The Holy Trinity of Spandex

Greetings, kids. It's Tuesday night. Ali's watching Big Brother 44.5 or whatever number the show's on, Ava's making gurgling sounds and nibbling on a picture book about numbers, and I'm writing, as you probably already figured out.

All of you know that I'm a huge comics nut, and have been for decades. But many people ask me: "So Chris, Superman's your favorite character, right?" Others have inquired, "Ah, so you have a Batman beer coozie. Surely The Batman is your favorite comic book hero?" And then there are those who query, "I guess Spider-Man is your favorite?," after seeing a Spider-Man figural keychain hanging from my car's rear-view mirror.

So...who is my favorite character? Which of these three characters takes the top spot? Well, I'm not going to tell you just yet. I've set up a poll here, where you can go and vote. I'll share the results with you after I've gotten some results.

In the meantime, I thought I'd spend some time discussing what most comic fans consider to be "The Holy Trinity" of superheroes, Superman, The Batman, and Spider-Man. Why are these such a big deal? Let's start with the most obvious reason. Be honest. If I were to ask you to name three superheroes you've either heard about, read about, or have seen in some form of media in your lifetime, these three are most likely to be listed first. Oh sure, some of you out there will say "Captain America" or "Green Lantern" or "Aquaman." Maybe even "Wonder Woman." But in general, the first heroes listed are one of these three.

Why is this? And why are these very different characters with very different origins and backgrounds, the ones that have resonated most in popular culture? What about an alien with great powers beyond those of mere humans, a rich orphan who dresses up like a rodent, and a nerdy teenager who can stick to walls and swing around on a homemade web remains so appealing after seventy-four years in the case of Superman, seventy-three years in the case of The Batman, and forty-four years, in the case of Spider-Man? Why have they entered what our German buddies called the "zeitgeist," or the collective consciousness of a culture or society?

The answer is simple, though it requires that I use another five-dollars and a little change word like "zeitgeist." Superman, The Batman, and Spider-Man are
archetypes. I'm going to provide you with a three-fold definition for archetype, which will suit my purposes well.

Zeitgeist:

1. An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype: “‘Frankenstein’ . . . ‘Dracula’ . . . ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ . . . the archetypes that have influenced all subsequent horror stories” (New York Times).
2. An ideal example of a type; quintessence: an archetype of the successful entrepreneur.
3. In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.

In all three senses of the term, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are archetypes. All three are models after which other superheroes and characters have been patterned. Superman is, of course, the archetype of superheroes; when Siegel and Shuster created Superman, they created the superhero genre with him. Batman was only created by Bob Kane because of Superman's success. Batman's success inspired numerous other dark, grim, and mysterious characters. And Spider-Man was created as an answer to both Superman and Batman in a way. Stan Lee wanted to create a hero who wasn't going to have a teenage sidekick; he was going to be the teenager himself. Hence, fifteen-year old high school student and nerd Peter Parker becomes the first teenaged superhero, The Amazing Spider-Man. We can't count Superboy, who was a teen hero, but was essentially Superman as a boy.

As for the second sense, Superman, Batman, and Spidey are ideal examples of superheroes. They have perfect origins, in that it only takes maybe three lines at most to explain who they are and how they came to be super. They are paragons of nobility, virtue, and heroic humanity, albeit in differing degrees and expressions. All the other heroes either want to be these guys, or in the case of Spidey, wish they were as good at what they do as he is. In the third and more psychological sense, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man tap into a subconscious and indeed iherited, consciousness. They represent certain human qualities, attributes, and emotions that all people can identify with. Their origins and their struggles tap into the very fiber of human experience.

First of all, and perhaps most interestingly, all three of these heroes are orphans. Superman was rocketed to Earth as his planet exploded, leaving him as The Last Son of Krypton. Bruce Wayne watched both parents murdered in cold blood. He had no siblings or other close relatives, just a paternal figure in his butler. Like Batman, Spider-Man was also an orphan. His parents were secret agents working for the U.S. government. They often left young Peter in the care of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben when they were off on secret missions. When they were murdered in the course of a mission, Peter is left only with Ben and May. And while all three of these characters had surrogate parents or parental figures, they were still marked by the fact that their parents were gone.

We can all understand the feelings that attend loss on this level, even if we've never lost our parents or any loved ones in violent ways. We all have an acute awareness of the cold pain of loneliness. Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man also embody other emotional responses we all know: they love, they lose in love, they keep on loving. What most people love about superheroes is the fact that they fight and win, whereas we fight but sometimes don't win. There's something liberating in the escapist fantasy of a hero who overcomes because of the extraordinary that lies beneath the veneer of the ordinary, whether it's an extraordinary power, will, or determination.

These characters are heroes. Scholars of philosophy, literature, psychology, and religion tell us that the heroic ideal resonates with us because it's been with us since the beginning of us. We've always had heroes. The Greeks and the Norse had their colorful and sometimes fearful gods, the British had King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and just about every other culture has had folk heroes and characters. These heroes may not always be larger-than-life or superhuman, but they did overcome. They did succeed in the face of adversity and past failure. They were the best and the brightest, the likeness of which we hoped to find in ourselves.

As for Americans, we have our superheroes. They've been around for seventy-four years. There's no indication they're going anywhere, blatant exploitation and commercialism be damned. They will overcome even our present society's predilection for fads and fickle attention spans. They are our mythology, gods in tights who fight battles that represent our own.

Over the course of the next three entries, I'll share with you my feelings about each of The Big Three, in the order I've discussed them here. Afterwards, I'll give you the results of the poll and tell you which answer was the right one. Some of you will be surprised, while others already know the answer. Keep it real and take it light, Chris