100+ Definitions 4

Invincible #4

Low-Frequency Listener (L-FL):  The fourth issue of Invincible has Mark seeking help from Atom Eve and the Teen Team to discover who is responsible for turning classmates into human bombs.   Both Mark and Eve are heckled by their teacher, who turns out to be the one exploding teens in a very misguided attempt to avenge his son.  Eve and Mark, as Atom Eve and Invincible, destroy their teacher.  Omni-Man returns from the dimension in which he was held captive and the Grayson family sits down for dinner. 

Invincible #4 (I#4):  From these pages, “superhero” can be understood as a being with extraordinary powers that subverts and shifts the social order and power relations so that the powered remains at the apex of social standing.

For example, as a student in the class, Mark follows the commands and suffers humiliation from his teacher.  Yet as Invincible, Mark becomes the socially superior one who controls the situation by cutting the teacher off in the midst of his monologue and throws his body high into the atmosphere to explode.

Comic-book writer Dennis O’Neil noted some similar ideas (and many others) regarding the essence of a superhero as shown by these selections from his essay “Superheroes and Power”:

“I don’t think there’s one concise answer to the question, ‘What is a superhero?’ Hero, derived from the Greek heros, means one who protects and serves.  A superhero is that, but it is also a lot more. …And I think that then—and later—they probably highlighted the values of the society to some degree….

“I think that superheroes have to do with power—identification with power, power that you either have or believe you have, or that you might like to have.  In addition, I think they have to do with aspiration….Given the timing of the appearance of Superman and his predecessors, we can assume that superheroes also have something to do with social discontent….

“The appeal of the superhero has something to do with escape….

“There is a kind of priestly aspect to the superhero figure—the costume identifies the wearer with a ‘higher power.’  But this function of the costume as a way of marking the wearer works in more ordinary situations as well.  Almost every culture has costumes for special occasions….The superhero costume functions in a similar way.  It signifies a separate identity, one imbued with power, and the superhero figure attracts us because we similarly want to be identified with power; it’s a normal part of being human.  

            “I think for a story to count as a superhero story, it requires action, it requires the costume motif…, and it requires the ultimate triumph of the protagonist.  But mostly it requires that the protagonist do things that an ordinary person cannot do and, by doing them, solve his or her problem.”

Well, “That’s nice.  Who’s ready for dessert?”