Why Do We Need to Study Superheroes?They teach us what it is to be human.

By Jonathan Evans

True Super PowerThe “true” super power of every comic book superhero is found in their ability to act as a rhetorical enthymeme.

So, what is an enthymeme?

Aristotle and the Enthymeme

Aristotle, in work The Rhetoric, discusses that there “Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration…The orator’s demonstration is an enthymeme” (22).He continues to define the enthymeme as “a sort of syllogism” (22). It is, according to Aristotle it is “an apparent syllogism…a rhetorical syllogism” (26).The enthymeme relies on the audience, through interaction with them, to fill in the pieces of what would be a syllogism

So, what about superheroes?

Moving from Aristotle, and taking with him his definition of rhetoric - of knowing and being able to identify the means of persuasion - what does he have to do with superheroes (besides possibly being one himself)?Identifying with the superhero is required, according to Kenneth Burke’s “function of rhetoric” as found in his A Rhetoric of Motives.

Kenneth BurkeIn A Rhetoric of Motives, Burke noting that “…the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols” (43).He defines man as a symbol using animal.It can therefore be drawn that since humans respond to symbols, particularly values and ideas that one “identifies” with.

So, what about superheroes, again?

Superheroes as enthymemes represent a connection, a re-appropriation of stories, ideas, narratives that have existed with human culture since the earliest forms of civilization.There is a way that we “live in the stories we tell ourselves” (Morrison).Acknowledging the power of stories to convey complex ideas in what appears to be compressed or simplistic form is something that comic book superheroes excel at.

Diving DeeperIn the opening of The Power of Comics, Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith begin chapter 1 with an epigram drawn from a pair of literary critics:

“Once regarded as one of the lower forms of mass entertainment, comic books today are widely considered [sometimes in a limited but growing community] to be potentially capable of complex and profound expression as both literary and visual art forms” – Nancy Dziedric and Scott Peacock

There are ideas at work in comic book, encoded in them, particularly superheroes, that speak with persuasive power.

What is encoded?Duncan and Smith discuss that comic book narrative has a way of drawing focus to certain moments of a story, to “encapsulating” ideas for expression.Particularly it is the use of comic books in using semiotic signs – for Duncan and Smith these are divided into icon, index, and symbol signs (10).What is most persuasive about superheroes is that, as an enthymeme, they represent an “amplification” of the heroic and noble values of human cultures/civilizations.

Further Amplification and Values

Umberto Eco, in his article “The Myth of Superman” opens up with the observation that “The hero equipped with powers superior to those of common man has been a constant of the popular imagination” (146).What Eco is pointing to is what heroes (superheroes) can represent as a potential that draws the attention and fascination of heroes in our culture.Amplification, a rhetorical trope, that grant superheroes power (– see Aristotle and Perelman for many more)

Leaping Tall Buildings…Aristotle noted that there was a rhetorical power in “heightening the effect of praise” as a means of persuasion and elevation (62).This is the heart of the superhero enthymeme – the implied notion that superheroes embody noble aspects and potential of humanity.However, the enthymeme requires more than amplification…

Decoding…In a previous work I specifically applied Chaim Perelman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca’s The New Rhetoric and the rhetorical concept of “presence” to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman.

“…presence, which is an essential factor in argumentation and one that is far too much neglected in rationalistic conceptions of reasoning [perhaps because it] acts directly on our sensibility” (116).

Presence is a choice in what one places in the foreground of the attention of an audience – putting forth (in superheroes) what is best about human nature. Like amplification, presence is a rhetorical choice, one particularly prevalent in superheroes.

Presence of Lifting CarsSuperman stands as a prime example of “presence” and of “amplification” of ideals – with these rhetorical tropes, with the enthymeme: where is the demonstration?Turning back to The New Rhetoric, where it states “that hypotyposis [demonstration] is the figure that ‘sets things out in such a way that the matter seems to unfold, and the thing to happen under our eyes’” (38). This rhetorical figure describes what comic books, in appearances, as a medium does inherently. Comic books lay out, visually, a story that one can follow and contain messages that can exemplify and amplify the struggles and “better natures” of the human existence – via amplification and selected “presence”.

SupergodsRhetorical tropes such as: amplification, presence, and demonstration find their way around in Grant Morrion’s work Supergods.Morrion, in the opening introduction of Supergods notes that Superheroes are

“not afraid to be hopeful, not embarrassed to be optimistic, and utterly fearless in the dark…the best superhero stories deal directly with mythic elements of human experience that we can all relate to, in ways that are imaginative, profound, funny, and provocative” (xvii).

Not to mention the fact that he opens his first chapter with a rhetorical analysis.There is a function to these stories that speaks to us even when we appear unaware of the potential – we identify with them almost unconsciously.

Searching for ValidationWhat I have here are parts of a much larger exploration I am tackling:Expression of the superhero as enthymeme is an argument working itself out into larger and more complex audiences – expanding into more “universal-like” audiences from particular ones (to barrow from Perelman) -Two threads at work here in the growing validation of superheroes in our modern society:

One: the adaptation and growing acceptance of the superhero narrative through the success of major motion picturesTwo: Deeper and continued complex explorations found in the comic book superhero narrative

Cross-Referencing Potential

Looking at the two threads previously mentioned, there is a growing interest of my own that stems from an exploration of Moral Ethics in Philosophy with rhetorical expression via comic book medium.Taking into account Nick Fury’s closing line from The Avengers movie about when/why the Avengers will return to save humanity, he says “because we’ll need them”This statement carries with it, when you stop to think about it, incredible self-realization about humanity.

Why?In Moral Ethics, there are two major approaches: Deontology and Utilitarianism (Consequentialism).Fury’s closing statement carries with it touches of a Utilitarian, a functional and required, need that would draw the heroes back to the Avengers – a crisis of need.However, if one understands Deontological theory – that when faced with a situation it is the duty for one to do what is right, regardless of consequences – an interesting paradox emerges…As well as possible continuing of bridges that reinforce audience identification with superheroes as well?

Ideal vs. RealityIf the superhero enthymeme calls for recognition of superheroes as implied representations and expressions of what is best in humanity, then how can their actions be governed by utility…Or are superheroes governed by a deontological impulse to do what is right, regardless of consequences?It’s a complicated question and challenge. It is one that continues to find similar expression in the comic book medium as well.

Seeking AnswersLooking again at the popularity of the movies, The Avengers and Fury’s statement appears to complicate notions but in fact it is more an expression designed as meta-commentary for the audience.It is the audience, “us” that needs the superhero in a utilitarian fashion. Comic book superheroes' emergence in the Golden Age with Superman was just such a response.It’s an area that I am interested in exploring further

Muddying the WatersThere is, and always has been, within the comic book superhero medium a means for deeper exploration of complex ideas.Applying this to Moral Ethics, it has become quite fascinating (even in his past works but primarily in his more recent works) to view Jonathan Hickman’s helmsmen-ship of Marvel’s Avengers and New Avengers titles.Particularly, the deeper clash of ideas within New Avengers about the right course of action.

“New” AvengersNew Avengers #3, and the release this past week of #4, have become something of fascination to the idea of “complex” ideas in comic books (nothing new for Hickman).#3 witnessed an attempt to save our Earth go wrong and loss of the Infinity Gauntlet. When Capt. America tried to prevent any extreme ideas, the Illuminati removed him and wiped his memory.#4, when on a parallel earth, the herald of Galactus tells them to go home and give in to “a greater good”.The results have promise with resonation.

Works CitedThe Avengers. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans,

Samuel L. Jackson. Paramount Pictures, 2012. FilmAristotle. The Rhetoric. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. New York: The Modern

Library, 1984. Print.Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: U of California P,

1969. Print.Duncan, Randy and Matthew J. Smith. The Power of Comics: History,

Form & Culture. New York: Continuum, 2009. Print.

Eco, Umberto. “The Myth of Superman.” Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium. Eds. Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester. Jackson: U P of Mississippi, 2004. Print.

Morrison, Grant. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants,

and A Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human.

New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2012. Print.Perelman, Chaim and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca. The New Rhetoric: A

Treatise on Argumentation. Tran. John Wilkinson and Purcell

Weaver. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P. 1969. Print.