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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... alien to our own existence . In this sense God is often understood as both epistemologically and ontologically transcendent . This view , while not universally held even within the Christian tradition , 3 is a function of the view that ...
... alien heritage or scientific accident , the Batman possesses no superhuman or para- normal abilities . the Batman is one of the very few self - made comic super heroes , his abilities while formidable are nevertheless human abilities ...
... alien infested space ship , set to self - destruct in minutes , to save the cat . There is an existential immediacy about the way in which the hero engages with the world . While concerns about humanity and the fate of nations and ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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