What makes superheroes so popular?

If you’ve stuck around for the last couple weeks, you’ll know that I’ve been asking a lot of questions about superheroes existing in our world and the morality that they would hold in doing so. All my research and back-and-forth discussions I’ve been having with people has got me thinking about another thing.

What is it about superheroes that piques our interest so? Why are they so popular?

On the surface, it seems our love of superheroes comes from the fact that they represent the best of humanity. It’s why we’ve looked up to them since we were little kids. Everyone at some point in their lives wanted to be Spiderman slinging through the skyscrapers of Manhattan, or Superman saving someone from a burning building, or the Flash pushing someone out of the way of a moving car. No one thinks about being a superhero and doing bad stuff (at least I hope not).

But people do good things every day. So what separates the heroes from us? Is it the recognition? Is it the flashy costume? Is being a good person that much easier with some kind of super power? Sure, nobody is out there singlehandedly saving the world, but saving the world from utter doom is usually the last thing our favorite heroes do. There’s usually many smaller things they do before it gets to that point.

In my story The Night Howler, there is little reward for having the moral high-ground. Doing the right thing usually comes at the expense of the the main character’s well-being. The Night Howler only needs the recognition for doing the good deed so he can keep being the hero in the eyes of the people. I guess you can say he’s not your typical superhero and definitely someone you wouldn’t want to look up to.

So that has to be it then. We love superheroes so much because they do the right thing and they really enjoy doing it. They don’t feel obligated or burdened by it. (There are some exceptions of course.) But they’re the gold standard, something we all aim to achieve. Doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest to do, but our superhero idols are something we can strive for to be better.

It’s very hard to be good all the time. Damn near impossible. That’s why we call them superheroes to begin with. You have to be pretty super to be that way.