when do you think you'll grow out of it?

"What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely."

-Christopher Reeve

I absolutely LOVE superheros. When a new Marvel movie comes out I'm one of the first people there to
see it, oohing and ahhing through out the entire thing.

I'll spend MONTHS trying to work out in my mind how it's possible that Howard Stark be Tony Stark's
father, when Howard was in his mid 20's in the 1940's and Tony is in his late 30's during present times.

as soon as this

starts playing at the beginning of each Marvel movie, I'm already emotionally invested in the story that's about to take place.

I will cry in the middle of a crowded theater over the now strained relationship between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes.

However whenever I express this love of superheros to people the response I usually get is;

"so... when do you think you're gonna grow out of it?"

Uh.. well... hopefully never?????

I hope I never stop caring about nerdy nobodies who turn into New York's one and only friendly neighborhood Spider-man! Or troubled Norse gods who would take over entire planets if only to prove themselves to their adoptive father (you knew you weren't getting out of this without a Loki reference right?)!

This question of "when do you think you'll grow out of it" has sparked more questions in my mind about our societies view of maturity, and how to be honest, I think it's bit skewed. These thoughts have also been brought up by being told on numerous occasions that I will "grow into" things such as wanting diamonds for my birthday, or caring about what's really in fashion, even though I'm already almost 20 years old.

To me, maturity has little to nothing to do with the fact that I like superheros at 19 years old or that I would rather receive Season 9 of Supernatural on DVD than diamond earrings on my birthday. To me maturity has very little do with what you like or what you wear and more to do with how you handle certain situations.

How well do you handle things not working out the way you wanted them to?

How strong is your work ethic?

How often do you talk about people behind their backs?

How often do you think about what other people might think of your new haircut?

How self aware are you?

These are just some of the many factors I feel contribute more to the maturity of a person than whether or not they would sell their left leg to go to comic-con so they can dress as wolverine in a conference center and have Hugh Jackman sign their home made claws.

Who's to say that the person who would sell their right arm to get tickets to the super bowl is any more mature than the person mentioned above?

Maturity has to do with the complexity and depth of a person and how aware of this complexity and depth the person is. The mature person also has to consider how their own complexity and depth effects that of those around them. Imagining all people complexly, you must ask, "if I say and do this thing... how will it hurt or help the people around me?".

A week or two ago I took my little brother to go see "The Amazing Spider-Man 2". Sitting next to me was an elderly couple, by themselves, no grandchildren or children in sight. The couple stayed through the credits, letting me know that this was not the first time they had gone to a Marvel movie together, and were aware of the classic Marvel post credits extra scene.

While sitting next this elderly couple during the sneak peek preview for "X-Men: Days of Future Past" that rolled after the Spider-Man credits I couldn't help but think;

"I wonder when they'll grow out of it?"

-Ellen

The Villain in All of Us .

“The most monstrous monster is the monster with noble feelings.”

—	fyodor dostovevsky

“Those who are heartless, once cared too much.”

—	Frank Ocean

     Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a fascination with villains in stories. I often find that they have much more interesting back stories and motives than the hero. This blog post is going to be a response to my last blog post about being the hero of your own story, ( can you respond to your own post?... ). Something I have realized is that it is just as easy to become the villain of your own story... if not easier. 

     Think about your favorite movie/book/T.V show for a second. Now think about the villain or antagonist of the story. Why are they the villain? Were they driven mad? Are they trying to gain power? Are they overly jealous of the protagonist? Chances are, (if the villain is well written) that they have a back story that explains the reasoning behind their diabolical deeds. Well.... aren't we all trying to gain power? Aren't we all overly jealous of something? Whose to say we can't become the villain ourselves?

     My favorite villain in the entire world has to be Loki from Thor and the Avengers, (hear that? it's the sound of everyone who knows me rolling their eyes). I'm fascinated with Loki because he starts off the story of Thor as a child. The picture of innocence. He is told that "one day you could become king!" and he believes it. Sound familiar? Here maybe this will help, "you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up!". This promise of becoming a king *SPOILER ALERT* of course; is a lie. 

Try and tell me this adorable little cutie would hurt a fly.

       Then our little Norse God grows up and things start to head south. This is when he realizes everything he has ever been told is a lie. 

      "You can be king!"

      "You're special!"

      "You are one of the Gods! That's fantastic!"

This is something I feel we have all experienced in one way or another. The realization that you are not as special as you once thought and that it is a lot harder to be "king" than you had originally thought. This absolutely tears our villain apart and becomes the breaking point, the point where he has had enough and decides to take matters into his own hands. 

Loki focuses so much on becoming Odin's favorite that he fails to realize that he's Thor's.  (cue crying)

If you explain Loki's story as, "a young man who was promised a lie and decides to go after his dream in an unconventional way but ultimately fails while at the same time losing the trust of his family and friends" it sounds down right tragic right? You wanna root for the guy! It's only until you add context that this becomes the story of a terrible villain who will stop at nothing to achieve power. This begs the question, aren't we all a little bit like Loki? Aren't we all hoping to achieve great things? Weren't we all disappointed when we realized that we aren't as special as we originally thought? So then why don't we also have the potential to become the villain? If we aren't careful enough, this might just be the case, always remember that the villain is the hero in his own world.