SPOILER-FREE.
"The Legends Ends" was one of the mottos promoting the Dark Knight Rises.
It struck me as way too finite for a comic legend that dates back to 1939. Endurance in time is a definite characteristic of (super) heroes, and this very trait creates the illusion of timelessness for imagined characters such as Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Clark Kent, and Richard Dawkins (as some have very well claimed).
But on a serious note, this is why those characters can be compared to Hercules, Odysseus (I refuse to use "Ulysses"- darn it, I just did), Spartacus and King Arthur. Although the legend of the latter may be traced back to real people, their infamy lost in the eons, the modern and ancient heroes have come to share the trait of timelessness, and this is because they represent a response to the issues faced in their corresponding time.
The Legend Ends, they claimed, and so it did in the third Dark Knight movie. Heroes are timeless because they represent a solution to a problem, regardless if they "stay" with us for their timeless qualities - strength, resilience, courage, hope, altruism, brilliance. Especially for the concept of the vigilante, we have to remember, they are like humanized projects: a response to corruption, violence (okay, with even more violence), prejudice, crime in general, and many more tainting issues in society. A project begins, unravels, and ends.
The vigilante should grow wiser, but at a cost. Maybe he gets away, lucky enough to witness the solution he brought into the system blossom into a new era. But most probably (s)he has rattled the nest too much, upset the waters extensively, and has to suffer the consequences. Death is a highly probable outcome.
And this is where the long-forgotten characteristic of heroes comes right in: the die at the end. The western society made superheroes timeless, ageless, immortal in a way (regardless of how many stories "kill" them, they keep coming back in reboots both in comic or movie form). We have forgotten than heroes are basically mortals, and even if they bear a divine legacy, they will have to die to matter. Or, if their work can have any impact, they have to sacrifice themselves to ensure effectiveness, as literature wants it.
Heroes have to end, a solution has to be given, and the rest of humanity has to go on inspired, and wiser.
In conclusion, the figures sculpted into timeless heroes, their stories meant to be told and retold and rebooted, are there to inspire us - but if we wish to take a closer look to the work actually done, it can (almost) never be a self-perpetuating project: it has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Or the actual hero may live long enough to see himself become the villain.
"The Legends Ends" was one of the mottos promoting the Dark Knight Rises.
It struck me as way too finite for a comic legend that dates back to 1939. Endurance in time is a definite characteristic of (super) heroes, and this very trait creates the illusion of timelessness for imagined characters such as Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Clark Kent, and Richard Dawkins (as some have very well claimed).
But on a serious note, this is why those characters can be compared to Hercules, Odysseus (I refuse to use "Ulysses"- darn it, I just did), Spartacus and King Arthur. Although the legend of the latter may be traced back to real people, their infamy lost in the eons, the modern and ancient heroes have come to share the trait of timelessness, and this is because they represent a response to the issues faced in their corresponding time.
The Legend Ends, they claimed, and so it did in the third Dark Knight movie. Heroes are timeless because they represent a solution to a problem, regardless if they "stay" with us for their timeless qualities - strength, resilience, courage, hope, altruism, brilliance. Especially for the concept of the vigilante, we have to remember, they are like humanized projects: a response to corruption, violence (okay, with even more violence), prejudice, crime in general, and many more tainting issues in society. A project begins, unravels, and ends.
The vigilante should grow wiser, but at a cost. Maybe he gets away, lucky enough to witness the solution he brought into the system blossom into a new era. But most probably (s)he has rattled the nest too much, upset the waters extensively, and has to suffer the consequences. Death is a highly probable outcome.
And this is where the long-forgotten characteristic of heroes comes right in: the die at the end. The western society made superheroes timeless, ageless, immortal in a way (regardless of how many stories "kill" them, they keep coming back in reboots both in comic or movie form). We have forgotten than heroes are basically mortals, and even if they bear a divine legacy, they will have to die to matter. Or, if their work can have any impact, they have to sacrifice themselves to ensure effectiveness, as literature wants it.
Heroes have to end, a solution has to be given, and the rest of humanity has to go on inspired, and wiser.
In conclusion, the figures sculpted into timeless heroes, their stories meant to be told and retold and rebooted, are there to inspire us - but if we wish to take a closer look to the work actually done, it can (almost) never be a self-perpetuating project: it has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Or the actual hero may live long enough to see himself become the villain.
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