@PBS @PBSDS presents a #Super Series on the Industry that Boosts Imagination @DCUO @MARVEL @ImageComics

I watched PBS's AMAZON PRIME series SUPERHEROES: THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE (linked from 'the main word' below), and ... lots of ideas to write about.

But first, that word—I felt like there might be something more to that word ... something crucial that firms the foundation upon which the series (and thus each idea below it) builds ...

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The word “Super” carries traces of “Above, Over, Beyond” (extended to use as a general term of Approval).

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I learned/imagined a few things from/with the presentation
1. Superman was the first comic-book superhero ... Action Comics #1, back when DC actually stood for Detective Comics 👴
2. MARVEL's The Avengers were actually avenging John F. Kennedy!
• well, I don't know if MARVEL's characters knew they were 'avenging JFK'; but they were written largely in response to the widespread feeling that "we need heroes to make sure that 'things like the JFK-assassination' don't happen"
3. It might be better to think of comics (comic-books, comicbook-movies, -web series, etc.) as a sort of 'real-life parallel-universe'—so that the way things are at one time in the comicbookiverse can be that way any time in the real universe (e.g. though Superman was "dead" for a year in the comicbookiverse, anyone could 'go back to the time he was alive' anytime they wanted).
   
   
   That way, the superhero you're a fan-of can be in exactly the 'stage of his life' you need him to be in ... for example, Spider-Man: when I was a teenager, I was a fan of the teenage Spider-Man; when I moved to my own little place and became a college-student, he moved out of Aunt May's and became a more-featured photographer at The Daily Bugle.
   
   
   A better example might be Superman (or maybe more-precisely Clark Kent, who found out he was actually Kal El, who became The Red/Blue Blur 😯): who 'found out who he was' in high-school, took a small pilgrimage to develop himself to fulfill his purpose, and then came back (or moved into the city) to set about the work he was meant to do.
   
   
   The X-Men are taken by many LGBT+s as good examples of 'people who are "different" setting themselves equal to "normal people."'
4. That was the thought behind artists' breaking-off to form Image Comics, where their heroes developed their super-powers at a cost (unlike Superman, whose power was practically unlimited; they'd have characters like SPAWN, who could do practically everything Superman could do but would lose something everytime he did anything!)

But something that's being done with 'that word' is kind of "getting on my nerves"—I'm only hearing it from MARVEL's JESSICA JONES so-far (though The CW's THE FLASH does something similar—but (umm, actually 🤓) they call most of their 'enhanced individuals' "Meta's" or "Meta-humans') ... JESSICA JONES & her arch-enemy & a couple of her lovers & (in season 3) her adopted sister are called 'Supers'—and right now it still strikes me as 'childish.'

Everytime they say "You're a 'Super,'" or "What plans do you 'Super's have?" something in the back of my mind screams, 'You mean "ENHANCED!"' (especially since the Jessica Jones character doesn't seem to want to be "esteemed" as being "above" anyone else!)

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... But words are still evolving ... You know anything about recent developments of meaning here? Comment below!

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