I haven't seen Spidey 3 yet (probably do that this weekend), but I am fairly familiar with the Spiderman storyline. Spidey has been a hero for me for as long as I can remember, and when I'm playful, I still pretend I'm squirting weblines out of my wrist.
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Originally Posted by Matt Langdon  So, what other hero stories have the hero tempted by self-centred thoughts only to realize their errors? Or I guess any stories where they don't realize and fall from grace. |
I would talk about this a different way. In my
Aqualgidus.org > The Definition of Love , I suggest that there is no such thing as actual altruism, but rather a kind of expanding perspective that your "self" includes more than just you. Thus, your selfish actions are necessarily beneficial to other people, because it wouldn't be selfish if it didn't help them. It's a question of identity, and identity is explored very explicitly in Spiderman 2.
Heroism, to me, can thus be characterized not by "putting others before yourself", but rather recognizing that you are not a terribly special part of yourself. You can die, and the world would not be obliged to mourn. Knowing this enables you to free yourself from the fear of death (or any other fears that might be in the way), allowing you to perform "heroic" feats that put you at risk while benefitting the greater good: yourself.
I'm currently reading Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect, and I'm waiting to get to the part where he talks about heroism, but in lieu of that, I have read his article on
Banality of Heroism and I strongly recommend it. I would characterize Sugihara, his prime example of heroism, as someone who learned the same things Spiderman had to. Sugihara was informed by his samurai heritage; Parker is informed by his uncle's maxim: that if you have the power to act, you have the responsibility to act. Spiderman 1 (and I don't recall 2 well enough to know if it was in the movie) featured the song, "Hero": "And they say that a hero can save us./I'm not gonna stand here and wait."