WK7 Material culture: The Hollywood Sign

 

A superhero is a character that has abilities beyond those of ordinary people and who uses these abilities and powers to save the world and the individuals from whatever evil they might be facing or to save the town from whatever crime might be happening in there.

We have all seen dozens of superhero movies, comics, tv shows, books and whatnot, we have all heard of Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman and so on. These are the characters who are perfect, strong, who possess superhuman abilities and would do anything for justice and to save the world. They all function in a similar way and are pretty predictable nowadays, as we’ve all seen a lot of them do what they do. Something bad happens, the hero arrives and saves the day, the end.

This predictability and this heroic code became kind of boring to the public and this might be the reason why the characters, such as Deadpool, the Grinch, Light Yagami and similar, became so popular. What happens in these movies is not so predictable and these characters all have flaws, just like all of us do.

Deadpool is a story about a man seeking revenge. In the process of curing his cancer by a mad doctor Ajax, he also got his looks ruined and he couldn’t be with his girlfriend anymore, as he thought he was a monster. Deadpool also gained the power of immortality. The story goes on and, in the end, he finally gets his revenge, which is expected. What is unexpected and so likable about him is his personality. His sense of humor, sarcasm, and his realness are something we all fell in love with. He is raw, relatable, flawed, a loser with a life not so different from ours, we can see ourselves in him and he is so different from typical superheroes.

I think Deadpool became so popular is exactly because of this, because of his realness, his humor and because he is so relatable. People are getting bored with the typical superheroes and want something new, and Deadpool is a character we’ve all been waiting for.