An essay I wrote for essays.ph for screening purposes.

1. Superheroes Conquer Reality
If you’re in any way affiliated with the University of the Philippines Diliman,
often abbreviated as UPD, then perhaps you are familiar with Zorro. Zorro is UPD’s
superhero, who has been regarded for his unconventional behavior. Some say he’s not in
his right mind, those who know him say, he is just different. His difference has its way of
saving the day just as the real ones have, because of his ability to involve himself in
relevant social issues of the country, as he attempts to conquer them trough his own
principles that only he can understand. Ironically speaking, UP students look up to him
despite that. This practically shows how superheroes have come to be imagined and how
humans have come to interpret the very essence of the word.
Indeed, being a superhero is an unconscious celebration of possibilities, the belief
that there is a greater power that can take people out of their miseries, where evil cannot
conquer. This is an idea indoctrinated by DC Comics and Marvel, whose superhero
characters stand distinct from each other with their own unique powers to save the day.
Such idea may be a cliché, but it wouldn’t be if not for its popularity among its avid
readers and how such state of mind has been passed on through the years.
DC comics and its competitor Marvel are American comic books founded in the
1930’s when the United States was under the period of The Great Depression due to its
economic turmoil that had an impact worldwide. That makes approximately seven
decades of superheroes taking on satirical roles in realizing the imperfect world where
humans live. That’s when “superhero” became an imagined concept that led people,
especially the young ones, to translate this into reality that there are those who have the
innate power to provide solutions to every problem – those who are powerful enough to
take them out from every unfortunate condition.
These two comic books embraced its very concept that the term superheroes
became their trademark – superhero trademark, that no other companies could utilize
it, unless used informally and not to promote any product. Consequently, this term has
not been exclusive in America alone but even in different countries like the Philippines.
Although Philippine Komiks (Taga-lized term for comics; Tagalog is a native
Filipino Language) featured its very culture through characters from the traditional
folklores since its first publication in the 1920’s, it was later on influenced by DC
Comics and Marvel having prototypes of the American superheroes like Kulafu and Og
(Tarzan), Darna (Shazam!), and D. I. Trece (Dick Tracy) (Lent, J.A. 2009).
This not only proves how American culture has been openly embraced since, but
it also showed that Filipinos also needed refuge because they too had their own crises to
deal with. Foremost, this also somehow substantiates that superheroes have come to be
known in different parts of the world and are adopted according to the distinct cultures of
every country through comic books namely, the European Comics, the famous Manga of
the Japanese and various Asian comics, and many more.
The creation of these comic books not only furthered art appreciation in its
literary form, but its essence is also caught in creating a world that is very ideal with the

2. effort to counter the very ironies in reference to a rather painful reality. Thus, faith in
superheroes can be seen as a naïve attempt to escape from the nuisances brought by the
veracities of life. This belief stays relatively true in different parts of the world until today
as superheroes are translated in many forms not only into the big screens but also in
political propagandas, campaign paraphernalia, and even by plainly absorbing it into their
own identities just as what Zorro had done.
Reference:
Lent, John A. (2009) The First One Hundred Years of Philippine Komiks and Cartoons.
Boboy Yonzon.