Thats funny as hell!! :laugh:

The IM with Vidi was okay except Vidi would never say:

"has a pair of chinese pandas"
"Burton remake"
"love that bit"
"dna strands away from humans"

It would be:

"some stupid zoo has those chinese bears or some sh**"
"the new one with the underwear idiot"
"like i remember the end with the stupid statue part..."
"monkeys are like dudes right?"

Dangit... stu has me in his web of spam again.

According to the Aristotlean notion of love, we love those that are better than us (for the very reasons they are better than us, specifically).

Along these lines, we love superheroes, because they are characteristically defined as better than us in some way, sometimes many ways.

This is actually one of the reasons Nietzche theorized about Ubermensch, was because if you combine the Aristotle's Virtuous Man with Aritstotle's Love, you get an unloving, all-powerful machine.

Which brings us to Batman.

Or the forums...

Our hero:

Candy-Coated Walrus

Protector of the Purity of the Message Boards

(I feel safe with you around. You would be an 8-drop for sure.)

Becomes a woman (Superman/Batman #24)

According to the Aristotlean notion of love, we love those that are better than us (for the very reasons they are better than us, specifically).

Along these lines, we love superheroes, because they are characteristically defined as better than us in some way, sometimes many ways.

I wish I would have said that. Can we pretend?

See, now, Stu, that's not how this relationship works.

YOU always spout some random idea or nonsense.

I end up supporting it with logic or previous philosophical ideas along the same lines.

I'm surprised you haven't figured that out by now.

At their root, Superheroes, and our modern comics, are our mythologies.

In times long past, man had his dieties to worship, and this is fine. We still have thriving religions, and all look to a higher ideal. Some woudl argue that even atheist see the higher ideal as being within themselves and the mvoing away from the crutch of a dogmatic organized theocracy... but I digress....

But within that structure of gods and demons, there was always the hope that we had a greater part to play. Or that some demi-god of sorts coudl represent us on that cosmic plane. We had Heracles, we had Theseus and Perseus. We had the heroes of the Veddas, and the call of fighting eternally in the halls of Valhalla.

We had Charlemagne and Launcelot... and many many others. Some were pure works of fiction, while many were legends based on fact, with MUCH embellishment.

As science has evolved, so has our perceptions of the world around us. Long gone are the days where man thought that lighting was a weapon or plaything of a particular god. But as these notions supplanted our mythologies, science fiction evolved to sort of fill in the gap created. Now we have tales of wonder based, not only on those afforementioned gods, but also grounded in the science of our day. The dark and mysterious, and incredibly complex theories that mankind didn't fully grasp during the early 1940's, this stuff became ripe for fiction.

And that fiction gave us the needed heroes to look to as role models. No one believed that Perseus showed us how to defeat the evils of the world any more, but in time Captain America (with a very plausible story) coudl teach us how to stand proud for our country and defeat the Nazi menace.

Atomic Energy? Psychic Hotlines? Microwave Ovens? Lasers? the SETI program? Skylab? All of them, fodder for creating our new mythos. And a new mythos it is, even more vibrant and full than that of our ancestors. Where their stories were bound by region, our forms of communication takes this to a global scale. So the complexity and the depth grow exponentially.

Humans as a whole need role models. be they good or bad, they want to hear the tales of how others overcame the evils they see every day. We love to hear the story how the underdog wins, how the geek gets the girl, and how the lives of many are saved or enriched by the actions of the chosen few. We, as a society, have ALWAYS had a hero complex, and religion in times past has often been the way to fill it.

After the mythological periods, we went to very fuedal systems, and this is where elgends of great knights or Samurai (depending on region) took over. Now man was motivated to excel by showing literary examples of how others 'like him' coudl do it. Even into the 1900's we have examples... we made heroes out of Von Richtoven and Vassili Zaitsev (I highly reccommend you see "Enemy At The Gates' if you haven't for that one). Fei Long and the Boxer Rebellion, Che Guevarra, etc.... even very real world people who HAVE done extraordinary things, we glorify their exploits and use them as examples.

Manking as always done this...and has always needed this...

I think the big differrence with comics is that we have a much wider delivery system for them. And this is one of the few forms that is not sponsored by a political entity, nor a corporate agenda, nor any organized religious faction. We have truly universal app[eal in these heroes, because they are not sponsored and used for control like most of the stories of the past were.

Everyone can love Spiderman equally, and everyone does.

Heroes have always been calling to us, and often people fed that need with instruments of conditioning and control. They served a purpose, but were always there. I think the grip these heroes have on us is that they are truly heroes for heroes sake... with no ulterior motives, so we can all grasp them fundamentally at their core.

There are certainly exceptions. But if anyone here actually likes Bibleman... well.. thats between you and Willie Aimes i suppose.

.... hmm... I seem to be rambling again...

See, the thing I like about these super-types isn't just that they kick-ass. It's that they can take anything and turn it into a new way to kick ass.

Bizarro took opposites and turned it into a new way to kick ass.

The Ventriloquist took ventriloquism and turned it into a new way to kick ass.

The Turtle took slowness and turned it into a new way to kick ass.

The Walrus took being a walrus and turned it into a new way to kick ass.

Turner D. Century took old-timey stuff and turned it into a new way to kick ass.

Rainbow Raider took freaking rainbows and turned them into a new way to kick ass.

Detective Chimp is a talking monkey, yet, through some miracle, he's managed to take that and turn it into a new way to kick ass.

And that's just damn amusing.

Superheroes show us that there are higher ideals we can strive to achieve.

And though we might never be able to fly, or shoot webs from our hands, or have alien rings of power, we can still rise above our own petty conflicts and just once in a while become something greater.

Heroes aren't super because of their powers. Heroes are super because no matter what the odds, they choose to stand up for what's right.

(Edited)

Or maybe not even stand up for 'what's right', but just to stand up at all.

Spectacular stuff, everyone.

Could the same things be said for the super-villains?

Usually. The Anti-Matter Universe shows that you don't have to change much to turn one into the other.

Definitely.

After all, I don't love Superman. I already have cold breath, heat vision, flight, super strength, and nigh invulnerability.

But Doom? Well, I don't know about you, but I am currently without battle armor, and I regret it, damn it!

I always wished I could bend metal and be a condescending ass to all humanity in the same way as Magneto.

And Joker? Let's just say that some of us love people for Aristotlean reasons, and then some of us put our idols on a pedestal and do our best to one day be able to live up to their name. He may be funnier for me, and he may have a higher body count than me, but that's only temporary. It won't be long until I've overcome him on both of those accounts.

Dude, don't get me started on magneto.

See, that's another reason.

You can tell offensive jokes about comic book characters without getting anyone's feelings hurt.

NOT!

I think the best part of this issue is the passionate dedication that the fanatics display toward their imaginary heroes. We argue, we defend, we discuss ad infinitum the merits and faults...

... of imaginary people in funny outfits.

So cool, just so cool.

Just to clarify: Superheroes (and villians) are mankind's way of creating an ideal to be strived for, so our Aristotlean love of characters better than ourselves will drive us to constantly improve ourselves. Is that it?

Speak for yourself. Nina causes thuderstorms whenever it's that time of the month. Seriously.

(And please sir, NEVER EVER EVER stop your rambling. I'll pay you if I have to.)