Superhero Wisdom

Jessica Jones is the hero who isn't a hero, who shows there isn't one right way to be a hero and that sometimes not seeming like a hero to others is the best way to be one.

Small is powerful, and in this article we're going to examine how the courage to be small like Ant-Man can lead to big results in life.

Pop Mythology's first prose-song fusion piece, thanks to geek pop artist Meri Amber, will show you how to be like Mega Man.

Daredevil's hypersensitivity can be seen as a symbol of emotional sensitivity. But we can use the same method he uses to not get overwhelmed by our emotions.

Perhaps the biggest fallacy that some young people grow up believing is the idea that you need money, smarts, power or beauty to be an Avenger or superhero.

'The Guardians of the Galaxy' beautifully, gorgeously, captures two of the most cherished principles in all of myth and story: (a) that there is latent power within us, and (b) together we are powerful.

'The Wolverine' essentially traces the heroic journey of Logan from despair to hope, from hiding and running from life to embracing it with a passionate ferocity worthy of his nickname. And it is not an unlivable ideal. It is a symbol of what we are all capable of.

Being a true Man or Woman of Steel has little to do with physical or political might and everything to do with mental, emotional and spiritual strength, and this strength, moreover, isn't about aggression, ruthlessness or machismo but the transformation of our weakness and vulnerability into virtue.

Iron Man 3 devotes a surprising amount of time to showing Tony without the suit, almost to the point where some viewers might be disappointed that he doesn’t spend more time suited up. Personally, I was thrilled because it shows an important lesson that I had hoped at least one of the movies, at some point, would show.

Choice is the most powerful force in the universe, not prophecy, not destiny, not bad genes or traumatic experiences, not anything. Hellboy chooses to be good, to resist the darker impulses that are wired within him.

Somewhere between the two archetypes of Xavier and Magneto is the key to unlocking your potential. And balancing them just may be the key to reconciling your conflicting feelings and contributing to the world while protecting and looking out for your own interests at the same time.

The X-Men's struggle is essentially your own struggle. It is the struggle to find gifts amidst one's pain—to balance the need to be true to oneself, on one hand, with the natural desire to be accepted, on the other, and through it all to shine with dignity and grace.

One of the central ideas of this blog is that superheroes are our modern-day gods and demi-gods. They serve many of the same purpose for us as the pantheons of gods served for their respective cultures. I’m speaking here from a cultural and psychological viewpoint, not a theological or metaphysical …

The bow and arrow is one of the most powerful symbols in human history and culture. Nearly every ancient civilization’s mythology has heroes and gods who favored the weapon: Artemis (Greece), Cupid (Rome), Arjuna (India) and Houyi (China). And there are beloved characters from folklore like Robin Hood leading up …

One look at Iron Man in both the comics and the movies and it’s not hard to see why, on the surface, he’s such a popular character: He’s rich, famous, good-looking, surrounded by cutting-edge technology, creatively and intellectually brilliant and armed with the funniest mouth in the Marvel universe next to Spider-Man. In short, he’s everything that women want and everything that men want to be.