Heroes and VillainsHercules, Jesus, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Frodo, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, Spiderman, Batman, Captain Kirk, Dr. Who, Darth Vader, Sauron, Voldemort, Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom, the Daleks, the Borg. Almost anybody living in the developed West would be able to group these individuals into two camps: the heroes and the villains. However, what criteria they may use to do this is less clear. Mike Alsford introduces us to a range of heroic and villainous archetypes on a journey through film, television, comic books, and literature. On the way, he addresses questions such as: What is a true hero? What is a true villain? Have we misunderstood these terms? What kind of societal values do our mythical heroes and villains represent? In trying to understand the extremes of hero and villain we are made more aware of our own ethical standards and given a space in which to explore contemporary concerns over notions of right and wrong, good and bad. |
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... Fantastic Four Issue 5 published in 1962 Doom is introduced as a mysterious armoured genius bent on world domination . Two years later , in Fantastic Four Annual 2 , Doom's origin is told for the first time and he is revealed to be a ...
... Fantastic Four's defeat of the planet devouring Galactus or Sauron's defeat at the hands of Aragorn's forces . I should like to quote his famous runway speech here for two reasons . Firstly , it is an iconic moment for heroic fiction ...
... 4 , Lecture Fragments , trans . G.W. Bromiley , T & T Clark , 1981 , p.212 . 27. The original story has this happen ... Fantastic Four Annual 2 , Marvel Comics , p.10 , 1964 . 30. ibid . , p.11 . 31. The song I most associate with this ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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