Superheroes sell like fresh bread rolls. They draw thousands to movie theatres. They provoke scores of admiring 'oohs' and 'aaahs'. They inspire... even if this inspiration usually translates to buying a t-shirt. Oh my, we love superheroes. After all, they are so cool. So strong. So righteous. So often saving the world. What would we do without them?
Lawrence and Jewett take a good look at your average hero model and they analyse it to bits. And well, let me put it like this - they are definitely not buying into the myth. The American superhero gets quite a trashing. No icon is safe - not Chuck Norris, not Steven Seagal, not even Luke Skywalker. They are all exposed as a modern version of mythological heroes: invincible, fascinating and - totally unreal. Not only that. The authors seem to be worried that our superheroes are completely undemocratic, even if we live in a so-called democratic society. That's a hell of criticism to pour onto poor old Hollywood creations.
If you're detecting a slightly mocking tone in my words, you're quite right. Somehow I can't be completely serious when Star Trek and Jaws get analysed by academics, with all the vocabulary and high style proper to this group. I mean - they are just stories, right? No one sees them as more than phantasmagoriae, figments of somebody's imagination, right? Right? (Please tell me that I am right, otherwise I will be seriously worried) Sending Rambo to a shrink is slightly too much for my tastes.
Otherwise, the book is totally readable. It's a decent selection of cinematographic reviews written from the psychoanalytic angle. In places impossible not to agree with. In other places irritating but hey - what isn't? Truly, The Myth of the American Superhero is worth reading. If only to watch the heroes fall from their pedestals.
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