The Superhero Genre : Violence and Morality

Superhero movies have become the best selling genre of movies in the box office. The buzz over the new “Avengers: End Game” has drawn thousands of people to crowd the box office to head to opening weekend. So, why do we find superhero films so appealing? As a genre that paints the world black and white, and lets us decide the forces of good and evil it peaks our simple fancies. What happens to the narrative once violence seems to overshadow the good? If the hero turns into the anti-hero; do younger audiences get the chance to critically analyze and notice the effect on their own judgment in the long run?

A new study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition hopes to break down these very real worries. The institute conducted a study on superhero films from 2015-2016 totalling ten movies in all. They found the protagonist on average was depicted in more acts of violence than their antagonist. They noticed 22.7 violent acts per hour, but the antagonists only had 17.5 per hour in comparison. Fighting, being the most common act of violence, with use of a lethal weapon coming in second. Males were depicted with 33.6 acts per hour and women barely hit 6.5 on average within that hour. My question is exploring how can children start to decipher who the bad guy and good guy is after seeing them commit acts associated more commonly with immoral behavior.

One argument is children and adults alike get the sense that aggression can be justified if it’s being done by a good person. While we have a fascination with the bad guy as their moral depravity interests us from an outside perspective, are we getting that same fascination with vigilante and anti-hero narratives? The line become blurred as we get more crude, dark, or wise-cracking heros like Deadpool, Mad Max, and Hellboy. Humans tend to learn moral lessons from our media intake and in the movies we often feel pain or delight in getting to condemn or praise the hero or villain on screen. Those same principles have been around since early vaudeville as the villain was much easier to spot with little quirks like an evil cackle, maniacal laughter, twirling their mustache, and cheeky grins. The audience is encourage to participate by picking sides; in those cases audiences would “boo” the villain. We don’t do that anymore, but we still get to make a choice for who to root for.

In comics, heroes establish an unspoken rule to make sure they never actually murdered their enemies and took responsibility for their actions. For example, Batman always catches the Joker in the end, but never actually kills him as his own moral code will not let his anger get the best of him. In contemporary times, starting with the new surgence of anti-hero, we see more implications of death. In Deadpool comics and even the movies he has no such restriction to value the lives of the “bad guys”. They are much more complex than the average Superman, but they are showcased as a more flawed meta-human/ human who usually acts for more selfish reasons.

In my personal opinion, I believe superhero movies can be good fun for younger audiences, but violence just like sexuality or other adult themes should be talked about to children. They should be encouraged to critically view these films and talk about what they have just seen instead of letting little Jimmy pretend he killed the whole family with his toy gun. I believe it could be constructive and pick apart what the real message in these moral stories are. I think this should be a more prevalent issue as we continue to question other social problems, but America’s constant thirst for violence seems to never be put up for debate as much as I would see other hot topics such as LGBTQ representation, the war on drugs, racism, or feminism.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/02/health/superhero-movie-violence-study/index.html

Rosenberg, Robin S. Our Superheroes, Ourselves. Oxford University Press, 2013.

8 Replies to “The Superhero Genre : Violence and Morality”

  1. Great post! I loved the point you made about “children and adults alike get the sense that aggression can be justified if it’s being done by a good person.” I never thought about it that way. It made me realize even more how the media has an influence on its audience more than we know. It reminds me of the violent acts being perpetrated by people today that think they are doing the right thing because they view themselves as a “hero”, but in reality they are committing violent acts. Whether we like it or not, what we consume has a huge influence on us, and we must teach our children to be critical and analyze this content. As an adult, we should also be reminding ourselves and each other what themes huge companies are subliminally and obviously feeding us as viewers.

  2. Hey, what a great post. I like when you mentioned if “aggression can be justified if it’s being done by a good person.” I think superhero movies do influence the way a lot of boys act. Lot of the boys I have been around with first reaction if they are angry is to get into a fight with the other person. Throughout my time at LMU lot of the guys I surround my self when drunk always want to get violent and throw punches. If someone casually bumps into me, a guy wants to be like my “hero” and throw a punch at the other guy. I feel like because super hero are men who fight, lot of boys look at that as their role models, which is really bad. I do agree that there other topics we need to address such as “LGBTQ representation, the war on drugs, racism, or feminism.”

  3. I’ve always been a fan of the anti-hero. The super hero whose morality was black and white has always bothered me as a child. Captain America versus Deadpool is an example of someone whose morality is black and white versus more muddled. Captain America has always annoyed me with his extreme sense of right and wrong and inability to accept anything less. Many moments in the Marvel Movies his morality bugged me as being unrealistic, like a utopia in real life. However, heroes like Deadpool who have a much more muddled moral code have always attracted me. They don’t always have a set line, willing to sacrifice some morality for the greater good. All in all, the anti-hero is something that definitely should explored more and I enjoyed your take on this subject matter.

  4. Anaisel,

    Wow, this post blew me away. I have never really considered the distinction between “bad guy” violence and “good guy” violence before. It is absolutely ridiculous that these movies depict their heroes committing more acts of violence than their enemies. I wonder how confusing it must be as a kid to get the message that “violence is bad” from your parents and teachers, but then see everyone praise a character who is rooted in this act. Thinking about it now, this is a very serious misconception about violence that has the potential to skew moral reasoning. Everyone is a protagonist in their own story, so justifying violent acts in the name of “justice” or “the common good” is bound to cause some serious problems. Thank you for opening my eyes on this topic, as it is something that I am going to analyze in content more critically from now on.

  5. I think this post is interesting! And the concern is definitely valid. I think there’s also a worry about unrealistic consequences to violence. Nowadays the violence in superhero movies and action films in general, due to the incredibly unlimited number of things we can do with technology, portray violence in a very unrealistic way. I would say Logan is an example where it’s probably a little bit more realistic, or if not at least we can see blood or some form of gore as a consequence of a violent act. And I think consequences is probably the name of the game; if the consequences of violent actions are underplayed I imagine that’s how kids will see them. And, even if they don’t, going along with your article they’ll probably assume the most effective means to solving a problem is to fight or attack rather than talk or be diplomatic. And of course it’s because in these movies everybody wants to see action, but I agree, in that that probably leads to more desensitization.

  6. Very good post! Overall, most hero films involve a hero who doesn’t use a weapon necessarily, more of a physical ability. This is good in the case that we don’t want to promote to use of weapons such as guns. However, a lot of violence via hand to hand combat is used, and this can still impact children and their use of violence later in the years.

  7. This is a very good point to make! But I also agree with Alexa. Think the biggest problem is action/war movies in general than superhero movies. Regardless, they all portray a form of violence and it might be problematic. It kind of reminds me of Incredibles 2 and how the government was trying to ban superheroes because of the collateral damage they cause. This is an interesting topic to research more about!

  8. Thanks for sharing this article Anaisel! I actually really, really love anti-hero stories. For my art of cinema final paper, I actually wrote about Logan because that’s one of my favorite “superhero” movies. I think we love these anti-hero movies because most of the time we see these characters as vulnerable people, which humanizes them. Superhero movies are most heartwarming when there is relatability between them and the audience, in my opinion.

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