Before I even got to the latter part of the reading I was imagining super-heroes as a strong force of iconography in our modern media. Superheroes have been around for decades, but they've always kind of had a more specific audience. Now there doesn't seem to be anyone under that age of fifty that doesn't get into the onslaught of superhero movies that are coming at us. These superheroes iconography is unambiguous and poignant. Just look at all the movie posters at your local cinema. All you need to do is present Superman's “S,” Batman's bat silhouette or Wolverine's claws and already you've got millions that plan on seeing it.
The perspective authors of the essay's “Super,” “Wonder” and “Inside Every Superhero lurks a Nerd,” were all very passionate about the image and iconography of their favorite superheroes, almost as if they were defending the moral character of a close friend of theirs.
Why is that? Why does society suddenly crave superheroes? Why is the iconography itself in our media have such a powerful effect on me. I couldn't tell you exactly, but I imagine its the same kind of idea as James Bond. Here we have an unreasonably fictitious character who is a huge force in our media. Why?
Maybe it's because like Michael Jordan and Elvis Presley, they're just someone for us to romanticize and look up to. We need heroes in our media, and we always will. But what types of heroes are we choosing to glorify?
As an artist this idea of heroes and iconography rather worries me. Like Batman himself said, a symbol can be much more powerful than a man. Ironic as it seems, he was right. The symbols I create in the media that I send out into the world can have a more powerful effect than I'll initially comprehend. It takes quite a bit of maturity not only to create a symbol or icon, but also to control it.
No comments:
Post a Comment