Calling All Superheroes

7/27/2019 Calling All Superheroes

1/7

1

THINGS ASTHEY ARE,WERE

ARE TO COME

Calling All

SuperheroesANTHONY E. LARSON


2/7

THINGS AS THEY ARE,WERE AND ARE TO COME

Calling All SuperheroesCopyright 2013 Anthony E. Larson

Authors Note: This article was published at KSL.com in June, 2012. I thought

readers would be interested in the relevance o ancient gods and monsters

to pop culture and their infuence on the motion picture industry.

SAL LAKE CIY ts ocial, apparently. Te movie Te vengers

has broken all box oce records, making it the all-time, most popular

movie. Audiences are blown away by the action-packed battles between

good and evil, and between the egomaniacal characters themselves.o, why all this escalating interest in comic book heroes and pri-

meval gods? How did antastic tales o superheroes battling aliens

and mythic gods warring with one another as well as chaos monstersgrow in popularity to eclipse all other movie genera?

The Avengers


3/7

3

In the waning decades o the last century, comic book superheroeshad nearly disappeared rom the cultural milieu, and reading o the

Greek classics such as Homers Iliad and the Odyssey had long

since vanished rom educations curricula. So why all the renewedinterest in a species o entertainment that had all but disappeared in

the latter part o the last century?

ooking back, perhaps we can see why and what it says about our

day and time.

Ancient Superheroes

ts obvious to all who have dabbled in mythology that these cru-saders are modern, technological reincarnations o the cosmic gods

and monsters o antiquity. Teir quarrelsome, contentious natures

ransormers being the best modern example are obviously derived

rom their counterparts in ancient mythology. Consider Zeus and his

band o mist itans, incessantly plotting and scheming against one

another when they arent actually in open, armed conict.

While such tales o cosmic chaos, where gods and monsters do

battle in the heavens, are universal in ancient lore and cultures world-

wide, we get our best glimpse o these interplanetary loners, persecu-

tors and tyrants rom the Greek tradition.

n act, the name or the very place where we go today to witness

these horric spectacles derives rom the Greek word or goddess,

The Hydra


4/7

4

thea. Te Greeks called the battles o their sky gods theomachy, and

government by the gods theocracy. Tus, theater meant a place

or witnessing the exploits o the ancient gods. Teir adventures were

also rehearsed up close and personal in the rites and rituals enactedin sacred precincts such as temples, henges, kivas and pyramids. Each

initiate actually participated ritually in the daring acts or missteps

o the gods, goddesses and monsters some ew involuntarily, as in

the ztec ritual o human sacrice.n Greek custom, the traditional

clashes o the gods were rehearsed by actors on a stage using the best

special eects they could muster. Gods, beasts and monsters entered

the stage in elaborate, sometimes grotesque costume. Teir specialeects included the roaring sound o battle, theomachy, which could

be heard as crude mechanical monstrosities such as Hydra, the serpent

like monster with multiple heads, appeared as i rom out o nowhereto engage the god and demigod actors on stage.

In act, the very basis or most o our ction centers on the con-

rontation o the villain and the hero, a universal theme in ancient lore.

Modern theater employs an upgraded version o Greek theater,with eye-popping special eects, emotive sound eects and dynamic

musical orchestrations all produced at ear-splitting, mind-boggling

levels or added psychological eect. Te surreal theomachy o thesebullies is spectacularly recreated and take theater to a whole new

emotional level.

Godzilla


5/7

5

But make no mistake: Tough the Greeks eforts were crude by

our standards, they had no less an efect on ancient audiences than

modern technology allows movie creators to inict on us. Te ancients

reacted the same way we do: We enjoy it!While it takes us on an emotional roller coaster and lls us with

dread and astonishment, it also lls deep-seated emotional and psy-

chological needs. Any psychologist worth his salt will tell you that

theyre a reection o the uncertain world we see around us and the

anxiety we eel as a result.

Modern Heroes

Te comic book versions o these gods, goddesses and monsters,

those we called action heroes, and the crude science ction movie

genre that exploded onto the big screen in the afermath o the Second

World War alleviated the doomsday anxiety o a generation o Ameri-

cans that had seen genocide in that conict and lived under the threat

o nuclear annihilation. Teir common storyline involved an efort

to set right a world threatened by everything rom petty criminals to

maniacal tyrants to malevolent aliens rom other worlds and dimen-

sions.When the heroes in comic books or the silver screen deeated

the villains, it was reassuring. Te world seemed less menacing, less

overwhelming. t was escapism, a subconscious efort to assure our-

selves that all could be made right in an otherwise uncertain, chaoticand threatening world.

Perhaps looking at it rom the perspective o another culture will

help clariy.n the wake o nuclear events that leveled most o Hiroshima and

Nagasaki, the Japanese culture invented Godzilla, a re-breathing

dragon stirred rom its tomb by the belligerent behavior o the human

race and its abuse o technology. He is the incarnation o the mythic

dragons o yesteryear. His more recent silver screen counterparts

include the monsters rom Alien, Predator and even Hollywoods

latest take on the monster rom the epic poem Beowul.


6/7

6

Future Heroes

By extrapolation then, we conclude that the resurgence o thismotion picture category in recent years resides in our collective ex-

perience, just as it was with the Japanese. o, too, with the ancients,experiencing the problematic nature o the human condition, sought

emotional and psychological reuge in ritual sublimation and escapism.

Te trigger that spurred the resurgence o heroic and deic cinemas

in recent years was the horric collapse o the World rade owers on

ept. 11, 2001, and the struggle to deeat terrorism. Now, our super-

heroes, gods, monsters, dragons and demigods have emerged once

again on the movie screen with a vengeance. And with the impactimparted by computer-enhanced special efects, these hero- based

epics are spectacular and action-packed.

Tis being the case, one may be orgiven or making a couple

o predictions.

I world tensions ease, the popularity o this variety o motion pic-

tures will diminish to the same degree. But i world tensions continue

or escalate, it will become even more prevalent, popular and graphic.But more than that, the time may come when the paciying eects o

such movies will not be enough. Like our ancestors, i the provocation

to re-enact becomes great enough, the urge will be seen in the streets.

Modern society will seek ways to inict this chaos. We will become

sufering actors in our own caustic drama.

For more essays rom this series:http://mormonprophecy.blogspot.com/

For online classes, videos, newsletters and published books exploringthis material in depth:

http://www.mormonprophecy.com/prophecy,_ancient_history_and_the_restored_gospel_002.htm

our questions or comments are welcome:[email protected]
http://mormonprophecy.blogspot.com/http://www.mormonprophecy.com/http://www.mormonprophecy.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.mormonprophecy.com/http://mormonprophecy.blogspot.com/


7/7

7

Documents

Calling All Superheroes