After watching The Avengers last night (again for the millionth time), I needed to write about how I feel. About how superheroes are still relevant and embody ideals we should strive and hope for. Ideals that are currently lacking in society as a whole.
We need heroes in our society, or in any society, for a very simple reason - because they give us someone to model ourselves after. The average person, however pushed around or caged in they may be, is unwilling to brave the dangers inherent to resolving the problems that plague them. Crime may overwhelm a city, but we do not care until it affects us personally; and even then we only usually worry about whatever facet of it has impact on our own life. We are inherently selfish creatures, and are possessed of a vile need to protect our own before, or even at the cost of, others.
However, in the image of a superhero we see somebody who is willing to sacrifice themselves in order to improve our lot. Whether this is a fictional superhero like Batman, Superman, Captain America or a real life hero such as a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save those around him does not matter. What matters instead is that we are given role models that exemplify what we know we SHOULD morally do, but what we often CANNOT make ourselves do. We see somebody take the initiative and right the wrongs, despite the dangers to themselves.
A society without superheros is a society without hope, where the human condition inflicts despair and misery alone. Without somebody, real or fiction, to model our behavior after, we will only continue to behave as selfishly as we can. Every religion is based on this ideal, from Christianity to Buddhism we follow the example of someone who sacrificed themselves for a greater cause, and in doing so we improve the lives of those around us. These religious heroes serve just as important a purpose of any other role model; they give us somebody to pattern ourselves after.
We have all had a role model at some point in our lives, and many of us still do. They are what we cling to when we face hardship or a difficult decision. They are the people we think of in dark times, and consider "What would Jesus, or Abraham Lincoln, or Jackie Robinson, or even Superman do?". And the answer is the idealized moral choice, one that we see exemplified in another. It is that action, which we see another take, which gives us hope that there can be a choice other than the selfish one, that there is a reason to take the hard path. Why do we need superheroes? Because without them we are lost.