Powerful Wounds: The Essential Mythological Formations for the Superhero/heroine Archetype in American Popular Culture

Abstract

The superhero and superheroine in American culture are powerful symbols representing the society, its flaws, strengths, and redemptive qualities. American comic books and the characters within the mythological narratives are therapeutic because they enhance our understanding of ourselves and our daily lives. These heroic figures are mythically relevant and powerful to the culture in which they exist because they are the narratives, aspirations, dreams, goals, shadows, wounds, scars, failures, successes, and visions belonging to us and our transforming psyche. The stories in which these mythic figures exist provide the culture visuals of who we are in our souls by mirroring back to us what we need to see for our wholeness.

Just as human beings possess a weakness or wound, so do these heroic figures revolve their lives around them because they serve as an example of our personal fragmentation. The superhero/heroine are in the distinctive processes of re-wounding in their narratives, and this cycle is representative of our lives and experiences. It is necessary for the superhero/heroine to develop with the wound because their archetype reveals deeper implications when associated with the trauma. These heroic figure’s wounds reflect us mirroring our traumas, horrors, conflicts, and life experiences. Just as classical mythology represents long since gone cultures, so do the superheroes and superheroines represent our present culture. Although the mythic superheroes/heroines are not as established as centuries worth of classical mythology as given us, the heroic figures give us an opportunity to understand ourselves better mythologically, archetypally, and psychologically.