I’ll admit it: I’ve already seen The Avengers twice. There is something about that movie that I just love. The plot is fun, the acting is great and the characters are really brought to life out of their comic strips. (It might also involve Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. OK, and all the other hotshots. But that’s not the point.) I think there is something more to this movie, as well as the other superhero movies that are appearing, that our generation really needs.
Think about it. We’ve already had two Batman movies (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) and now another appears: The Dark Knight Rises. And while Sam Raimi directed Spiderman, Spiderman 2 and Spiderman 3 in 2002, 2004 and 2007, respectively, we already have another Spiderman coming out (The Amazing Spiderman is out in theaters on July 3). One question: Why?
Yes, we loved the comics as kids (thank you Stan Lee!) and we watched the cartoons (go TV Land), but I think there’s more to it than that. I think our generation and culture wants heroes. To be more blunt, we, the younger generation, the target demographic for all those movies, want heroes. We want to see heroes in action and real life, and we want to be heroes ourselves. I think each of us wants to fight for a worthy cause.
Sadly, not every one of us can be bitten by a genetically modified spider, or inherit millions of dollars from our family to spend on sweet gadgets and iron suits. But we can affect those around us in smaller ways. Who says that a smaller cause is less worthy or important or noble? I don’t think it is. Actions don’t just affect the individual who did them. Actions are like ripples in a pool—they keep spreading wider and wider. They reach way farther than they were ever intended to go.
While we might not be able to save the world from invading aliens, we can change things in our families and our community. As Helen Keller said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
What makes you tick? Go out and do what you are passionate about. Find something—no matter how small or insignificant to others—that is important to you. And fight for it! Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight. There may not be a literal battle in the streets, but there will probably be peer pressure and sarcastic remarks from the “bad guys.” If you really want to go into the whole superhero analogy, think of ignoring the pressure and continuing towards your goal as winning the fights little by little.
You can do it. Be a hero to someone or something that needs a champion. And may the force be with you…or something like that.