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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... super hero , and the essential nature of their distinction from the world then the above quote from Stan Lee – the original writer of the Spiderman stories - would be a serious candidate . Compare this with the definition of the hero ...
... heroes such as Buck Rodgers and Tarzan , the costumed super hero represented a new mythology which tapped into a war - weary cultures desire for protection , unassailable power and unambiguous moral superiority - some- thing , I believe ...
Mike Alsford. hero and the villain respond to in such dramatically different ways . Take as an example two of Marvel comics ' most enduring characters : the super hero Iron Man and the super villain Doctor Doom . Both of these characters ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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