Fantasy life: Writing for NYU's Washington Square News, columnist Eric Kohn uses Danny Fingeroth's Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society to examine why Hollywood -- and the film-going public -- is so drawn to comic-book heroes:

"In general, cultural phenomena seem to respond to societal needs. If Fingeroth is right about the durability of the superhero resulting from an intriguing fantasy - and the logistics of his argument suggest that he is - then the desire for said fantasy has reached a high point. It is in this troublesome day and age, when war and collective corruption have returned to the forefront of Western consciousness, that people desire something promising that they can look up to, regardless of its manifestation in reality.

"Consider, as an analogy, the arrival of Jesus. Whether or not you accept that this rabbinic scholar was indeed the Messianic figure he claimed to be, it is an indisputable fact that his teachings and promises provided a sense of redemption for some of those who suffered under the oppressive Roman rule. During times of turmoil, a sense of hope abounded.

"In the same vein, Superman battled Nazis during World War II. How difficult, then, to imagine the Green Goblin (Spider-Man's main foe in his feature film debut) as a metaphorical stand-in for al-Qaeda?"