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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... twenty - first century has been Buffy Summers from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series . With this character many of the traditional heroic - and villainous - motifs have been both revisited and recast . The Buffy series clearly ...
... twenty years and is reunited with his now highly successful former partner but begins to sense that something is not right : MARVELMAN : John , I listened to your story just now ... rags to riches , redemption through honest toil . It's ...
... twenty pounds of sociopath to the top of Gotham Towers - the highest spot in the city . The scream alone is worth it.41 In spite of our often professed liberal sensibilities that prompt us to speak of justice and rehabilitation and even ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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