About a month ago, John Woo popped onto the Yahoo Answers website and posed the following question to readers there – “Our fascination with comic superheroes is time-tested. Why do we continue to relate to them?” I don’t know if this is some sort of research for a project he’s working on, or if it’s simply something he was pondering one night while watching television, but he eventually got an answer he liked, and it’s a pretty good one.

Comic book writers (good ones) work with the themes their audience wants. In World War II, there were a lot of patriotic heros. I the 70’s, Green Arrow and Green Lantern tackled the problems of drug abuse and racism. In later days, some wrirters invented a whole pseduo ‘civil rights’ theme around supposed ‘mutants’.

But there’s more. As American civilization had fallen away from traditional religion, we are looking for powerful moral figures who are above us, who will come to rescue us when we need them. When Jimmy and Lois are saying “Where are you, Superman? We need your help!”, are they not praying in the most essential sense of the word…? Check out a book called The Gospel According to Superman (I forget the author, but you can find it on line.) And what goes for Superman goes for many other heros as well.

You can read the rest of it, as well as all the other answers Woo’s question received, here.

Spread the word!