When I was a kid I had a subscription to Iron Man, the comic book. I loved his "look," and how the man who was Iron Man, Anthony Stark, wasn't an all-American man, but a man with faults and difficulties. That is to say, he was "real" to me. Of course, he was also a man in an iron suit doing good but still, to me, Iron Man was the best of the comic book heroes - a well-rounded character who could fight crime like the best of them.
Later, I came across Vigilante. This was during my high school years. Vigilante was Adrian Chase, a New York district attorney whose familiy was killed by mobsters. This set him off, as you might imagine. He sought his own type of justice and Vigilante was born. One of the first amoral characters in the comic book genre, I appreciated the fact, again, that he wasn't a do-gooder. He did what he thought he had to do to avenge the deaths of his family and that, to me, was noble.
I've never collected comic books but I've always appreciated them - their creativity, their storylines, the artwork. But are comic book superheroes all that super anymore? The A.V. Club has a discussion about if the superhero genre should hang up its cape. I hope it doesn't and I should think it'll still be re-inventing itself time and time again. There are still radioactive spiders out there. There are still cosmic rays being zapped through mild-mannered men.
And, as a fun addendum, browse 80,000 comic book covers.
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