OF MAN AND HERO: WHERE DOES SUPERMAN FIT IN?

Like many words, the concept of hero is undergoing the typical refinement that dynamic societies can impose on language. Several decades ago, for example, it was easy for a U. S. president to be termed as a hero--Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower come to mind. Yet it's difficult to name our modern presidents as heroes. It's been said that in the fifties, men and women were made heroes--today heroes are men and women. This change in perception of "hero" is exemplified in some super-hero comic books like the familiar Superman. Where the exact definition of "super-hero" may be unclear, this paper attempts to study the comics as a display of a person with heroic characteristics.