Watching: The Watchmen (and other superheroes who struggle to fit in with society)

Before getting into a scholastic rant, I would like to express my absolute delight that the topic of superheroes came up in one of my honors seminars this week. We were talking about how deep and meaningful graphic novels can be, despite the general stigma of them being worthless picture books with the sole purpose of entertaining children. It arose that these themes are often beyond a child's comprehension. Would children really understand why Batman can't work with the police? Unlikely. And they surely wouldn't understand the complex of the "sublime" as it comes up in The Watchmen. In fact- they likely wouldn't understand most of the psychological themes represented in the graphic novel (and later the 2009 film).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGl_if3tXBc

This is a very powerful scene from the film in which Dr.Manhattan has retreated to Mars in an effort to escape society. He feels detached from humanity, as he has lost his own humanity. This human-Dr.Manhattan disconnect is portrayed in his very symbolic mannerism. One great example is that he is building a symbolic clockwork on Mars that can be interpreted to symbolize the inter-workings of both individuals, societies, and the universe. I interpreted this as his way of understanding and accepting that several parts (in this symbol, gears) come together to create one functioning entity.
Besides, Dr. Manhattan has been pretty detached the whole story-

 There is a proper time and place to clone yourself, Dr.Manhattan! Great themes for children, right?

 

The Incredibles (2004)  also show us a group of heroes struggling to fit in with society, as you may recall its the main theme of the film. After more bad than good resulted from their crime fighting, all heroes were asked to go into hiding and live as their secret identities alone. Viewers see from the start, however, that Mr.Incredible and his best friend Frozone are having more trouble than others accepting this.

Listening in on the police radio to help fight crime, the duo end up acting as vigilantes.

Come on, they're actually helping unlike the star of Hancock (who I have not included in this because he was still expected to act like a hero, its sort of opposite what this post discusses)!

So what are we expected to conclude from these more recent films that only focus on how heroes DO NOT belong? Has our society deemed them unnecessary? Not a chance! We are just as obsessed as we were 60 years ago, and this is only a way of questioning and affirming their place in our media.