Why We Like the Avengers

I will admit that, despite the title of this post, I haven't actually seen the movie The Avengers, which opened earlier this month.  I have heard a few people at the office talking about it -- they seemed to think it was well worth the cost of the ticket.  They also said something about making sure to watch all of the credits ... and the good news is that, not having seen the movie, I can't spoil anything because I know nothing more than that.

Why are these comic-book characters our heroes?  An article I ran across today, talking about a forthcoming biography of Walter Cronkite, may help with the answer.  Apparently, while Cronkite was viewed as trustworthy by the general public, there were many ethically questionable things going on outside of the public eye.  (The article, by the way, was posted at http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/biography-paints-cronkite-darker-side-175158957.html).  Had people known what the famed newscaster was really like, he probably wouldn't be thought of as an icon in broadcast news.

And therein lies the key point.  We know too much about public figures for any of them to be viewed as heroes -- at least on a large scale.  Sure, there will be some who extol just about anyone.  But to have widespread support from the general public is exceedingly difficult, and perhaps impossible, because of the depth of scrutiny that is expected in our day and age.  I suspect there is a vicious cycle involved.  Those who find themselves in a position to be in the public eye probably pulled a few strings to get there -- the same strings which, once revealed, cast doubts upon their character, rendering them unheroic.

Back in the "good old days," real people were heroes.  They weren't perfect.  They had their foibles.  Maybe we want to say that they should not have been respected, because of what we know now.

But is that any worse than creating heroes from comic-book characters, to fill the void?

We need heroes.  We need to believe that good will triumph over evil.  We need role models to admire, so that we will be emboldened to do our best and stand for what is right.  And I suspect that we have lost something very valuable when the heroes we identify are fictional characters -- indirectly at least, confirming that really being heroic isn't something that regular people can do.

Where have all the heroes gone?  I wish we could find some real ones again.