inspiring.
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