These three, to me, mark the three types of superhero.
Superman has his powers because of who his is genetically. Just by being born, he obtains his power.
Batman studies and trains and develops the technology to obtain his powers.
Green Lantern is given his powers by others. He is selected to have powers. Although it takes a lot more than a power ring to make a Green Lantern, having the ring sure adds a lot.
or in other words
One is born great.
One achieves greatness.
One has greatness thrust upon him.
I always like Green Lantern. I think that type of story appeals to me the most for various reasons.
GL is special. They don’t just hand out power rings to anybody. There is a screening process and it is the character of the person that is important. Not physical strength or really even intelligence but that GL is born without fear.
I also like the idea that although the Guardians choose GL, GL is, in effect, drafted into service. GL is not free to pursue whatever course he chooses.
I would prefer that GL wore a cape, because capes are cool but other than that I really prefer Green Lantern and I prefer the Green Lantern model of super hero. I always thought Buffy was very similar to GL and that was one reason I liked that show.
Which superhero do you prefer or which model of superhero do you prefer?
There was no planet Krypton on which I could be born.
There are no power rings, so I’ll never be given one.
People do have nuts and it is, therefore, possible for me to know more about kicking people in the nuts than anybody else in the world.
Batman.
How about a fourth option? The Flash: just doing his job when all of a sudden he gets superpowers. No Guardians to choose him, just he’s in the right place at the right time.
That seems most interesting, since it lacks the “vote of confidence from a higher power” that GL has.
Humm Daniel, you are right, there is a fourth group.
Someone like The Flash then makes a choice to be a hero. He could be a circus freak or he could be a villian.
Are there any villians in the GL model? Many are born villians or simply become villians and many have accidents that give them powers that they use for evil. But are any picked by a group of Evil Gaurdians and given powers to be used for evil?
Well, I’m biased toward Batman, but I just want to point out that he fits all three archetypes in some sense.
Without being born into privalige, he wouldn’t have been able to afford his tech and training.
and without the trauma of loosing his parents, he would probably have gone on to live the life of a spoiled playboy, or at best, an excellent businessman or perhaps doctor. Without the thirst for justice thrust on young bruce, there’s no Batman.
IIRC, Sinestro fits that mold – he was given the ring by someone, only turned to evil.
Captain Boomerang also was created by a group of evil guardians (since TV executives fit clearly into this category): he was originally chosen to be host of a kiddie show featuring boomerangs as used that as a springboard to crime. However, some of his abilities were the product of practice.
Marvel’s The Vision was created as an evil android. Eventually, he switched over to the forces of good.
It, The Living Colossus was a mild mannered statue celebrating the Soviet proletariat until aliens brought it to life to wreck havoc.
As for me, prefer Superman. The issue of my becoming a superhero is ridiculous – won’t happen. But Superman is super, and he never made any money saving the world.
Of course, in the modern era, Green Lantern isn’t specially chosen. He just happened to be in the alley when Ganthet reached earth so, boom, he was Green Lantern.
Sinestro was originally a Green Lantern who was stripped of his ring and sent to Qward(a planet in an anti-matter universe) for using his ring to rule his homeworld, Korugar(sp).
He was given his yellow power ring by the Weaponers of Qward and was sent back to the regular universe to get revenge on the Guardians.
I thought the same thing (although presumably a GL would have more say in the matter than Buffy, I expect that someone drafted for the Corps could just turn the Guardians down).
Most superheroes share all of these traits to a greater or lesser extent. GL, for example, was a great enough person by his own efforts as well as his nature to be chosen to wear the ring, having that power made him greater and then accomplishing great deeds with that power made him greater still.
I have to go with the Man of Steel. He’s the original, the king, he put the “super” in “superhero.” Plus he has/had a great supporting cast, a Fortress of Solitude (coolest secret base name ever), and the perfect comic book arch-foe: a bald mad scientist. Superman’s origin is about as epic as they come–last survivor of an exploded planet and all that–yet he is at the same time the embodiment of American hopes and ideals. Even though he posesses “powers and abilities far beyond mortal men,” he doesn’t use them for profit or self-aggrandizement, but rather for “truth, justice and the American way.” The opening narration for the 50’s-era Superman television show perfectly captures the character’s mythical quality. And even his dog has superpowers!
Batman, for all his latter-day popularity, has a somewhat less well-defined character and mythology. Yeah, most people can crack jokes about Robin, and are familiar with the Joker, Commisioner Gordon and perhaps Aunt Harriet…but after that, what is there? Most everyone who reads comics is vaguely aware about the effects of Kryptonite and the Bottle City of Kandor, but how many people know the story behind that big penny or how Harvey Dent became Two-face? Most people know that Batman’s parents were killed, but how many know what their names were or what they were doing at the time? Batman is mostly famous for naming things with the prefix “Bat-”, and for villains that won’t stay caught.
Green Lantern, despite the Arabian Nights allusions, doesn’t really resonate mythically in quite the same way as Superman or Batman. Superman fights crime because it’s the right thing to do; Batman fights crime because he is driven by loss…Green Lantern (the Silver Age incarnation, anyway) fights evil because it’s his job. He has an even more obscure supporting cast, and it doesn’t help that there’s been several Green Lanterns over the decades. On the plus side, he has the coolest costume (I’m referring to the Gil Kane design, though I have to admit a strange affection for the Golden Age costume–it just looks like something a guy would randomly throw together if he were in a hurry to get out and fight crime).
This is an interesting way to look at the different types of super heroes.
Which archetype do I prefer?
Well, you know, I think it actually depends more on what the writer does with the story than with which of the archetypes the hero fits into. (Also I agree that most heroes can’t be fit 100% into one category).
Badly written Batman is boring, badly written Superman is boring, badly written Green Lantern is boring.
Actually, the Golden Age Green Lantern has considerably more resonance for his origin.
Alan Scott was an engineer on a train that was being sabotaged. As the train derailed, a green lantern flamed and protected Alan as the train wrecked. The lantern then told him the story of the lantern and its purpose. He fashioned a ring from the metal inside, and went off to find the saboteur.
In that origin story(All-American Comics #17), his weakness to wood is also established, giving him a vulnerability and not allowing him to have unlimited power.
The original origins of the DC heroes touched on great mythic themes, IMHO, with only Starman and a few others having trite/boring origins.
