Where are the heroes?

This was something brought up after reading a series of posts on a forumboard item found here. It was a rather obvious sign as to how heroes in comic books are depicted and moreso idolized and patterned from. It seems to show that some of the more popular comicbook heroes would be of the amoral kind, the ultraviolent kind, the antihero kind.

Its like the current generation now say that the era of four-color heroics are long gone and the ideals it perpetuate is now outdated. The most obviously noted example that brought it to the forefront would be The Authority comic series. Earlier comics, especially independent titles would present anti-heroes in all manners of genders and formats. That is excluding comics produced by so-called "men's magazines" and Heavy Metal since it doesn't involve much stories pertaining to superheroics. Besides the comics that present them, another contributing factor to it would be the writers making the scripts and plots for them, especially the kind into over-the-top, in-your-face manner of presenting shock value scenes of depicting explicit situations or violence.

At least as far as the current status of so-called old school heroes go, they still have life in them and prove that they still have what it takes in spite their so-called ideals or rules or engagement are considered old-fashioned, outdated or touted to be stupid. Kingdom Come was one such example, a highly recommended read for its story and art. One other comic story came to mind, it was a Superman title, Action Comics I think, it had Superman pitted against a group of superhumans, patterned unmistakeably from Authority, called The Elite. They showed Superman that they have the upperhand and their methods are rather brutal and direct which gets the job done thoroughly compared to Superman's usual method and manner of handling things. Superman surprisingly proved them wrong by defeating them with the same ferocity and intensity like them but still not resorting to stooping down to their level. It was a surprise that Superman, no matter how powerful he can prove himself to be, he is always grounded down by his ideals and upbringing which makes him not above the law or humanity for that measure.

It goes further for me to think that this generation now see heroes as outmoded models of inspiration as compared to their preference to anti-heroes and moreso with villains that may or may not follow their own code of behaviors depicted by it. It might be a lot sadder to think that the mindset of evil is cool is what draws kids towards the darker paths to vice and later self-inflicted destruction to themselves and everyone if left unchecked. Case in point is that why most players in arcade fighting games always prefer picking a dark, evil-looking fighter just because of how cool it looks and how much more vicious the attacks they have in their moves arsenal that picking a good or weak character makes them feel less.

Looks my post on this one is pretty long. I may rant more about this on a future date. Next time.