What Comic Book Heroes and Villains Can Teach Us About Ourselves

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Any fan of comic books has their favorite heroes and villains. There are certain characters that for some reason seem to resonate with us. In some cases we see characters that we wish we were like. In others we see characters that we can identify with. There are reasons why certain characters manage to stand the test of time while others barely manage to get a footnote in the history of a particular title. We would get engrossed in the epic battles that came to life in those panels. On some level we saw more than just a fight of good vs. evil. We could somehow identify with the stakes of those battles. Probably because the battle between good and evil in comic books offers an insightful way of viewing our own inner struggles. Even as adults we can still relate to these characters to the point of getting defensive if they don't get a respectful treatment in movies or television. Maybe it's because they represent aspects of ourselves that we can observe from an outside perspective. Our inner struggles can be explored through a fictional world. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as far as a starting point is concerned. But for that to work we need to both be critical about how we look at these characters and honest about why we identify with some of them.

There have been truly epic battles and story lines in comics that will sadly never be given a proper live action treatment. Those who were lucky enough to have been reading comics when they debuted will always have fond memories of them. There was always something at stake in them that just struck a cord with the reader. I think it's because for some of us these conflicts represented our internal struggle more than our outer ones. If we can see aspects of ourselves in these characters then on some level we are witnessing our battle with our inner demons in an illustrated and artistic format. For people who have not learned to look inward this is a way of exploring those inner battles.

The struggle of a comic book hero against the chaos created from some individual or group of foes or the aftermath of an event is a struggle to create order. Creating order out of chaos is analogous to creating peace out of conflict. The hero who tries to make a difference in his or her world is analogous to the individual who tries to make sense of and find purpose in their life. In order to do that we have to discover our own strengths and failings. Comic book heroes and villains serve as archetypes of our personal strengths and flaws. What motivates many heroes is overcoming some personal failing that caused them to lose something dear to them. The best written villains have some rationale for their schemes. There is purpose in their evil machinations. Many times both are motivated by pain. Sometimes they lash out because of that pain. That pain can be their greatest foe.

The fascination for some of us with these heroes and villains is seeing our strengths and weaknesses given form. Maybe even to see our pain and demons given form so as to find some inspiration for our inner battles. We love to admire characters who have a nobility to them that other characters admire. But then there are those characters who are the outcasts that we actually identify with. While it is good to admire characters we wish we were like it is more important to recognize the ones we actually identify with. Some of us may admire Captain America and Professor X but probably relate to Wolverine and Doctor Doom more. If we really want to see ourselves in these characters we need to be honest about why we really like them.

One thing we need to be careful of is oversimplifying comic book conflicts as just good vs. evil. Just as in life conflict is rarely a zero sum game. There is much more going on beneath the surface. The conflict in our own lives cannot be broken down into a simple win/lose scenario. We can't just solve one problem and just expect things to go in the right direction with no further action taken. It is easy to oversimplify the battle with our inner demons as a good vs. bad/ winner take all situation. While we may characterize our inner struggles as “inner demons” they are not literally foreign entities that are literally fighting for our soul. There is no inner Doctor Strange who is going to engage in a mystical battle to expel and imprison them in some parallel dimension so they can never bother us again. These “demons” are corruptions of our emotions and desires. In essence they are psychological traumas that have in a sense “possessed” some aspect of ourselves and work through that medium to wreak havoc. When we fight this battle we do so by learning how are strengths were perverted and then turned against us. We discover how our weaknesses and personal failings enabled it to happen. And isn't this what we see on the pages of those comics? How the villain uses strategy to manipulate a hero's circumstances to beat him.

There was a video on youtube by Carey Wedler titled “Why the New Age “Spirituality” movement is a scam”.

One of the points she made in it was how people can have unrealistic expectations when engaging in spiritual practices. They can listen to “gurus” who perpetuate a spiritual standard that no one could live up to. As a result they can become frustrated and discouraged in their spiritual practice when they don't live up to this unrealistic standard. This is definitely a problem when comic book fans become so enamored with heroes that personify the most idealistic human traits that no one in real life could possibly live up to. Captain America may seem to have personified American values in the beginning but even he became disillusioned. Wolverine may seem like an edgy character but his personality traits if taken to an extreme are essentially what define Sabretooth. This is a big reason why we need to read critically even when enjoying comics. Knowing our own character is vital for us to even begin to deal with our demons. If we ever want to be successful in that battle we must know ourselves. Remember what Sun Tzu said about this. “Know yourself and know your enemy. You will be safe in every battle. You may know yourself but not know the enemy. You will then lose one battle for every one you win. You may not know yourself or the enemy. You will then lose every battle.”

A useful aspect of comic book heroes and villains is that sometimes their strengths either make them overconfident or come from overcompensating for some failing. Some may be physically powerful but weak willed. Some can be physically frail but powerful mentally or by way of superpowers and behave like bullies. Even the characters we love have failings that we may or may not choose to see. That's why if we want to draw inspiration from them we need to see how both their strengths and weaknesses shape who they are. When a hero trains to fight his adversaries he or she needs to know what aspects of themselves, both mental and physical, they need to work on. Likewise we need to know our strengths and flaws so that we know what to cultivate and what to compensate for. If we can eliminate a weakness then we do so. If not then we cultivate it's opposing virtue to attempt to balance it out.

However knowing our strengths and weaknesses is not enough. It is easy to accept our strengths but it is not so easy to accept our weaknesses. By strengths and weaknesses I am speaking of issues of character and not so much of ability. We all want to acknowledge our character strengths but many of us are loathe to even admit to let alone accept our character weaknesses. If we are really serious about conquering our inner demons we need to accept those strengths and weaknesses. Even our strengths may be qualities that we never valued. And it may be difficult to cultivate something that you never thought was a strength.

Only after we have finally taken the time to look inward at all of the qualities who make us who we are does that final conflict even begin. Once we finally know ourselves and accept all of our strengths and flaws we must embrace them. For the greatest heroes in the pages of those comics that is the greatest battle. And that is no different for us. In the end if we want to triumph over our inner demons we must embrace who we are. No matter who we would like or aspire to be we cannot be anything that is contrary to our inner nature. That doesn't mean that we can't better ourselves but we still have to be ourselves. Make peace with that, fight that inner conflict and become that hero that you can be.

When people say that comic books are modern mythology they aren't exaggerating. Comic book heroes and villains are characters that have powers straight out of myth. There are so many archetypes that can be personified in these characters. Just as there are many social commentaries that can be explored in their stories. Strength and weakness, good and bad, light and dark, these are aspects of life. You can't have one with out the other. They all come together to form the story of our lives. And inside us all of our virtues and vices, joys and sadness, love and hate come together to write our story. Every day is another issue in our title. Like any good story you cannot remove unpleasant elements without completely changing it. The same goes for the heroes and the villains. It is that inner chaos that they struggle against that makes or breaks who they are. Just as with us. Know, accept and embrace who you are. You are here to live your life not to be a supporting character in another person's story. So make the hero in your story the kind of hero that you would want to see in a comic. And maybe, just maybe, you can be the hero that someone else admires and/or identifies with. As the man said, “Excelsior!”