这篇从几个角度略论了，超级英雄漫画经常吸引成千上万的小男孩追随。虽然漫画书帮助孩子发展写作和阅读技能,变得更有创造力,并获得学习机会。但是也有可能对孩子们带来负面的作用。文章通过超人和蜘蛛侠进行举例，详细描述了超级英雄漫画的积极作用和负面作用。
It’s universally acknowledged that most children enjoy comic books in their little bedrooms. The super heroes like superman in the comics usually appeal to thousands of little boy followers. Although comic books help children develop writing and reading skills, become more creative, and acquire learning opportunities (Howe 2), they may not always have a positive impact on boys. According to the plots and researches, the comics like superman may have a negative impact on boys, for its violence, pressure and the narrow individualistic heroism.
Comic book, Superman, in June of 1938, made his debut in Action Comics and since then he has become not only one of the most famous and iconic super-heroes of all time but also one of the most popular fictional characters ever (Power Herc 1). Superman kept his identity secret, posing as mild-mannered er Clark Kent and changing into his Superman costume with the distinctive "S" on the chest whenever he set out to do good deeds.
It seems that the Superman in comics is powerful, perfect and heroic. But when we go deeper, we can find out the negative impact on boys.
For one thing, there are many violence plots to set superman’s power off to advantage, which will influence the young boys whose personality is not mature at all. Young boys are vulnerable to bad things around them. Actually, after reading Superman, I was not amazed by superman’s power, but shocked by another character, Lex Luthor, who is such a bad villain. Lex Luthor is also a complete megalomaniac. He seeks to control everything he sees due to a delusional sense of entitlement. With no sense of empathy, he cares nothing for his fellow man and only keeps people alive if they benefit him (“Villains Wiki”).
I claim most of people today only care about what a bad guy Lex Luthor is, and how powerful the superman is. But why do we neglect the fact Lex Luthor’s behavior has a negative influence on boys? Lex Luthor is depicted as a diabolical genius and is referred to by his surname. He is intelligent and very tricky. He attempts to ruin Superman by using a laser cannon kryptonite and other tricks and encourages people to beat the Metropolitan Superman. Before the crisis officially started, Luthor wear kryptonite armour at all costs and personally pitched, aiming to completely exterminate Superman and bats. Also, he tried to steal a weapon that was capable of causing earthquakes. It goes without saying that will encourage copycat crimes of young boys.
Lex Luthor was a good man in his youth. He could be a great scientist in the future. But he became a villain in the end. Similarly, for a kind boy, the similar tragedy also might happen because of some influence for certain character in comic books. For instance, someone could become a murderer to destroy social safety and social order; someone could implement terrorist attack like Lex Luthor.
I have done a research recently about the youth violence statistics: For person’s ages 10 to 24 years, violent crime arrest rates were higher for males than for females from 1995-2017. For males ages 10 to 24 years, violent crime arrest rates declined from 850.8 arrests per 100,000 in 1995 to 423.1 arrests per 100,000 in 2017. For females ages 10 to 24 years, violent crime arrest rates declined from 139.6 arrests per 100,000 in 1995 to 99.7 arrests per 100,000 in 2017 (“Youth violence”). Although crime rates are declining, we cannot neglect the amount for person’s ages 10 to 24 years is still huge. I believe most of teenagers have read superman or other comic books about heroism in their childhood, and many of them who commit a crime may be affected by the villains like Lex Luthor. Children are innocent.
However, the fact is that boys would like to show their own hero spirit and masculinity when they encounter something similar with the superman and just in this time they would like to imitate and follow the behaviors from the superman in comic books ,including something violence. Although we all know that the comic book, Superman, should not damage their youthful mentality Therefore, the unconscious consequences and influence such as violence would also be shocked.
In addition to the violence, boys must cope with invisible pressure when they read the Comics like Superman.
In the comics Superman, we call him -superman. He can fly and has the super strength, x-ray, telescopic and heat vision, acute hearing, and a computer-like mind so that he can speak all Earth languages and most alien ones. He always appears in some urgent occasions due to the special ability he owned -only the powerful military weapons can pass through his skin and he can easily jump over a skyscraper. Besides, he could drove a car over their heads and his power is greater than a locomotive so that he is able to effortlessly throw tanks and pushed ocean liners into the dry dock easily. The speed of him is faster than the muzzle of his bullets and he even got faster-than-light ability. His lungs can withstand or lack of any pressure so that he uses this ability for space travel.
Also, another example is that Spider-Man's creators gave him super strength and agility -the ability to be able to adhesion on most surfaces and spider senses by which it is not difficult to react quickly to danger so that he can use his own invented device named "cobweb transmitter" to emit spider silk, allowing him to fight for villains.
Compared with him, we only take the plane in the sky and spend 2 more hours driving form one city to another. In others words, he can do everything much better than us. Such special ability from the superman reminds me of a picture in my memory: a school bus full of kids is threatened with disaster as it nearly topples over a cliff, when — whoosh — the Man of Steel flies in and pushes the bus to safety (“Waiting for Superman”). It is understandable that boys love Superman, and the book brings the boys a dream to be a hero because they might dream to enjoy the similar ability with the superman and could save the life of others for the justice .Therefore, for boys, it seems that the desiring courage and super ability make contribution to the popularity of the comic books about superman.
For young boys, the difference between man and superman causes a big problem. According to the research done by Doctor Carlos Santos from Arizona State University, young boys are suffering from mental diseases because of the gap between their desires of being superhero and the reality. The mental diseases contain autism, depression and mania. The subjects are 426 young boys from middle school.
In these comics, it shows an attitude that boys must always express more courage to do something than girls. For example, boys in comic books must be mocked if they are afraid of touching the insects; boys must be the first creature to walk upright when they adventure with two girls. But why is it that men should sacrifice themselves to keep women safe? Why must comic book inject an invisible pressure into boys when they are just 4 or 5 years old?
What is more, such unfairness also appears in some other sources such as a popular TV program-‘ where is my father ’as an example, which talks about how 5 pairs of fathers and their children live in two days and one night. I still remember Kim who is 4-year-old boy was blamed by his father because he rejected to send his friend Angela who is 4-year-old girl to her house. Kim’s father said to Kim: “You are a superman because you are dressed in superman’s suit right now. Therefore, you should not allow Angela to go home alone.” From that, boys have existed a chronic thinking from their childhood: they are men; they should brave; they should make girls believe they will be heroes.
This is unfair for boys because it imposes too much pressure for boys and for some of them such pressure even could force their personality beyond their nature which is harmful for their psychology development. By watching the lecture given by Chimamanda Adichie, we can find out most of females are treated unfairly in some ways and they do not have the same opportunities and rights as men in many ways, such as marriage, domestic violence, rape, war, equality in the work place, health, education and voting rights.
However, we must admit man should be a hero to secure girls is also unfair for man. Boys advocate, Joe Manthey, reminds us that "When girls were behind in math and science, we said, 'we want to help these girls; there's something wrong with the schools.’ But when boys don't do well in school, we say there's something wrong with the boy" (Nemko 5)". For instance, if a girl loves adventure and even is dressed up as batman or superman, we think she is handsome and brave, and give her a compliment. However, if a boy is afraid of insects and dance in girl’s dress, he must hear some criticism and be requested to make a change. By reading the article, Pink Scare, which tell us the story about mother allow her son to express himself, even though he loves to wear pink clothes, I understand the condition of Manley and Kilodavis, and strongly agree with the action they did to their boys. They want their children, both male and female, to feel the same. The comic book, Superman, has achieved a big honor. But it is unreasonable to set unrealistic standards for men to request them be brave as superman to keep women safe.
Most important, the comics like Superman encourage a narrow individualistic heroism. According to Doctor Sharon lamb from University of Massachusetts Boston, publishers attempt to sell the concept of narrow individualistic heroism to young people through books. In these books, they said that you must do that if you are a man.
The character of superman is flinty and isolated, when boys copy this kind of peculiarity, the social life of boys will get into trouble. Men’s character and behavior are formed from 15 years old to 27 years old, which means too much input of these kind of comics will affect this period.
This kind of narrow individualistic heroism also contains discrimination. The heroes are always men, and the girls are always be the most pretty and lucky character who is secured all the time. Why should men be so strong? It is unfair. Greta Christina points out that it’s deeply weird to have a male gender expectation that's not only rigid and narrow, but literally unachievable for a large portion of the male population. It's deeply weird to make men feel like losers for losing a game that's rigged from the start (Christina 3).
In conclusion, comics like superman may not always have a positive impact on boys, for its violence, pressure and the narrow individualistic heroism. Though comics are great pressure for children, the appearance of violence also should be avoided to some extent. Like Superman is a really realistic standard for boys, and the severe psychological effects from villain like Lex Luthor in superman is unavoidable. Also Boys should be treated without so much pressure, just fairly as girls. Each man has his own selection and right to make a decision which way he will go. They should not be treated unfairly because anyone has their own different characteristics and personalities. Traditionally, it is commonly believed in comic books that boys should show more courage and power than girls and they should protect them when they encounter some special occasions. However, the fact is the differences between the different genders should not be magnified even though it is recommended traditionally.
Works Cited
PowerHerc, 2017, Superman, ICVI, available at:
(19/September/2017)
Waiting for 'Superman', 2017, Time Entertainment, available at:
,8599,2021951,00.html (18/September/2017)
Villains Wiki, 2017, wikia, available at:
(18/September/2017)
Marty Nemko, 2017, The Problem With Boys, martynemko, available at:
(19/September/2017)
Youth violence, 2017, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, available at:
(18/September/2017)
Harrison Howe, 2017, Reading Comic Books May Help Students Do Better in School, Education Portal, available at:
(18/September/2017)
Steven J. Kirsh and Paul V. Olczak, 2017, The Effects of Extremely Violent Comic Books on Social Information Processing, State University of New York, Geneseo, available at:
~kirsh/vita/jiv.pdf.pdf (17/September/2017)
Greta Christina, 2017, 5 Things Society Unfairly Expects of Men, Alter, available at:
?page=0%2C2(9/March/2017)
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