As a little kid I always
wanted to be a superhero. I use to have
Batman and Robin costumes. They were the ones with the plush abdominal and
pectoral muscles, and I would constantly wear them under my clothes. One Halloween,
I wore a homemade Robin costume based off of Robin in the Teen Titans, and my younger brother wore a little Batman suit. (I
won’t comment on the fact that I was the sidekick to my younger brother of five
years). I used to beg my dad to let me watch the Justice League during half time of football games, and my favorite action
figures were all the different Batman characters. I loved superheroes, and I
always wanted to be a superhero.
As I got older, the possibility of being a superhero got
smaller and smaller. There wasn’t any radioactive goo in small town East Tennessee.
There weren’t any tall buildings for me to jump from, nor were there any super
villains trying to take over. But, while the reality of being superhero quickly
faded, my love for superheroes kept growing. I loved the stories, the rescues,
and the fights, and the movies helped grow that love in me. Every time a new
superhero movie was released, I had to go see it. I remember seeing the first X-Men, and then spending a long season
time putting knives between my fingers. The Sam Rami Spider-Man movies were my daydreams, and in college, the Avengers was one of the highlights
of my freshman year. Superheroes have always been a staple in my life.
And this is true today. I still get overly excited for
each new superhero movie. Right now, my mind is set on Deadpool in February. Then I am cautiously optimistic about Batman v Superman, and I am beyond
excited for Captain America: Civil War.
But, at the same time, superheroes have started to become overwhelming. Through
2020, we are expected to get almost 30 new superhero movies. Even for an avid
superhero fan, that is a plethora of movies. There are now talks of superhero
fatigue, and there appears to be this expectation that the genre will fail. It
is almost if people feel like there is no need for the superhero genre anymore.
The stories are the same, and the characters are boring. They have run their
course.
And honestly, if I think like the adult I have become,
then I have a tendency to agree with people. Comic books are for children, and
my rational, educated mind believes the tropes and stories are done. My cynical
mind knows that it all is just a cash grab anyways. It is what I read on a
regular basis, and it is what I am being taught by society.
But then, I remember my childhood, and I remember my love
for superheroes. I remember why I loved them. I remember the hope they gave me.
The hope that I could be a hero every time I put on the muscle suit and the
cape. The hope that there are always good guys that always beat bad guys and
save the day. That is what Superhero films provide. They provide hope. They
provide hope to little kids everywhere. Hope that there are heroes in the
world, and bad guys will always get beat up. They provide hope to adults. Hope
that good can conquer evil. They provide hope to those hurting that everything
will be okay. The provide hope in the form of escape, even just for a few
hours. They provide hope.
And I know, this might be written off as an over
simplification and cheesy, but, I truly believe that when we walk into a movie
theater, just for a few hours, there is hope. There, the world stops, and just
for a moment, we are guaranteed that good will conquer evil. It is this hope
that keeps me excited for the heroes still to come. It is this hope that gets
my heart racing every time I see the Marvel logo. It is this hope that I want to
share with my future kids one day. It is hope that keeps me excited in the
midst of superhero fatigue, and it is hope that I believe we will always need.
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