Myths and Heroes: how has evolution of society influenced the link between gods and superheroes ?

I will deal with the notion Myths and Heroes. First of all, I would like to give a brief definition of the notion. A myth is a popular story which tries to guide society toward certain values, or some ideal. Usually, it is composed of unreal facts and action, often led by a Hero. A hero is a courageous person who is ready to sacrifice himself to help other people’s. He may accomplish extraordinary deeds. Some heroes are famous for standing up against evil like Batman, Superman, Captain America, ect ,… We call them Superheroes. so , will ask ourselves how has evolution of society influenced the link between gods and superheroes ? First, I would like to concentrate on the link between superheroes and gods, and then I will move on to the evolution of society through ages.

First, gods and super-heroes have a lot of common points. In fact, they have both an influence on human beings , namely humans want to reproduce what gods and SH do idealizing them, they want to look like them with costumes for children for examples. furthermore , they have both powers or abilities like , for example, superman have a spectacular strength and gods can control humans and do what they want of them. we can also say that they are human creations : superheroes are created defend a cause , for example with the propaganda, and gods are created to explain the world like greek myths. finally , they both fight against ennemies.

But, this two haven’t got the same goal, indeed gods look for humans bad actions to punish them while superheroes search humans in trouble to help us and give protection to people. then , gods are seen like almighty , doing what they want and controlling all the world , contrariwise superheroes are weakness : they are often shy or have a hard past in movies. we could also say that superheroes are more human-like and lives among people: have a house or a job for example, while gods are far away our usages and lives above all in the olympe in wealth. however , the secret identity of superheroes differentiates them to gods because superheroes have all a double identity : superhero and a normal person and gods have just an identity and don’t need to hide behind a secret identity.

We can first say that the world began with mythology. Mythology is constitute by myths and legends like greek or roman myths: for example hercule or romulus and remus. At this time, gods were at their apogee : all the world was reign by them and they were omnipresent . Furthermore, gods were a mean for humans to explain de world and to manage it. Legends were too the mean to conserve and explain the past with stories.

many years after, a lot of war born. For example, the two world war , the cold war or the great depression. all there wars affrayed people and also soldiers. So, to give hope to populations and to motivate the soldiers , comics where developed. In fact, the invention of new superheroes that saved the world against so many enemies like superman, the first superhero created, who saved the world from disasters or nemesis permitted to let people believe in something and to be brave faced to the horror of war. furthermore, superheroes were a mean utilized by countries challenged by war to do propaganda. Comics were a media war , an other way to touch ennemies.

Finally, we can say that nowadays , supers-heroes are more a financial product . film directors adapt their superheroes

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