Superheroes

I don't know if anyone noticed but there seems to be a rash of superhero shows of late. What started off as a trickle about 20 years ago with early versions of Superman and Batman has steadily grown with latter-day versions of X-Men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider and Heroes the tv series.

Personally I can't wait for a real life movie of the Powerpuff Girls. I'm curious to see who will play my favorite hero - Mojo Jojo.

Some say comic-book superheroes first appeared at a time when the world suffered great conflict - world wars and dreadful crime rates - to fulfill a need. People were feeling lousy about life because the good could not defeat the bad. That was the time when the cities were controlled by the mob and people from strange foreign lands were killing their servicemen. The constant bad news was more than they could bear.

Because you couldn't simply go out and buy hallucinogenic drugs like today, minds took off on their own and began to fantasize. Some of the more talented took a step further to literally draw out their fantasies, what became feel-good artwork portraying how villains were taken down by righteous people who wore their underwear outside and had out-of-this-world powers. These unusual men and women would set the wrongs right again. They will save the day.

The symbol must have been so appealing that people just ate it up. As a superhero all you needed was a strong righteous identity. Mystery was a big thing then so any uniform will do as long as you had a mask and cape. Oh you also need a dark origin, a notorious villain, incredible powers and a storyline and you'd have a hit. I've lost count of how many superheroes there must have been from Hulk to Captain America, their special powers as varied as the uniforms they wore. You could never run out of comics in the 40's -50's.

Well 50 years later the superheroes are still alive and well, outliving four generations of Star Trek captains. They are upgraded to include issues of the day of course. TV series Heroes for example makes mention of global warming and terrorism. Nice touch.

Superheroes will rule the world because people know conventional weapons don't work against the bad guys. We need mind readers, laser-shooting eyes, indestructable bodies, hands that turn water to ice, people who can fly in the air. Even James Bond will die off because he is not super enough.

Malaysians are not spared - we also need superheroes to make life bearable. So will Cicakman save Malaysia? I dunno but I'm betting we'll be seeing a few more in days to come.