Necratoid -
Yes - those born into the superhero world would learn to deal with it. Likewise the society would adapt. However I was speaking to the consumer of the comic/anime/game, rather than the protagonists. The reason people connect to Spiderman as a character is not because he has powers beyond the scope of men - it is because he has problems that they can readily identify. Sick relatives, rent payments and some identity issues, etc. His world is like our own and thus his problems resonate with us. Take the logical progression of super-science - and suddenly Spiderman exists in a world with flying cars, unlimited energy, a huge increase in food production, no sickness or disease, etc. Suddenly he loses the anchor with the reader. His problems become removed from theirs; breaking a vital connection.
In regards to the idea of grand scale wars and mutually assured destruction spawning the superhero. All times spawn heroes of culture, myth, legend and even religion. Are Achilles/Siegfried and their invulnerability any different than Superman bouncing bullets off his rump? Superman owes a lot in his genesis to Achilles - they both share a heel as it were. The rise of the anti-hero in film in the seventies can be observed as a similar phenomenon - with the press of urban blight and the specter of increased danger coupled with the perception that Justice was not only blind, but giving out hand-jobs behind the dumpster out back of the courthouse. Who walks in? Dirty Harry! and Charles 'Death Wish' Bronson; kicking butts, taking names and blowing schnauzer sized holes in the no-goodniks. A hero rises to the threat of the time.
As to the pre-speech Sailor Moon stuff it is the same thing as power levels in Dragon Ball or Ranma. It is merely part of the tapestry - it is a universe/culture in which all combats are pre-faced by extensive posturing and dialogs.
Yes - those born into the superhero world would learn to deal with it. Likewise the society would adapt. However I was speaking to the consumer of the comic/anime/game, rather than the protagonists. The reason people connect to Spiderman as a character is not because he has powers beyond the scope of men - it is because he has problems that they can readily identify. Sick relatives, rent payments and some identity issues, etc. His world is like our own and thus his problems resonate with us. Take the logical progression of super-science - and suddenly Spiderman exists in a world with flying cars, unlimited energy, a huge increase in food production, no sickness or disease, etc. Suddenly he loses the anchor with the reader. His problems become removed from theirs; breaking a vital connection.
In regards to the idea of grand scale wars and mutually assured destruction spawning the superhero. All times spawn heroes of culture, myth, legend and even religion. Are Achilles/Siegfried and their invulnerability any different than Superman bouncing bullets off his rump? Superman owes a lot in his genesis to Achilles - they both share a heel as it were. The rise of the anti-hero in film in the seventies can be observed as a similar phenomenon - with the press of urban blight and the specter of increased danger coupled with the perception that Justice was not only blind, but giving out hand-jobs behind the dumpster out back of the courthouse. Who walks in? Dirty Harry! and Charles 'Death Wish' Bronson; kicking butts, taking names and blowing schnauzer sized holes in the no-goodniks. A hero rises to the threat of the time.
As to the pre-speech Sailor Moon stuff it is the same thing as power levels in Dragon Ball or Ranma. It is merely part of the tapestry - it is a universe/culture in which all combats are pre-faced by extensive posturing and dialogs.