January 19, 2012
Reflections
Reflection #1
Over the course of the past 20 years of my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a rich exposure to comic books. One of the questions I am often asked is, “Which superhero is your favorite?” My immediate response is, “The Incredible Hulk”, the reasoning behind my decision is based on my love of the Hulk comics growing up and the television series with Lou Ferrigno as The Incredible Hulk. The reason that he intrigues me so much is the correlation between the Hulks anger problem and my own struggles with internalizing my own anger. When growing up, I sought refuge in the fact that I wasn’t the only person who felt isolated and persecuted by everyone, resulting in a strong dislike for the majority of humanity, much like what the Hulk felt during his weekly escapades on screen and when ever I could get my hands on a comic book. Like the Hulk, with the assistance of my friends I found a way to quell the seemingly overwhelming rage that constantly burned inside of me. I also found myself drawn to protect those smaller and weaker than myself, and like the Hulk with Rick Jones, I also had a specific person I always protected, my little brother Patrick. One particular instance is when I was playing schoolyard football with some of the other children in my neighborhood. I ended up tackling one of the other players, which caused him to go into a seemingly unending stream of slurs and other vulgarities, including calling my little brother a derogatory term for people with mental disabilities. Needless to say, I lost my cool and ended up attacking the other boy. Like the Hulk, I seemingly gained a massive amount of strength and power, causing me not only to “win” the fight but cause extreme discomfort to the other six boys who attempted to pull me off of the other boy. After that incident, the majority of the people in my class knew that making any negative comment about my little brother would only be met with aggression and pain. In terms of “What Would the Hulk Do?” and how it would help in my adult life, I can’t exactly go around destroying buildings and attacking the US Army, that sort of behavior is usually frowned upon on in today’s society. However, the use of the Hulk, is great for intimidation purposes. For example, being at a party and having one of my friends ask me to scare away a “creeper”. The Hulk would step up, get into their face and scare them into submission.
I don't know a whole lot about the Incredible Hulk, but I definitely feel like him sometimes when someone says something about my little sister. I understand the whole protective older sibling thing. I've never attacked physically, but I definitely have verbally attacked someone to defend her.
ReplyDeleteBecause of your post, I want to read some more about him. I feel like he's somewhat of a forgotten hero. All I know is what I saw in the Avengers. I'll have to at least watch the Hulk's movie sometime.
Your sticking up for your little brother is most definitely in line with the way superheroes can inspire us to protect those weaker and stand up for the little guy. I also think the fact that you have looked to the Hulk as a way of understanding your own emotions reveals another way that we can use these characters as a way of understanding ourselves. In your example about scaring away a creeper, I think you have definitely connected with the heroic side of the Hulk. He may not be able to control his rage, but he can direct it into doing positive things with it.
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