I’m quite sure, some of you are tired of hearing about comic book movies. But rest assured that this will be the last, not to mention most significant, look at Hollywood’s version of our favorite graphic novels. Comic culture has become a significant part of not only cinema but Americana as well.

Because of the fearful-consumerist society in which we live, it is only natural that people look for a hero. Sensationalism in the media, war, and terrorism have made Americans afraid of everything. This is, however, not a recent development. Americans have been fearful of something or other for most of the existence of this nation. This has led to the creation of many heroes and legends.

During times of crisis, people always look to heroes. And while comics have not always featured superheroes, they did not reach widespread popularity until characters such as Superman hit the scene.

Comic books originally became popular because they had heroes, like Superman, who helped everyone, even the poor. They fought against not only supervillians, but petty criminals, corruption and other problems of the day. These kinds of issues were the type of thing that readers faced in their lives. During WWII, comics became even more popular as the heroes were depicted fighting against the Nazi’s. This helped to make comic characters more real and accessible. It also made them easier to emulate. People could imagine themselves in a real situation, like WWII, easier than they could fighting against some random supervillian.

Sensationalism in the media not only over-reports crime, it also paints common people as heroes: the individual soldier, an army of one, the firefighter who made one more trip up the twin towers. This has led people to identify more and more with everyday heroes in fiction. America has, without a doubt, the largest and most effective military force in the world. Still, this did not prevent the attacks on 9/11. People felt, at least subconsciously, that they could no longer count on us being the biggest and best to keep us safe. They could no longer simply discount national security as something for the government to worry about. People felt powerless and if they couldn’t do anything themselves, they wanted to identify with someone who could. This has led to “everyman” characters like Spiderman and characters without any super powers like the Punisher becoming ever more popular.

Unfortunately, however, the social implications of this are perhaps not as good as they may seem. Unlike yesterday’s superhero, who always fought for the good guys and always for the right reasons, today’s superhero is often at best less than virtuous and at worst a downright evil character who just happens to be doing something for “the greater good.” While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it could lead to a fearful society justifying the natural feelings of hate, fanaticism and intolerance that occurred after 9/11.

Of course this is not to say that comic books, and movies made from them, will make people into intolerant fanatics.

On the contrary, most people who read and appreciate comics are very intelligent. However, when comics are “dumbed-down” for the big screen, they lose some of what makes them, what some would consider a form of high art and they become simply entertainment, a spectacle. Also, the casual movie-goer, especially if in a fearful, emotional state (i.e. after seeing a news report on the latest terrorist attack) will probably not pick up on the symbolism and sometimes even satire of the best in comic culture. More than likely, they will identify with the lead character and emulate their attitude at least on some level.

While most comic fans would like nothing else than for everyone in the world to love Spiderman as much as they do, social acceptance reasons aside, we should all keep in mind that not everyone can handle the concepts presented therein. Therefore, we should all let Hollywood know to only do comic movies if they are to be done true to the original presentation, artistically and conceptually accurate. Doing this is very simple: don’t go to bad comic movies.