In recent years, the superhero genre has become extremely popular in movies with the resserection of Iron Man and Spiderman. What was a geeky realm ten years ago is now trendy and somehow inspiring. The times we live in now and the popularity of superheroes are correlated.
With the potentiality of a new movie emerging that will protray Houdini as a superhero, it’s clear that magicians in a way are superheroes: they escape that which confines them and defy reality. Most importantly, they inspire people to do great things. Magic and superheroes are genres in two industries: magic in performing arts and superheroes in movies. The two genres connect to us as an audience in the same way. In each of us, there is this great longing to eascape the everyday, particularly with present world events and economies. These are times where we are required to be strong and we find this inspiration with the superhero, the person who can conquer anything. We also find this in magic, where we forget everything we thought was absolute and escape into a realm where anything is possible.
Comics that featured the superheoes of today were first printed in the depression, a time where (like today) people were in great need to escape their everyday. Could it be that magic in the next few years will experience a great period of growth to meet the new needs of people today?
