Neurotic Avengers

(Image source)

It's not hard to detect neuroses in all those "superheroes" in  The Avengers. In this film, we meet with the narcissistic Iron Man, angry Hulk, megalomaniac half-brothers Thor and Loki, and PTSD-stricken Captain America. And of course, there's also Black Widow and Hawkeye. 

In their own comic book or film, the plot is usually about the superhero's own journey to overcome or accept his own neuroses, perhaps more than about fighting evil forces. Whereas in The Avengers, it gets more complicated, when all of them come together not just to fight evil, but more importantly, to face their own issues and those of others. This is perhaps why a child's logic of "why can't heroes just work together and defeat evil once and for all" is hard to materialise. Only adults can understand this.

Let's make some analysis of these superheroes.

Iron Man, with his self-absorbed personality, characterises the self-made modern man who uses his intellectual capabilities to develop high-tech solutions to his problems. However, just like our modern society, Iron Man would later discover that the greatest threat to our existence is no longer Nature, but it is human technology itself. In the climax of this film, Iron Man had to sacrifice his life not to fight against alien invaders, but in order to save human race against the destructive force of its own making - nuclear weapons.

Hulk, I think can also be seen as another archetype of the modern man. Behind a nerdy harmless scientist, we find his repressed anger manifesting itself as an uncontrollable destructive alter ego. We may assume that we are less aggressive than our ancestors, when our aggression has only been channelled to non-physical actions  - e.g violence in video games. The resolution for Hulk was simply to accept that destructive alter ego as part of his whole being - as he remarked, "That's my secret Cap, I'm always angry".

Thor and Loki, really suffer from what is known as the God Complex - believing themselves to be infallible, immortal and almighty. In fact, they really were born as gods. However, they would soon discover that there are bigger forces working beyond their control. Their plans go awry, and even their godly powers could not save them. Eventually, they have to learn that they are not gods after all, at least not in this reality. 

Captain America, for me, may be the least interesting character in The Avengers. He is not only misplaced in time, he is also the only one still troubled by the past. His lesson would be to leave the past and live the present - as he does so eventually, by cooperating with other "real superheroes" who have more skills, powers and intellect than him. The fact that he still fancies himself a Captain not just showcases his leadership charisma, but also his desperate constant need of approval. 

The Avengers is surely entertaining and great fun to watch in the cinema. But I find even more satisfaction in watching it as there are so many superheroes in this film for me to analyse and to understand why we enjoy watching them at all!