And heroes in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid – the epic poems of the Trojan War and its aftermath – often have an intimate connection to the gods that shapes their heroic stories. Achilles is the son of Thetis (a sea-nymph for whom Zeus has an especially soft spot). Aeneas is the son of Venus, and though Odysseus boasts mortal parentage, he is the favourite of Athena (and bête-noire of Poseidon). Odysseus is described by Homer as ‘Polumetis’, which means ‘of many wiles’. But still, some of his best schemes are provided by one god or another: without the help of Hermes, for instance, he would not have the stratagem in place to defeat the witch Circe.

This connection to a higher power which can influence the world around them (whether it is Zeus or SHIELD) is a crucial aspect of many heroes. And perhaps it is this particular characteristic that grants the superhero one of their more troubling tendencies: the excessive individualism which allows them to operate outside the rules of society and beyond or above the rule of law. It’s a common trope of modern superhero films: who is Batman to decide what kind of justice Gotham deserves? He’s a masked vigilante who sets himself above his fellow citizens and acts as judge, jury and sometimes executioner on the villains who populate the city.

The existential X-Men

This question too is not a modern one. In Book II of The Iliad, a man named Thersites makes a brief cameo appearance. He is not described, as so many characters are, with reference to his father: whoever that is, he’s not important enough for a name-check. Thersites is also vulgar and misshapen: we are surely supposed to conclude that he is far from heroic material. More so when he begins to speak, and issues a trenchant critique of the character of Agamemnon, the king who oversees all the Greeks: Theristes accuses him of being greedy and cowardly – sentiments which echo those Achilles has made of Agamemnon earlier in the poem.

Thersites is then beaten by Odysseus and he weeps at the pain and humiliation. But the question is now surely lodged in the audience’s mind: why should Agamemnon be treated as a great king, worthy of all the treasure he has claimed for himself. What sets him above us, apart from his monstrous self-regard? Especially when all are agreed that Achilles is the greater warrior, a braver man.

And what happens when a hero turns completely away from the path which most of us would consider good? Magneto, for example, starts out fighting alongside Charles Xavier, before their choices place them on opposing sides. His story echoes that of Ajax, who fights alongside the other Greek heroes during the Trojan War. But after he is tricked out of what he sees to be his rightful reward (which is instead given to Odysseus), he turns on his erstwhile comrades. Only an enchantment from Athena (protecting Odysseus as always) clouds his mind, and convinces him that he is slaughtering Greek warriors when he is actually killing livestock. The humiliation is so terrible that he takes his own life when he realises what he has done.