Do we need another hero?
YES!!
We all need heroes.
Aspiring to be heroic in our own lives gives us drive and direction that few things can.
Now that I’ve answered the question, I will spend the rest of this blog explaining why I believe (and I’m not alone), heroes make living for us mere mortals better.
I suggest that there has never been a culture in the history of humanity that has not created its own version of mythological heroes.
It is of great interest to me as to why societies have created sometimes unbelievable heroes.
What is it about the hero that draws people to create and then almost worship them? Some may say it reflects almost a biblical sense of pagan worship.
One thing is for sure: the culture of heroes is here to stay.
A Professional Defence of Heroes
Carl Jung was a formative clinician in psychological theory. A central belief of his was the collective unconscious. Put simply, he observed how society continued to represent particular types of human behaviour throughout the generations.
He called these repetitions of types of human behaviour archetypes. One of the archetypes he noted was The Hero. This character usually took on a seemingly impossible quest, and his or her journey to achieve it was what made them heroic in the eyes of those who knew them.
This hero’s journey is the basis of many myths and modern fantasies.
Hero stories provide us with escapism from our mundane or stressful world. We should not aspire to live in escapism as a way to avoid reality/. This does not mean that indulging ourselves in a heroic story is necessarily a bad thing. Brief engagements with a heroic story can remind us that simply fulfilling our tasks for a day is a heroic act in its own way. Simply doing what we know to be the right thing, no matter how ordinary it is, always has its obstacles. Is not overcoming those obstacles and getting the job done the essence of heroism? To see daily life in this way makes every day significant and an adventure in its own right. That would be kinda cool, don’t you think?
We may sense we have not reached our full potential in life. This may lead to a lingering sense of loss. Is this a stirring in our soul to be heroic? The Hero drives us to go beyond the mundane, to take a risk. In therapy, the client is taking a risk by trusting in the therapeutic relationship to bring about real, positive change. The Hroe’s journey and the client’s journey are similar in that they are taking on a change to bring benefit to themselves and to those they care for.
The Hero is usually depicted as a victor over a great adversary or trial. A source of their strength is perceived to be their moral virtue. They are motivated to fight their dragon for the greater good. To not do so means that evil will win out over good. A true Hero will always fight for what they believe is right. Their strength of character gives us a role model to whom to aspire. We are spurred on to believe in doing what is right simply because that is what we believe we should do.
The hero’s journey from insignificance to great significance is what many of us aspire to achieve in our real lives. We may consider ourselves small and of no great value. The model of the hero gives us a framework by which we can believe greatness is possible as we take on and overcome the obstacles in our way to what we believe gives us that significance.
Heroes throughout the ages
From ancient times up to modern day, various cultures have created and looked to heroes for their common need and good
The heroic figure of Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey embarked on a perilous journey home after the Trojan War. To achieve his goal of restoring his family life, the gods frustrated him with challenges that cost him greatly. These challenges cost him a lot of personal agony along the way. Still, he overcame what could have stopped him and was eventually reunited with his wife and son.
The character of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings is heroic in how he protects and leads the fellowship of those committed to preventing their homelands from being destroyed. Aragorn represents “The Reluctant Hero”. He was heir to a throne he did not want but still took on the role he was called to. Though he did eventually succeed, he did so at great cost to himself as he answered the call within himself and from others to assume his rightful Kingship.
1930’s and 1940’s American pop culture saw the birth of the comic book Superhero. Captain America, Superman and many others were seen as symbolic of the need for America to believe they could overcome the memory of the great depression in the early 1930’s. Superheroes were seen as a buffer against the fear of the rise of World War 2 in Europe. As America entered the war the Heroes were seen as examples of how and why they faught.
In 1977, Star Wars was hailed as a return to heroic storytelling. The lines between good and evil were clearly drawn, and good won. The late 1970s were a cynical time. The optimism of the Hippie generation from the 1960s was gone, and the belief in political systems was very low after the American Watergate scandal and serious fuel shortages.
In our 21st century, with fantasy novels by authors like Brandon Sanderson, the heroes' journey tradition continues for a new generation to be inspired by. The Character Kaladin by Brandon Sanderson is betrayed and made a slave. Instead of fighting purely for vengeance, he fights against his oppressors to liberate his fellow slaves who have now become his companions. In his heroic journey, he has times of extreme doubt which have to be defeated as well.
The God Issue
Are we interested in Heroes, especially the superhero type, because of their almost God like similarities?
In Superman the Movie (1978), Kal-El is sent by his father as his only son to Earth and instructed on how he can help the people of Earth to become a great people by showing them the light to find their way. In the biblical New Testament, Jesus is referred to as being sent by God, who calls him his son (Matthew 3:17), and that Jesus came to be a light to all mankind (John 1:4-5). The 2025 version of Superman sought to destroy this analogy by making Superman’s parents evil, urging him to conquer and rule over the humans of Earth.
The Character Frodo in The Lord of the Rings trilogy takes on the burden of carrying the ring to the only place where it can be destroyed. The destruction of the ring is essential for the salvation of Middle Earth. Along this journey, he is tormented by the ring’s power, and his life is threatened by those who will kill him to have the ring for themselves. Indeed, he believes the very act of destroying the ring will kill him.
This reflects the biblical accounts of Jesus, who was tempted for forty days by satan, who wanted to stop him from completing his task (Luke 4:1-13). The New Testament narrative claims that Jesus did sacrifice his life and return from death. By this, the biblical canon says he enabled humanity to live at peace with God eternally.
C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan in the Narnia books, a character whose death and resurrection restored the land of Narnia. Lewis deliberately was referring to Aslan as a Christ figure so that his readers would be attracted to the Christ of his Christian faith.
It is a matter of your own interpretation as to how much this and other similar heroic tales of sacrifice and rebirth reflect a spiritual need for the supernatural.
Is our fascination with the heroic figure a craving for the divine?
The Heroic Truth of Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve was the superhero of my childhood. He played Superman in four films from 1978 to 1987. He defined Superman for that generation as the actor Christopher Reeve was perceived to embody the soul of what made Superman a hero.
In 1995, he had a horse-riding accident. After this, he was confined to a wheelchair and dependent on a respirator for the rest of his life due to a severe spinal injury.
He struggled greatly to establish his desire to live. Letters and cards of support were sent to him from around the world by people urging their Superman to get well. In a rehabilitation centre, a few months after his accident, he met a young boy who was struggling as he was. That boy was spurred on to challenge his condition because Superman was doing the same.
Christopher Reeve, along with his wife Dana, established a very successful foundation for research into spinal cord injuries. It is said by those who work with this foundation that there are people walking today because of the work Christopher Reeve did.
I choose to believe that Christopher Reeve regained his desire to live because his persona as Superman gave others hope when they seemed to have none. Then, when he seemed to have no hope, his fans flew to his aid with cards and letters, returning to him the hope he gave them as Superman. If Christopher Reeve were not Superman, his foundation would not have been as successful.
The closing line of a 2025 documentary on Christopher Reeve has the following spoken piece from him. (You can see this in the trailer tagged below)
”What is a hero?My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences.
Now, my definition is completely different.
I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
Further Material
Bowie D. (1977) Heroes. From the album Heroes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8uwxVhEmww
Margulies M. (2020) Kids need Superheroes now more than ever. The New York Times Sept. 21
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/parenting/kids-superheroes.html
Sebastian E (2023) Understanding the Hero Archetype: A Psychological View. Medium.com December 28th
https://medium.com/@Beyond-A.I./understanding-the-hero-archetype-a-psychological-view-e542bbd7c92d
Cherry K. (2024) What are the Jungian archetypes? Verywell Mind website, May 5th
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439
Augustyn A. (2025) Odysseus: Greek Mythology Britannica website
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Odysseus
Jones E. (2021) The Lord of the Rings’ Aragorn and Heroism Defined by Faith and Kindness. Medium website August 1st
https://medium.com/life-and-the-performing-arts/the-lord-of-the-rings-aragorn-and-heroism-defined-by-faith-and-kindness-421d1bcb41f7
A Taurus Knows Best (Documentary Fiend) (2013) Superheroes--Truth, Justice and the American Way. Public Broadcasting Service USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQ-pA6uM3c
Tom (2023) Kaladin’s Choice. Invested in the Cosmere website December 30th
https://www.investedinthecosmere.com/kaladins-choice/
Markos L. (2012) Thinking About Aslan and Jesus with C. S. Lewis. The Gospel Coalition website November 6th
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/thinking-about-aslan-and-jesus-with-c-s-lewis/
Schwartz R. (2023) How Superman Became a Christ-Like Figure in American Culture. Lit Hub website March 6th
https://lithub.com/how-superman-became-a-christ-like-figure-in-american-culture/
Pearce J. (2021) Christ Figures in “The Lord of the Rings”. The Imaginative Conservative website, February 8th
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/02/christ-figures-the-lord-of-the-rings-joseph-pearce.html
Warner Bros. (2024) Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story official trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX-B3HMlMfY
My thanks to my wife Ruth, and two sons, Kevin and Luke, for providing me with extra insight into their understanding of their own heroes.