Reflection Essay #5 The Law of Creativity

Trying to look back on my childhood of times when I was most creative is kind of hard for me. I think that the lost creative thing I can remember myself doing as a kid was when I was in girlscouts and I had to create a solar powered microwave/oven. I can't remember exactly how I made it but I remember standing outside wondering if it was going to work. My mom and I used a hotdog to put inside it to see if it was working. From what I remember, it worked and it was one of the memories that I am proud of myself and wish I did more like that.
Looking for a time when I used my creative side to solve a problem/make a decision is even harder to think of. The only thing that I can think of that is close to being creative is when I decided that I wanted to study psychology in college. I took a class in highschool my senior year and had high hopes to spark an interest. I learned that it was exactly what I wanted to study for the rest of my life. Dealing with psychology makes you think of different ways to say things and manipulate different situations. I can't think of a specific time I did this but I do know certain tricks like "reverse psychology" that would make me tap into my creative mind to work around a problem differently or make certain decisions.
Iron Man was just on a few minutes ago and Tony Stark is incredibly creative, not only as a superhero, but just as one of his personality traits. Himself as a man is just an arrogant, sarcastic scientist. As Iron Man he is always thinking of different ways to use his suit to defeat crime. Specifically before he even becomes the Iron Man we know him today, Tony has to make himself into a weapon that was devised in a cave to help him and a fellow prisoner escape. If he wasn't as creative as he was then he would have made the missle that he was instructed to do and probably died and never made it out. The more that he becomes Iron Man, the more ideas that he figures out to try and make his suit better or even how to do the most destruction with the least effort. Like the scene when he travels to the place that he was held captive and blows up a tank with a smaller missle than the one that was just shot at him. I would definitely have to say that Iron Man might be one of the most creative superheroes there is.

Reflection Essay #4 Fiction Suit

Part One
I decided one day to call up Wonder Woman to ask her how she deals with life. I can't seem to grasp the real reason I am here doing what I am doing. I felt like nothing I was doing what right. My team doesn't understand the stress I am put through and my family expects me home all of the time. I am torn between what I know is right for everyone and what is right for me. I was just done with everything. So when Wonder Woman finally showed up, I asked her, "How do you do it? Really, how can you live day to day choosing between certain situations that may ruin one part of your life or someone elses? I know I can't do it anymore". She looked at me with hard stern eyes and said, "How do you do it?". I was so confused at that point. She was the superhero not me. So why is she asking me? She laughed, "I could never do anything that you deal with. I am only known as Wonder Woman. And yes, I am expeted everywhere are once when something is wrong, but I'm not allowed to have what you have. You have friends, family, and a future that you can make depending on what you want it to be. I can't have a family or really close friends because there lives would be at stake with what I do. You can. I will always be lonely at times, but you will never have to be. I can't go to school and give up being a superhero like that because I want to be a model. You have a choice. Don't choose the path that leads to loneliness. You may feel like giving up because times are tough, but when won't they be? I can't stop every criminal in the world. There are times we want to give up and that's all a part of being human. You are a superhero in your own way, you just may not see it yet." I looked at her and realized she was right. Life isn't going to be handed on a silver platter and perfect. We have to make it what we want it to be in order to be happy. "And we wouldn't really appreciate the good things if we didn't have the bad, right?"
"Exactly!"
"Thank you so much. I only have 21 years under my belt. You might be getting another call in another 10 years. HA!"
"I'm always here. And I have many years left to help."
I never thought a superhero would be jealous of a human's life before. Makes you think what all we are taking for granted.

Part 2
I told my friend the other day how much I appreciated always being there for me and that I was always there for her when she needed me. She said "Thanks!" and that she would always be there for me too. She honestly is a friend that I see myself keeping in touch with after college. We both have been through a lot of crap through college and to know that even if we may not be on best terms makes me feel that I know she is a true friend. I have many friends that I feel forget about me don't understand that I am hurt sometimes by a lack of thought. But this one person makes me believe that she won't forget about me and I won't ever forget about her. I have lost a lot of friends from high school so it's nice to know that this girl is really a true friend.

Reflective Essay #3 My Powers Begin

                I have never learned so much about superheroes or known so much about them until now. I am amazed to finally know the real history about Superman and Batman, etc. Like novels and other literature, comics have so much more meaning built into them than most people would believe. Reading some of the articles from this week and even in Supergods, the comparison between Jesus and Superman is almost exactly the same. The both were sons of a higher power with “special” powers and were sent to Earth to help humanity. I never once thought about that connection before.

                I also never realized that all of the superheroes have a backstory that allows them to come to Earth or become created for a distinct reason to make them the good guy. Batman’s parents were killed, Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben was killed, Wonder Woman defends her lover. All have a specific reason as to why they are helping us and justify why they need to be our superheroes. Being a woman I would probably more closely relate to Wonder Woman because I would try to defend whoever I loved against anything that may harm them. And I can somewhat relate to Spider-Man because many people are taken away from us in different ways, and some not by the hand of man but illness too. To make sure that everyone was protected 24/7 is a difficult and what sounds like an impossible task. And as we have seen by some superheroes, it is. But it is what we would be fighting for that would make it worthwhile.

                As I sit here think about what type of superhero I would be, I think I would have to be a rechargeable superhero. I would always need caffeine in the morning to make sure that my superpowers would work for the day. My background motive would probably be the lack of self-confidence I had as a child. I would want everyone to be treated fairly. Bullying could possibly be one of my important missions because I was always picked on as a kid and now my little brother gets it too. Knowing that I would be able to stop the hurt and violence in schools would really make me feel better and hope that kids would be able to grow up in safer environments and be able to have the confidence that I never had.

Reflection Essay #2 Immoral Secrets

                This past week of Reflections has really been interesting. I never knew that you could examine so much out of comics. Secret identities are always just a given for superheroes. We all know that Spider-Man is a regular teenager trying to get through high school and make Mary-Jane notice him. Batman is Bruce Wayne who fights crime as a scarier hero but has no actual superpowers, so on and so forth. But yesterday in class and after reading Morris’ article, I never really thought about how Superman’s secret identity is reversed. He comes to earth as a “super” man and has to create a secret identity of an ordinary man to fit in. Everyone else is already an ordinary man. That was something I never really thought about until it was actually brought to my attention.

                Another thing that interested me during class this week was when we discussed the three articles on superhero morality. Specifically, my group talked about the Robichaud article. In the article, he discussed two different concepts, utilitarianism and nonconsequentialists. I think I agree more with the utilitarian view just because I believe that an event where the greater good or happiness comes out of that event should be enforced rather than one that would cause less happiness. I just think, why would you do something that only helps a few people when you could try and save the whole world? But I know that those situations are never easy to handle when actually faced with them. Then our article brought up a point that really sparked my interest in the respects of illegal vs. immoral. I believe that superheroes were meant to help law enforcement, but when you have superheroes like Batman and Spider-Man whose reputations are not the brightest, we come to a chronic situation of morality. Batman is trying to fight city crime, but because of the masked vigilante, villains like the Joker are created and the only real reason they are there is because of Batman. This is why police officers want Batman to turn himself in so that crimes created by the Joker will stop. But if Bruce were to turn himself in, crime would either decrease or much worse increase. The greater good of this situation would be to not turn Bruce in and keep the Batman because he saves a lot of people. The movie The Dark Knight really portrays this situation well.

                Spider-Man gains his bad reputation from the newspapers. I believe that a lot of people actually like Spider-Man but because some of his stories get twisted around, some people start to wonder if he really is a good thing for New York. This is where Peter Parker’s immoral thoughts begin to take place because he is at a constant battle with himself about if being Spider-Man is the best thing for him. It seems to put his loved ones in the most danger. In this case the utilitarian would say that he needs to stay Spider-Man because he is helping the entire city of New York. When it comes to personal situations like this, we start to wonder if lying to our loved ones about being a superhero to keep the safe is the best solution. In both Spider-Man and Batman’s case, even if they were to tell the world who they were to stop the illegality of their actions, would the immorality of the lying be solved as well? I’m not so sure it would be but I guess we will never really find out.