I should have been more specific. With a few exceptions (e.g. Reed Richards and Charles Xavier), the intelligence of the protagonists is mostly not revealed to or celebrated by the comic public. We, the reader, are aware of it, but their intelligence is not generally celebrated within the comic universe. What they are celebrated for, mostly, in the comic universe is their physical capabilites. I always thought that this his sends the message that intelligence is not as useful as being physical capable and / or that intelligence should be kept hidden and is not something to showcase or be proud of.
That’s just because of the medium right? It’s not just comics; many heroic stories are about someone performing great physical feats.
Hercules
Superman
Can’t be bothered thinking of more, but it’s basically most of them
There are stories about intelligence of course; but kids generally don’t find them interesting, and it’s not the demographic or genre most media is aiming for. Most media doesn’t make an effort to make it interesting.
If we take Spiderman as an example: we don’t really see the interesting parts of building the web slingers or any intelligence based skill check. He kind of just tinkers a bit, it magically happens, and is handwaved as “smart guy does smart thing”.
If you watch something like Dr Stone, Hunter X Hunter, Saw, National Treasure, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, etc; those media are all about intelligent characters solving problems in creative ways. You’re not going to find intelligence being lauded or celebrated in Marvel because they spent 15 seconds being intelligent and the other 89:45 minutes web slinging and kicking baddies in the head
I should have been more specific. With a few exceptions (e.g. Reed Richards and Charles Xavier), the intelligence of the protagonists is mostly not revealed to or celebrated by the comic public. We, the reader, are aware of it, but their intelligence is not generally celebrated within the comic universe. What they are celebrated for, mostly, in the comic universe is their physical capabilites. I always thought that this his sends the message that intelligence is not as useful as being physical capable and / or that intelligence should be kept hidden and is not something to showcase or be proud of.
That’s just because of the medium right? It’s not just comics; many heroic stories are about someone performing great physical feats.
There are stories about intelligence of course; but kids generally don’t find them interesting, and it’s not the demographic or genre most media is aiming for. Most media doesn’t make an effort to make it interesting.
If we take Spiderman as an example: we don’t really see the interesting parts of building the web slingers or any intelligence based skill check. He kind of just tinkers a bit, it magically happens, and is handwaved as “smart guy does smart thing”.
If you watch something like Dr Stone, Hunter X Hunter, Saw, National Treasure, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, etc; those media are all about intelligent characters solving problems in creative ways. You’re not going to find intelligence being lauded or celebrated in Marvel because they spent 15 seconds being intelligent and the other 89:45 minutes web slinging and kicking baddies in the head