The Modern Mythos

April 24, 2019

 Since the Dawn of Man, peoples have gathered around and told fantastic stories about the world around them.  Whether they were based in creation, the cosmos they didn’t even begin to understand or their fellow man who had just that one spark that made them stand above the crowd, someone to aspire to.  Every ancient society is littered with these stories.

 Mythologies.  The Ancient Gods of Egypt, Greece, Rome.  The demigods, half-human offspring of the celestials themselves.  Hercules, Achilles, Orion, Perseus to name but a few.  And the humans who accomplished great tasks, to become leaders of men.  Odysseus who voyaged the seas for years before he finally arrived home, only to have to prove his own worth to his wife.  Beowulf who defeats Grendel.  Arthur who retrieves Excalibur from the stone to become King of England.  

 Every age of man continues on with their storytelling and the appropriate heroes for their time.  Johnny Appleseed in the westward expansion of the US.  John Henry defeating the mighty steam engine.  Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox.  Stories that become folklore.  Ingrained in our culture.  Historical figures sometimes get wrapped up in these stories as well.  Did George Washington really chop down the cherry tree and ‘fess up to it?  Was Honest Abe always honest?  

 Often the storytellers themselves become a character all their own.  Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose is even based on an historical person.  

Which leads me right into what our current modern mythologies are based on, on the eve of what is expected to be the largest box office opening ever.  The simple comic book.  

 Comic books haven’t changed all that much since they were first created less than a century ago.  Back then however, they were simple bound books of the newspaper strip comics.  A collection, if you will.  It wasn’t really until 1938 when comic books really changed forever.  In the pages of Action Comics #1, for the princely sum of 10 cents, you could read all about the early adventures of the Last Son of Krypton, Superman.  Just a newborn when his parents loaded him onto a rocket ship bound for Earth to escape his homeworld’s pending demise.

 It wasn’t quite revolutionary as the simple binding and colorful artwork was indeed geared towards children.  But it’s unlikely Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster ever imagined how much of an impact their comic book creation was going to have over the world in the coming years and decades.  

 He was soon joined by the Batman in 1939.  A man who was witness to his own parents murder as a child and swore to avenge them by becoming a costumed vigilante.  His personal code was that he would never murder a villain himself as that would make him no better than the thug who took his parents’ lives.  

 Wonder Woman would follow in 1942, an Amazonian princess, daughter of Hippolyta...  And for those of you paying attention, this is the first significant instance where existing mythologies are interwoven into the modern age.  Hippolyta being the daughter of Ares, Greek God of War.  

 These three characters, at the beginning of the Golden Age of Comics are, without a doubt, considered the pillars of the comic book world even though at the time, only The Batman was published by Detective Comics, which would later just become DC Comics.  

 While Marvel Comics wouldn’t exist for two more decades, Captain America was born during World War II (1940), albeit, the US wouldn’t become involved in the war for another year.  There he was on the cover of his own comic book punching Adolf Hitler.  Pretty sensational stuff at the time.  The issue went on to sell a million copies.  And while the pillars of the comic book world came from rather fantastic origins, alien child, orphaned billionaire and Amazonian princess, Steve Rogers was just a runt of a kid who volunteered to be a lab rat in the hopes of serving his country.  As anyone who’s familiar with his story though, the character literally went on ice until he was revived decades later to join the next wave, the Silver Age of Comics and that’s where everything really took off.

The Silver Age was launched in the 1960s, just as America itself was changing culturally and a kid from Manhattan, Stanley Lieber, started his own comic book company with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.  They would name it Marvel Comics and Lieber would shorten his name to: Stan Lee.  

What really set Marvel apart from the other publishers was the humanity Lee injected into his characters.  Their flaws were a big part of who they were.  Tony Stark was a raging alcoholic in addition to being a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.  Bruce Banner is a mild-mannered, brilliant scientist who struggles to keep his dark side from emerging and destroying everything he’s worked so hard to build.  A modern update on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, if you will.  But the one character that has resonated with audiences the most over the entire nearly 60+ years is Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spiderman.  An orphaned boy who lives with his now widowed aunt.  The guilt that grips him knowing that his own inaction led to his dear uncle’s death.  Meanwhile, he’s just a high school kid.  More importantly, as the recent Spiderverse movie has stated, anyone can wear the suit.  You can wear the suit!  How inclusive is that very thought?  Anybody could be the hero they aspire to be.  And that’s something that Stan Lee had carried over into his daily life.  He was always a cheerleader for the industry and when he met his fans, who adored him, he loved them right back and made every single one of them feel special.  

Would it be out of the realm of possibility that in a hundred year’s time, people will be comparing Stan Lee to Mark Twain?  Or if his stories will be as fondly remembered as a Dickens novel?  At what point will the heroes become legends