Superheroes and the call to family, community, and participation

Catholic Social Teaching is the Church’s instruction manual on how to live a Christ-centered life. It guides us in being the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the leaven which helps our society grow toward bringing about the Kingdom of God. In this seven-part series, we’ll examine the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching through comic books – their stories, their heroes, and their ideals. We’ll look at how our favorite superheroes embody these principles of living a more Christian life.

The Superheroes’ Guide to Catholic Social Teaching – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Theme 4: Call to Family, Community, & Participation; or the Greatest Good You’re Ever Gonna Get

There is a classic scene in the 2004 movie The Incredibles. A giant killer robot is attacking the city and Lucius Best, formerly the super-hero known as “Frozone” (Samuel L. Jackson), is eager to dig out his old costume and save the day. But his wife Honey (Kimberly Adair Clark) has other ideas.

“Don’t you think about running off doing no derring-do! We’ve been planning this dinner for two months.”

“You tell me where my suit is, Woman,” he shouts back. “We are talking about the greater good!”

“Greater Good?” she says. “I am your wife. I’m the greatest good you are ever gonna get.”

And from the perspective of Catholic social teaching, she has a point.

The family is at the core of our understanding of community and of living in society. It is where we learn and first practice social interaction, and where we gain the values we bring with us into our larger communities.

Jonathan and Martha Kent taught their adopted son Clark the morality that makes Superman a great hero. Ben and May Parker taught their nephew Peter the responsibility that comes with great power. In the recent Shazam! movie, his new foster family teaches Billy Batson how to be the hero he was meant to be. The family is vital and should always take top priority in our social responsibilities.

Which is often easier said than done, especially for a civic-minded superhero.

Bob Parr, former superstar superhero “Mister Incredible” (Craig T. Nelson), struggled with this social balance. His prior life of super-heroing had resulted in a slew of lawsuits and legal troubles that forced him to hang up his spandex and live an ordinary, unexceptional, decidedly non-heroic life. Even his children have to suppress their own developing super-powers. Bob is failing in his obligations, both to his family and to society.

By the end of the first movie, and going into the second movie, Mister Incredible and family have started to overcome these difficulties. They have embraced their unique abilities, learned how to act as a team, and worked together to protect the greater good of society. The love and responsibility they feel toward each other is then turned outward, into the larger community around them.

Even when that community doesn’t always appreciate what they do. And that is where The Incredibles gets into one of the more interesting points of superhero social justice. Public opinion might turn against them at times, making super-heroing an often thankless job – but they keep doing what they do because it is the right thing to do.

Bob and Lucius, even when forced to retire their superhero identities, continue to actively look for opportunities to use their powers for the public good. Any super-heroic works they do could have serious legal repercussions, though, so they must “take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people might see them,” as Jesus says in Matthew 6: 1. Still, they recognize that what talents and abilities they have are intended for the good of all.

By contrast, the villain Syndrome (Jason Lee) is only interested in himself, his wants, his own self-aggrandizement. Brilliant inventor that he is, there are any number of ways he could use his gifts to the greater benefit of humanity. Instead, he makes a fortune in the weapons trade, dedicating his life to creating problems rather than solving them.

Which, of course, turns out to be his grand super-villain scheme. He engineers a disaster which only he is able to solve and unleashes it on an unsuspecting world, so he can then step in and be the hero who saves the day. The exact opposite of the hero, who gives all he has for the good of society, Syndrome actually endangers society for the good of himself.

As Syndrome lays out the details of his nefarious plan, the final stage is to sell his super-technology, so anyone can buy their way into super-herodom. “And when everyone is super,” he gloats, “no one will be.”

It’s an echo of a previous scene between Helen “Elastigirl” Parr – Mrs. Incredible (Holly Hunter) – and her youngest son Dash, who doesn’t understand why he can’t use the powers that make him special.

“Everyone is special, Dash,” his mother tells him.

He mutters back, “Which is another way of saying no one is.”

It’s a sentiment voiced by the two most immature characters (besides the non-verbal infant Jack-Jack) in the movie. The fact is that everyone, super or not, has unique gifts that make us each special. Saint Paul makes the comparison to different parts of the body. “If a foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,’ it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.” (I Corinthians 12: 15). Dash eventually learns the lesson. Syndrome does not.

Most of us will never accomplish mighty, heroic deeds to save the world. And that’s okay. We all have our own gifts. And we can all work at making our little corner of the world a better place.