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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... parents . The young Bruce Wayne witnesses his parents ' brutal shooting during a mugging and vows to make all criminals pay . YOUNG BRUCE AT HIS PARENTS ' GRAVESIDE : I swear I'll dedicate my life and inheritance to bringing your killer ...
... parents taught you to . My parents ... taught me a different lesson ... . lying on this street ... shaking in shock ... dying for no reason at all ... .. they showed me that the world only makes sense when you force it to ... We could ...
... parents stage the Super- man / Batman struggle as one argues for the deployment of parental power only as sanctioned and requested by the child , while the other argues that it is in the child's best interest to be helped in spite of ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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