Confession No. 16: I am Iron Man (or, at least, I want to be)

I love a good superhero movie. I’m not ashamed to admit I will sit and devour one. One of my closest, happiest friendships is built on our love for them, and analysing them to the nth degree is a favourite pastime of mine.

There’s a lot of reasons for it. There is a degree of simple enjoyment, and my glee at analysing them is linked largely to my inability to just take a story at face value (a trait further linked to my love for reading and academia). I adore how I can be swept away in one and I particularly enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise for their diversity in characters (I acknowledge their faults and I acknowledge that there could be significantly more diversity there but there’s no denying that no hero feels like a carbon copy of another).

At the base though, I like how they make me feel powerful.

There’s something about watching these characters who, particularly in the Marvel Universe, are so vulnerable and frightened and still willing to stand up and fight for what’s right.

Iron Man is a civilian; Tony Stark has made mistakes all his life and chooses still to save people. He isn’t complacent. He realises his errors and he seeks to fix them. There is something so inspiring about watching such a redemption arc.

I watch a superhero movie and I feel like I could take on the world.

I want to share a little snippet of my New Year’s Resolutions from my notebook (fittingly, a Marvel-branded one):

• Be like Tony Stark. Work hard, push yourself until you break, put yourself back together and try again.
• Be like Steve Rogers. Be kind. Stand up for what you believe in.
• Be like Natasha Romanoff. Be fierce. Be bold. Be confident. Take no prisoners.
• Be like Clint Barton. Be fearless.
• Be like Thor. Be goofy, be fun, but protect your family (blood or not) at all costs

It’s cheesy and it’s corny, but it’s true.

I’ve relied on fictional characters for much of my life, and these people (because that’s what they are, at their core. People) are ones that make me want to better myself. So much so that some of my resolutions are modelled after them.

We all have people we look up to. 

Confession Time: In the absence of anyone I admire enough for that, I look to fictional characters with qualities I want to adopt.

Some people think it’s odd. Some people think it’s hilarious, or it’s a phase I’ll grow out of. Maybe, but does it harm me at the moment? These are all qualities any parent would want a child to have; I just happen to link it to characters I’ve watched over the past ten years.

A lonely child shouldn’t be laughed at for finding alternatives when there weren’t any relationships readily available.

I want to go through life and be secure in the knowledge that everything I do is something that the Avengers would approve of. If you can make a team of world-saving, fictional superheroes proud, you’re probably doing something right.

Always,

Your teenaged disaster