They're both red and blue, super strong, aliens from other worlds who have come to protect us. Really, Optimus Prime and Superman aren't that different in concept. They stand for the same things, they're virtually invincible and they're so perfect it can be easy to not appreciate them.
I didn't like either character much when I was growing up. I was much more a Batman and Spiderman fan. But as time has passed I have managed to appreciate the two big red and blue guys. I suppose it doesn't hurt that I saw some actually cool Superman stories. I have to give credit to Paul Dini and company for finding a way to make Superman a character I could actually care about. And retroactively I've come to a somewhat more generous view of the character Optimus Prime even as my nostalgia for the actual Transformers cartoon has virtually evaporated.
We could say to ourselves that people are too cynical and sophisticated for heroes, for characters willing and able to fight for the oppressed and all that. But it seems that's just one of the lies we tell ourselves. We haven't become too sophisticated for heroes. We haven't become too jaded for being interested in someone to save the day. We may have gotten too obsessed with the idea that our heroes need to be just like us, which was not always a very high priority.
No comments:
Post a Comment