Self-sabotaging behavior of the superheroes
This afternoon I was telling one of our children that my wife and I do our best to raise him and his siblings to be strong and to be ethical. We think these things are linked.
Later while walking back from a backyard birthday party I got to thinking about those ties between strength and ethics, and for some reason the following questions popped into my head. As you’ll see, I think that those we would consider among the strongest and most ethical are self-sabotaging (somewhat in the vein of the Greek gods). It’s a shame Freud didn’t live to examine this more closely.
Perhaps you have non-clinical answers to these questions:
1. What is the benefit of an invisible plane, when everyone can see you inside it? Moreover, since you can fly (or “ride air currents”), why do you need it? Are you just presenting a target to evil superscientists who would try to shoot you down? If you have the technology to make an invisible plane, why don’t you employ the same technology to make yourself invisible?
2. If you’re the Flash and can run around the Earth seven times in one second, why turtle around with a motorcycle? Especially since the moment you get onto the motorcycle, you’ve effectively robbed yourself of all your special abilities. Is this the sign of a condition similar to the one that leads some people to get a healthy limb amputated so they can feel more hindered?
3. If you’re Spider-Man, why do you need a Spider Buggy, especially one that isn’t large enough to carry anything but yourself, doesn’t have any weaponry or armor, and that can’t get into places in the city that you can? And where would you park it in Manhattan? And how long would it last there, given that it’s always going to be unlocked and is clearly identified as yours? Are you self-defeating — and given how often you’ve gone up solo against the Sinister Six without once asking for any help from the Human Torch or any of your buddies in the Avengers, I would have to think so — or are you really just this stupid?
Whatever theories might explain this aberrant behavior, clearly, super powers are not a sign of personal strength.
December 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
1. The invisible plane can be kept flying around and summoned with a mental command. Bad guys can’t see it while it’s waiting to be called. Also, it’s handy for long trips when riding the air currents just isn’t enough.
2. and 3. These are marketing devices to sell more toys. The Flash cycle was voted one of the worst ever by ToyFare magazine.
December 9th, 2008 at 4:33 am
S’matter — these guys gotta use their super powers ALL the time? It’s too much for you to let ’em just kick back and relax even a little?
It’s guys like you make it tough being a super hero!
December 9th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Sigh. You guys are just enabling them.
If Wonder Woman is theoretically strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Superman, what does it say about her that she needs a plane when he clearly doesn’t?
Whether or not the Spider Buggy was a “marketing device” (when I can clearly see Spider-Man sitting inside it), it was featured in comics of the period. Much to my chagrin even then. Certainly, we could all accept the story of the guy who gains incredible powers when bitten by a radioactive spider, or the story of, for example, his nemesis whose head was a steel-plated hammer, but the Spider Buggy just made the whole comic unbelievable.
And I think when it comes to superhero psychology, ToyFare has all the authority of, say, Mr. Blackwell.