The effects of superheroes on school violence has not been given adequate attention in research even though superhero movies, games, and characters are becoming increasingly popular worldwide. In addition, very little has been known particularly on the role of superheroes toward building children's nonviolent character and personality. This chapter focuses on how the effects of superheroes contribute to the learning process by examining both positive and negative effects. The chapter concludes with recommendations that map out practical implications for learning in schools.
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Superheroes have appeared in comic books since 1938 (Miettinen, 2011), in films, cartoons, and movies in subsequent years. With advances in digital technologies that characterised the fall of the 20th century, superhero content are now available also through games both online and on offline platforms. Both children and adults can now play games on different devices including smart-phones and tablets. Carlsson-Paige (2006) classify superhero games in the broader context of invented play with fictitious weapons or superhero action characters. Russel (2013) views a superhero as a type of character, figure or a fictional hero presented in comic books and digital content such as videos, games and films who possess special powers. Thus, superheroes are not ordinary human beings, but fictional. Russel (2013) furthermore places superheroes into different categories as portrayed in various media as: humans with super human abilities, costumed vigilantes, aliens, and robots. They are media characters imbued with extraordinary abilities, including superhuman strength or the ability to transform themselves into superhuman entities (Boyd, 1997).
Humans with superhuman abilities have powers above those of an ordinary person such as super-strength, ability to fly, and the ability to be invisible. This category of heroes is considered to be the most powerful over all types of superheroes. The next category is that of superheroes with special athletic ability that help them to fight crime. Heroes in this category gain temporal powers from a given object but lose such power once the object is removed. The last category that Russel (2013) identified is that of aliens and robots. Heroes in this category are perceived to have powers equal to those of superhuman category. However, they have abilities that allow them to fit in a community when they are not operating as heroes.
Heroes that impersonate popular and well-liked Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and others in movies are perceived to use the power of these characters to help people in difficult situations as well as fighting for justice in society. These powers as portrayed in televised films, games and movies like Spider-Man, have positioned superheroes to be role models to viewers, particularly children. Lindahl and Samuelsson (2002) view children as curious people who learn things mostly by imitating or through observation, an aspect which is part of their developmental process. Therefore, it is not surprising that children have been imitating actions of superheroes which they demonstrate in their daily life both at home and school environment.
Studies on the superhero phenomenon have revealed mixed views of their influence on children. For example, Martin’s (2007) study that looked at children’s attitude towards superheroes as an indicator of moral understanding, found that superheroes help children learn moral values such as being fair to others as well as helping them. These are important values children need to develop in order to become effective members of a society and can be developed both at home and at school. On the contrary, Bauer and Dettore’s (1997) study which examined adults’ beliefs about superheroes, they found that they contribute to the development of aggressive behaviour among children which at time causes them physical harm. This observation in the literature suggests that superheroes have both negative and positive effects on children, as reviewed in the subsequent sections.