Why the Fascination With Superheroes?

Look! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…you?

On May 4^th, the groundwork laid by half a dozen previous movies will culminate when “The Avengers” hits the multiplexes, and Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Loki and others assemble for what’s being trumpeted as the greatest superhero film of all time. For superhero fans, one movie with all those personalities is no small cinematic event.

Since the year 2000, a hulking 50 big-budget superhero movies have been released at the box office. There were also 30 major vampire movies, 8 Harry Potter films, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, 2 “Star Wars” films and 2 “Matrix” movies. And they are consistently among the highest grossing movies.

So what is it about these creations that make them so massively popular?

The common thread is that these characters all possess superhuman abilities – super strength, invisibility, the ability to fly, etc. They consistently perform at a level far beyond the ability of even the most testosterone-fueled and brilliant real-life man.

Mankind’s fascination with superbeings is an ancient idea that has left a giant footprint on nearly every culture since Eden.

After all, how is the Marvel Comics universe different from the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses – or the beings of Roman, Mesopotamian or Norse mythologies? Though comic books have only been around since “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck” was printed in 1842, the type of superhuman characters they feature have roamed the scene since time immemorial. As soon as a society would outgrow its fascination with its pantheon of mountaintop-dwelling sociopaths who toy with people for fun, it would reinvent those superbeings in new forms.

Why is the fascination with immortality and superhuman ability so universal? It seems that people through the ages and across the globe have wished to break free of the limits of our human existence. Some of that reflects a simple desire to escape from the challenges that ordinary mortal life brings. But in many cases there may be more behind it.

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that “God has put eternity into man’s heart”. Our Creator planted within us a longing for something beyond ourselves, something transcendent – something superhuman. This yearning is actually a longing for God, and a desire to realize our potential with Him. And the human potential IS truly incredible.

We are born mere men and women – physical, earthbound,  and sustained for a few decades by food, water and the air we breathe. We can’t pick up objects with mindpower though some have even tried. Yet our hearts are “filled with eternity” – the longing for something greater than this human existence.

In Hebrews 2:7, Paul explains this massive gulf between man’s current state and our incredible potential. God created man to be “for a little while lower than the angels” and “crowned him with glory and honor, and appointed him over the works of God’s hands”. In verse 8, Paul continues saying God has “put everything in subjection under [mankind’s] feet, for this subjecting of the universe to man implies the leaving nothing not subject to him”.

Can you grasp that mind-boggling truth? God created men to start off as physical beings “only for a little while”. Our long term, eternal purpose is to be born into His Family, to become more powerful than angels – one day to rule over the entire, infinite universe!

That breathtaking future, however, is reserved for BORN sons of God. And how did Jesus, Paul and other Bible writers tell us we could be BORN again? It is not a complicated process. A person must come to the realization that he cannot control himself and needs a Savior. He recognizes Jesus Christ as that Savior who took the punishment for his and everyone else’s sin. Then he agrees, as best he can, to make Christ the Lord of his life. At that point, he is BORN again.

But hey! Why no physical superpowers right then when you are BORN into the Family of God? Why don’t we start right then to “rule the universe”?

God promises us that we WILL be superheroes after our death, but we have some learning to do about the lifestyle of God. By situations and circumstances as we go forward in our earthly life, God promises to sustain us and teach us and transform us from human ways to His ways.

Just as a human child must be taught how to live in his human family, so a BORN again spiritual child in the Family of God must be taught how to be a superhero.

The apostle John got specific about this superhero life after death: “It doesn’t yet appear what we will be – but we know that when [Christ] shall appear WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM!” (1 John 3:2)

God is infinitely more powerful than any fantasy creation from the imagination of men! And He has perfect godly character instead of the deeply flawed, human character these fictional personalities are governed by.

We are promised that because we are BORN again now into God’s eternal Family, we will have God’s glorious appearance and power, and also His perfect character.

Part of the reason cultures of the world continuously create superheroes springs from the longing for eternity God planted in man’s heart – a capacity to think and ponder the infinite and superhuman. But, of course, fantasy characters are missing the key dimension of character. The adolescent fascination with fantasy tends t focus on the POWER while overlooking the perfect, righteous and godly CHARACTER that God develops before He will give that power.

Consider skipping the fantasy world of “The Avengers” and instead set your heart on the REALITY of your true potential! When you are BORN again, you instantly become a growing, baby SUPERHERO!