How Superheroes Have Impacted my Running

How have superheroes have impacted my running? Also a couple of reviews for books I've been reading recently.

How Superheroes Have Impacted My Running

Superheroes - whether you love them or hate them, it’s impossible to ignore the impact they’ve made on our culture and society. I’m the type who spends his days listening to fan podcasts about superheroes, reading excessive amounts of comics on Marvel Unlimited (Only £10 a month for over 30,000 Marvel comics!) and watching every movie and TV show to date based on superhumans (or Inhumans). Being so enamoured with these incredible worlds, the characters that inhabit them have had an undeniable impact on certain aspects of my life, particularly in relation to my running. Whether it’s Steve Roger’s ‘I can do this all day’ or All Might’s ‘Plus Ultra!’, I imagine a subconscious part of me was inspired to start running (and keep running) because of all of these heroes I read about, watch on my screens, and spent endless hours talking about.

This post will hopefully teach you something new about the impact superheroes have had on society, or at least give you an insight into the impact superheroes have had on my life as a runner. Though, feel free to comment about how annoyingly geeky I am and unsubscribe* - I’ll probably still like your comment.

*On second thoughts, please don’t unsubscribe - that means all my manipulation via Dumbledore would have gone to waste, and I really can’t be having that on my CV

A (Brief) History of the Impact of Superheroes on Society

Superheroes have been around for almost 100 years now, but for many years they were considered as something only accessible to kids and supergeeks (if such a word exists). In 1961, Stan Lee revolutionised the comics industry, creating the Fantastic Four, a family of superheroes with real life problems and real life flaws. Despite the next few years holding more relatable and life-like characters, these comics were still widely considered to be mainly aimed at kids. Some would say the turning point was at the arrival of the X-Men movie of 2000. Some would say it was the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie that turned the tides for Superhero culture. However, most would agree that it wasn’t until 2008’s Iron Man that the industry showed movies with caped crusaders and masked vigilantes could be just as heartfelt and meaningful as any other film.

From there Kevin Feige and the rest of the team over at Marvel Studios began to build out a universe that would shape the superhero genre for years to come. Spanning 23 films as well as 8 short films, the Infinity Saga culminated* in 2019 with Avengers Endgame. Though seemingly impossible back in 2008 when it all began, the film industry had been completely taken over by web slingers, energy throwing superheroines and space pirates, causing a complete shift in what was considered to be a ‘blockbuster’ and what would get people out to the cinema.

*It actually culminated with 2019’s ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, but I like to think it didn’t

So Where Does Running Come In?

I would imagine if you’re reading this blog you probably have some interest in running. Considering my 2 biggest passions are probably running and superheroes, I knew that there had to be some way in which the latter had impacted my running career (hence why I’ve written this post). I was reading ‘My Hero Academia Vol. 16 - Red Riot’ earlier this week during my catchup of all the manga I received for Christmas, and during a particularly awesome scene with, you guessed it, Red Riot, I was struck by an unusual urge* to throw on my running gear and sprint out the door. Seeing these characters that I love so much stubbornly push onwards (sound familiar?) despite adversity gave me exactly the kind of boost which reminded me why I love running so much.

Although we may not be able smash through walls with our bare hands, fly or throw energy, the fact we can still carry ourselves past perceived limits, stubbornly push onwards even if no one else will, go higher, further and faster is a testament to the idea that you don’t need to have superpowers to be like these incredible people we see on our screens and read about in our books. Maybe the real thing that drives these heroes isn’t just their powers - why do people still love the characters of Hawkeye or Black Widow, even though they’re nowhere near as powerful as the thunder wielding, gamma infused characters they fight beside? Maybe that’s the reason why we have so many incredible athletes in our world today, whether they’re runners or swimmers or football players.

*Not that unusual though - having a blog about running is probably a dead giveaway that I’m often struck by weird urges such as these.

I hope I’ve left you with something to think about - I’ve certainly given myself a couple of things to chew on over the next week.

On your left.

Books, because, why not?

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

I just recently got ahold of this entire series, and am a couple of chapters into the first book. It’s set in the Star Wars Legends continuity, meaning it’s not canon with the Star Wars movies, TV shows or recent books. I’m loving the book so far, as it provides really interesting insights into the way the New Republic’s military forces are set up, whilst also having some really awesome action scenes. It’s a great read if you’re big on Star Wars, but otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it, as it’s full of terms and phrases that won’t make much sense to the average viewer of content from a galaxy far, far away.

My Hero Academia Volumes 16 - 18

I briefly mentioned Volume 16 earlier in the post, but I thought I’d quickly touch on this arc (the Shie Hassaikai arc). I’m going to be completely honest with you, I think this might be my favourite storyline in the entire series so far. It’s definitely darker than the rest of a series, but it makes for a heartfelt story that made me fall in love with lots of characters for the first time, and some of them all over again. Such great writing and art from Kohei Horikoshi here - I’m so excited to read more.

Harry Potter Reread Update

I didn’t manage to make New Year, but it’s actually worked out really well, because it means I can begin the colder and drearier winter months accompanied by Harry, Ron and Hermione, and I’ll be all the better for it. I’m currently on chapter 17 of Half Blood Prince.

That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed my ponderings from today. Thank you so much for reading so far in - it’s nice to know there are people interested enough to read to the end of my posts.

Until next time, keep running!