Vol 2 No 3 (2020): Make the Superhero Great Again!
The image of a superhero has become one of the fundamental images in the modern mass culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. Coming down from the pages of American comics, they have made their way into the most diverse areas of modern culture: cinema, computer games, anime, cosplay, etc. They are no longer heroes only for young people, becoming a kind of cultural core around which a whole universe of images, ideas, meanings, concepts, etc. is built.
It is certain that a superhero is a kind of litmus test that indicates the directions of modern society development. But it is also a testing ground, where certain ideas are tested, because society votes with its attitude to each new image of a superhero, approaching it quite critically, accepting or rejecting it. Therefore, we can say that a superhero is a dynamic figure, developing and well indicating the state of public moods, aspirations and expectations.
Actualization of the superhero character in the 21st century is a marker of complex global problems that humankind has faced. The study of this phenomenon in modern culture provides an opportunity to consider these problems from a new angle.
Editors: Rastyam T. Aliev & Kwasu Tembo
