Michelle Marchante/Assistant Opinion Director
Superheroes appeared around the 1930s when America had just come out of the Great Depression and was about to enter World War II.
Americans were low on morale, money and hope.
Then, extraordinary heroes like Superman, characterized with America’s sense of democracy and justice, were born. Superman, along with other superheroes like Captain America became America’s mascots and unofficial soldiers in the war against the Nazi’s.
They became symbols of what it meant to be American.
As time went on and America once again became stabilized, these prominent superheroes receded from the spotlight and became a niche genre. Yet, in these past couple of years, superheroes have once again entered the spotlight, as the amount of Marvel movies and DC TV shows demonstrate, but why?
According to Andrew Strycharski, the director of film studies at FIU, there are a variety of ways film interacts with society, such as helping people escape social reality, acting as a doorway to channel society’s general mood or to directly comment on it.
“Look at movies [during] World War II. [Before America enters the war], a lot of American movies try their best to ignore everything that’s happening in the rest of the world and instead present an isolated happy view of American society. After America enters [the war], Hollywood becomes part of [the] war production and starts cranking out patriotic stuff,” Strycharski said to Student Media.
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