Ask Erik: Episode Eleven

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  Is there anything beyond the edge of the universe?  Could technology advance to the point where it surpasses us as the "masters" of this world?  Why does Adam Sandler keep getting to star in movies? 

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.




To Erik:  Which superhero did you look up to as a child?

Looking back, it's kind of interesting just how much my interest in comic books has changed since I was a kid.  Thinking back, I remember reading a lot of comics in grocery stores (remember when they had comics in regular stores?) while my parents shopped, and every now and again I'd get one of the jumbo packs of comics from someplace like Costco.

However, I don't really remember being particularly fond of "superhero" comics.  Although, let's look at the definition of a superhero.

This is not an easy question.  I mean, sure, you could say it's someone who puts on a costume and goes around fighting evil, but there has to be more to it than that, right?  What about a superhero who doesn't wear a costume?  Suppose a guy doesn't have an unlimited supply of spandex and strategic padding to make costumes?  Superboy and Wonder Girl on the Teen Titans each respectively spent time fighting crime in jeans and t-shirts, but their actions certainly made them seem like "superheroes."

Or, if the costume is important, then what about characters like Wolverine, the Punisher, or even the Lone Ranger?  Sure, they fight bad guys, but are they "superheroes" the same way that Superman, Thor, or Green Lantern are superheroes? 

Perhaps it's simply a rank of power that someone has, at which case we again look at Wolverine.  He regularly works alongside Thor, the Thing, and Captain America, but is that enough to rank him as powerful enough?  Does Cap even count as a superhero, then, since he's "just about peak human" (though I suspect it's a bit more)?  Scott Pilgrim punches people so hard they turn into cash and survives being thrown though walls (and even dying), but does that make him a superhero?  Goku from Dragonball Z is ridiculously powerful, but does he qualify as a superhero? 

Honestly, there really isn't any specific way to classify a superhero.  I used to think that a superhero was simply a hero who faced threats that nobody else could even hope to succeed against.  Superman obviously fits in this category, since he fights everything from brilliant scientists to evil sentient suns.  But, then does Spider-Man count as a superhero, since most of the time he's just punching out guys robbing banks? 

Is Sailor Moon a superhero?  What about Freakazoid?  What about John Constantine from the DC comics universe, who once tricked Satan himself into drinking holy water, but is generally a giant jerk to everybody?

I'm pretty sure that capes and tights would've covered them up more.

I guess, if I had to make rules for what makes someone a superhero, there would have to be things like this:

1)  Their look has to be recognizable.  I don't mean they need a cape and cowl, but you have to know who it is when you look at them.  Hellboy, for instance, is pretty recognizable when you see him since he's a giant, red devil guy.  Thor has really look-looking armor and carries around a hammer.  The Hulk is big and green and wears purple pants. 

2)  They have to have something that puts them above everybody else.  This isn't necessarily power levels or skills, but something that makes them unique amongst everyone else.  Sure, Superman is the most powerful superhero Earth could ever hope to have, but Batman is determined like nobody else.  Captain America has a will and sense of hope that can be knocked down once and again, but never breaks.  Spider-Man's sense of responsibility is greater than anybody else in comics.  Even a low-tier hero can have that one thing that makes them stand out in a crowd.

3)  They have to stand for something.  And not just stand for something, but they have to stand for it so much that they sacrifice something else in the process.  This doesn't need to be baseball, America, and Mom, either.  Batman stands for justice (though, that's debatable in itself, but probably a topic someone needs to ask me about later).  Captain America stands for ...well, that's also another topic for another day, but it's all the ideals that "America" represents, whether people believe in them or not.  Even the Punisher believes in something strongly (revenge mixed with justice). 

4)  The threats they face have to be "grand."  And I don't mean that everybody needs to fight evil, sentient suns.  Some people do, though.  Sailor Moon and the rest of the Scouts are the sole defenders against the Negaverse (and want to "punish" it, I guess, though I don't get how that works).  Spider-Man and Batman fights colorful villains who the cops don't have a chance against.   Booster Gold once fought a moth that ate dimensions (long story).  The X-Men fight giant purple robots half the time, and regularly battle a giant blue guy with purple lips who thought putting "A" on his belt buckle was a good idea.  Mega Man fights uniquely distinctive robot masters, and Sonic the Hedgehog has to fight a guy who looks like someone glued the world's most ridiculous mustache on a giant egg.  Even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have Shredder and Kraang, as well as other threats from mutants and Dimension X.

These are challenges that are much, much bigger than simply "so this guy punches out someone in a ski mask who robs a 7-11."  That's heroic, but not superheroic. 

5)  I add this one in as well:  They have to be recognizable, at some level, as being a superhero.  That might be the most obtuse rule of them all, but if I look at, say, Scott Pilgrim, I don't "see" a superhero.  I also don't really see a superhero when I look at characters like Jeff Smith's Bone, I don't really see a superhero, and many of the books Warren Ellis writes have people with grand superpowers who might save the world, but I might not think of them as "superheroes."  It's complicated, and it tends to trump all the other rules since it boils down to "they have to feel like a superhero."  I think this is where debates like if Batman is a "superhero" come from since you might just consider him to be a street-level guy who occasionally punches people with mental illness in the face and then goes to live in a giant mansion.

Not everyone here is a superhero.

So let's get back to the original question.  What "superheroes" did I admire most growing up?

I was originally going to jump ship slightly and say Donald Duck and his nephews, but they don't really qualify.  However, Disney's classic comics featuring these characters (and even Uncle Scrooge) are, I'd say, some of the best adventure stories ever written.  Exploring ancient civilizations, lost jungle tribes, perilous mountain caves, and many other amazing locations and carrying a real sense of danger, these books are amazing.

I did read a lot of the Archie Comics brand Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and their adventures were certainly grand.  I mean, they used to travel through space inside a giant cow's head named "Cudley."  How can that not be amazing?

Before high school, I wasn't really in to Superman, Batman, Captain America, Hulk, or any of the other "regular" superheroes.  I mean, sure, I read them, but they weren't my favorites.  I did, though, really enjoy Spider-Man books, and when I realized that Robin had his own series at one point, I got really excited.  I think, though, that part of the problem is that, when I was really old enough to buy comics on my own, both DC and Marvel were going through a pretty dark period.  Batman's back was broken, Superman died, and every Marvel character started to get replaced with a more "EXTREME" version of themselves.

So, if I had to pick who the superheroes I looked up to growing up would be (pre-high school years), I'd have to look at the cartoons.

Which means I have to bring up Captain Planet.

For the record, Gi was always hotter than Linka.  And Ma-Ti was tragically underutilized.

Sure, I loved Batman: The Animated Series.  It blew my twelve year old mind when it first came on, and I watched every episode...but it didn't really shape me at all (except I learned to distrust all clowns).  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took over my life for quite a while, but I never really picked up on the "turtles fight with honor" moments.  This show, though...man.  This show turned me into the liberal tree-hugging hippie I am today.  I became fixated on saving the planet.  I wanted a Planeteers t-shirt so bad I begged my parents for one, and even asked if there was a way to make one.  I convinced the church I attended at the time to change from Styrofoam cups to paper cups.  I got my house to start recycling.  I read every book published during that time, I'm convinced, that taught you how to save electricity and water at home with ridiculous projects.

And all for a blue guy with a green mullet.  And the show wasn't even that good.  It had sloppy writing, weird animation at times, and story lines that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but I didn't care.  I had to learn about the next big environmental disaster and learn what I could do to stop it.  "The power is yours" got so lodged into my head, it took many, many years to knock it back down to a manageable level.

My other major influence (and a series I really, really wish would make it to DVD) is Mighty Max.

Featuring a kid about my age who got to travel all over the world through a series of portals that his hat could open, and teaming up with a swordsman who always described any threat they faced by saying he "ate them for breakfast" and a talking bird (fowl, actually), Mighty Max was to my sense of adventure and heroics what Captain Planet was for my sense of being responsible.  Mighty Max fought cavemen, space aliens, giant spiders, mad scientists, awakened Egyptian gods, and a guy voiced by Tim Curry back when he was still terrifying in every role he did for cartoons. 

If Captain Planet made me want to save the world, Mighty Max was the heroic character I connected with, age-wise, and the one I wanted to be.  Plus, at the end of every episode, I learned something!  Bonus!

So keep those questions coming to either ErikAtTheGates@gmail.com, or Twitter @ErikAtTheGates.