How the world of fantasy has evolved and gave us superheros.

The world of Fantasy
You could say that fantasy has always existed. Mostly to escape their miserable situation, sometimes just for fun. But while the imagined fiction is loosly based on the structures as in real life, the creator lets his imagination run wild and creates a world that is inconceivable in the real world. In the ancient times, stories about Gods and Demigods, Heros and Legends and lots of local lore were traditional material. These stories were based on even older ones, adding each time new and exciting powers to the agonists. Our modern western fantasy fiction seems to be based on the medieval times, romanticized into a world of brave knights and princesses. Different genres includes these architypes, ranging from roll playing games, video games, movies, graphic novels, fantasy fiction, etc.

A Hero like we all are
But typical for the postmodernistic era we live in, is the melting pot of influences so that nothing is really invented. What is merely done is mixing different styles or influences because the wide spread information makes it possible to taste all sorts of lore that was preserved. We seem to have no trouble mixing the brave knight from the medieval times with the werewolf from the victorian times toghether with a ninja from feudal Japan. But one thing that we have severly upgraded is their powers. In all the legends, the heros are common people that perform extraordinary feats due to their legendary bravery or cunning. The catch is that everyone in the audience can identify himself with these protagonist and continue the dream at home in the all too familiar 'what if' scenario.

Adding Superpowers
What the ancient greeks were good at is inventing supernatural powers. The same sort of powers return in the Viking mythology. It is impossible for the common man to throw lightning, create storms at sea or fly around. But these were gods. Or Demigods. Supernatural powers for supernatural beings. Now in our individualistic society, we no longer have that connection with the supernatural beings as most of the western religions (christianity, judeïsm, islam) have only one true god. The next step is rather obvious, just give the superpower to the common folks, and a hero is instantly created. Just take John Doe. One day he discovers he can create flames at will. Bam. Superhero born.

Weak reasons, weak motivation, but it looks Cool.To make the story catching, all sorts of silly motives or origins have been invented. None of them works ofcourse and asks a great empathy from the viewer/listener. Falling in a barrel of nuclear waste as a kid, will under no circumstances give you the ability to fly. Or cast lighting. Or crawl around like a spider. Or whatever. Nonetheless are we more than willing to follow the hero on his heroic quest, more often involving a love story as well. All this together signals -to me at least- that the hero with the superpower is a shallow creature, reduced to his power. To counter this, archvillains are created that are even more powerfull, dramatic love stories, all that to show a vulnarable hero, always going through some sort of crisis. But this is all a veil to cover the real identity of the hero: a common man with supernatural powers that look Cool. Up to you if you go home and continue the dream, but I prefer the common man who performs an heroic act out of bravery, necessity or, you know, plot. Because I am a common man. We all are.