Super-heroes show us that there is absolute truth
Fascination with heroes - even superheroes - is no new thing. True they are presented in different ways, but their stories are not dissimilar from ancient tales. From Gilgamesh to Achilles, Odysseus to Hercules, Thor to Beowulf, heroes are regularly portrayed in super-human, indeed divine ways.
With a few exceptions, heroes of antiquity are portrayed as fighters - strong men who fight for what is good and provide for as well as protect their people, even at great cost. Not much has changed. While stories of people with super-human abilities have existed for much of human history, the 1930s saw the introduction of what we call ‘the superhero’. While there is debate as to who the first super-hero was, Superman is commonly accepted as the archetype superhero. Introduced in Action Comics #1, Superman arrived at a time when the World was at war with itself. In one of the clearest cut just wars of human history, there were the good guys and the bad guys, the Axis of Evil vs. the Allies. It really was black and white.
Superheroes - at least in their origin - reflected the reality of ongoing war between good and evil. In a world falling apart, Superhero stories have regularly reflected a very Judaeo-Christian worldview rooted in a sense of moral objectivity and absolute truth. In today’s Western society, post-modernistic relativism and subjectivism have been ideologically embraced. Alan Moore’s Watchmen in some ways reflects this, placing its heroes in a more realistic world and in some ways deconstructing their heroism. It asks the question ‘Who watches the Watchmen?’ and the Watchmen themselves are filled with self-doubt and a collective sense of nihilism. Practically, however, it is impossible to get away from the realities of good and evil.
One of the Watchmen, Rorschach, cuts a lonely figure. The heavily battered son of a prostitute, Rorshach is troubled and prone to anger with everything around him. He struggles with thoughts of justice, salvation, mercy, and a general sense of hopelessness in his narrated journal writings. He
often spends his time carrying a sign declaring ‘The End is Nigh’. His actions are characterised by a sense of moral principle summed up in his words ‘Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon’ When faced with a situation that makes it impossible for him to not compromise in some way, he chooses to act as a kind of sacrifice for the good of mankind.
People love superhero stories because they present good and evil for what they are. They make it easy to pick sides. They have an understanding that there is absolute truth and there is justice and that whatever bad may occur, what is good, right, and true must always ultimately win. One Superhero that has perhaps a greater appreciation for absolute truth than others is Captain America. Consider this monologue from the Cap:
“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mob say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right...when the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree, beside the river of truth and tell the whole world ‘No. You move.’”
While many continue to abandon this reality of absolute and objective truth, they still in their conscience and hearts know that it is is this absolute and concrete objectivity that the world needs. Truth is not based on fads or trends or decided by culture. It is an unswerving and immovable standard, unchained by human politics or legislature.
Captain America is not the originator of this idea of truth and justice and the importance of following it. In fact, he is referring to Psalm 1:1-3 in the Bible. I will allow these words to stand on their own. They point the way to the truth more clearly than even the best of superheroes.
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."
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