It was inevitable my son would come to love superheroes.
Daddy does, and has been a fan since he was a wee nipper.
Batman and Spider-man were huge in my pre-school world, maybe Superman too. I’m pretty sure this fixation was formed by the cartoons of the day, from reruns of the 1967-70 Spider-man series, with the seemingly LSD-inspired colours and the wicked opening song (Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can…), to the various Batman cartoons that saw the caped crusader and sidekick Robin either work alone or with the Super Friends, and even Scooby-Doo and that gang of meddling kids, to stop some fiendish plot.
I have enjoyed watching some of those ‘old-school’ cartoons with my son. He likes them but understands they are pretty silly (as superhero cartoons of that era were) and that the characters in them are not real. Cool, but not real. Everyone gets that, right? Well, maybe not.
Last year, our country’s department of national defence spent $14,000 on a survey that revolved around the premise that superheroes have somehow moved beyond fiction.
The survey supposedly asked what powers people believed superheroes possess. For the 150 respondents, the power of flight was one of the more acceptable/believable traits, whereas invisibility and/or the ability to pass through solid objects evoked the most skepticism.
(I haven’t found any related data involving mutant healing powers or adamantium-clad skeletons, but these details were likely redacted by Department K.)
According to Canadian Press, the study was designed to probe people’s expectations about “supernatural categories that are so prevalent in popular culture and religion.”
The abilities to run faster than a speeding bullet, climb walls like a spider, or control the denizens of the deep with telepathy are certainly, well, as Aquaman would say, ‘Outrageous!’ But have superheroes really joined that already overcrowded supernatural realm of myth and legend? Are there people who actually believe there is a kernel of truth to the narrative of the cape and cowl?
A more important question is, did we really need to spend $14,000 on this survey? Holy abuse of taxpayer dollars, Batman! A couple of hours at a Comic-Con and I could have gathered the same info for a fraction of the cost.
I’ve read the results of this study are supposed to help our military understand “people’s psychological meaning space,” and “design messages that are more memorable for their target audience.” Who might that be? Sheldon Cooper?
The Canadian Taxpayer Federation recently held their 16th Annual Teddy Awards, recognizing notable achievements in government waste.
The superhero study was a nominee, but the top federal prize went to the Canada Jobs Grant program, you know, the one we spent $2.5 million to advertise (including some prime-time Stanley Cup playoff spots), that didn’t technically exist. I know that bit of fiction played big in the propaganda distributed by Conservative MPs. If people believed it, I suppose they can believe in superheroes too.
