There is a reason why super heroes did not exist in the Soviet culture.
Heroes in the Soviet culture were just average people who went above and beyond their duty when the situation calls for it, not people who possess supernatural abilities that distinguish them from the masses. This is something that the Western mind cannot comprehend.
To be fair, there was admittedly a personality cult towards a few people in a few socialist countries. Stalin as a personality cult was a pragmatic choice by the soviet administration during the tough 30s and 40s to add cohesion and unity to the country.
Absolutely, they can't conceive other forms of heroism apart from being some sort of special individual, a typical liberal sickness.
As an example of something different, a comic I would recommend is The Eternaut (by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Argentinian), it's a classic from the late 50s. There, the hero is conformed by a group/a collective. I don't want to spoil it too much but the enemy is a very interesting allegory for western imperialism. It's available in english at libgen.
You know it's funny but I can't conceive of a comic or really any story where the main character isn't this 'better than everyone else' type. Novels? Drizzt was my favorite recurring character and he is the best swordsman, and if it isn't Drizzt, the main character is still either the best swordsman, best wizard, best thief, a literal king or prince, or the best....at whatever he/she does. Comics? Superhero stuff.
Movies are probably one of the few places where this doesn't apply as I'm a huge horror movie fan and I like them for the monsters, not the protagonists; I like my protagonists to be ordinary people, not folks who are specialized in one thing or another. I could never get excited about simple action movies, so movies like John Wick don't do anything for me.
Sadly I came to the realization that 'best guy' trope is a lazy one, because if they were ordinary like us then the difficulties are real and many times insurmountable, especially for us as individuals; also the best guy doesn't need the system to improve, he's already doing great and once the villain is defeated, he can go back to his cozy life. Imagine if the superhero main character was a guy who belongs to a dirt poor family, for whom fighting crime meant time not working and earning a necessary income, where while he's out fighting crime the cops break into his house (or even visit because maybe his father thought he saw a criminal in the house) and they end up shooting a member of his family and guess what, as the good guy he's not allowed to do something about it and has to trust the system; also he has a member of his family who's addicted to really hard drugs because there's nothing else in their lives and they have to choose between spending their free time fighting crime or trying to help their family member break their addiction. Also perhaps the cops decided to arrest him on false charges and guess what? He can't afford a good lawyer and his public attorney is both swamped with tons of cases and telling him to just take the damn plea deal and he's also a drug addict who's literally on drugs even during the trial (I read of one case where that actually happened), so now....do you use your powers to break free and be on the run forever (and God only knows how you'll eat or where you'll sleep, or how your desperate family is supposed to survive without you), or do you just go to prison because even though the system failed you, you must do as the system demands?
If I wrote a realistic superhero story the main character would just toss his superhero identity aside or would probably just emigrate to China.
There is a reason why super heroes did not exist in the Soviet culture.
Heroes in the Soviet culture were just average people who went above and beyond their duty when the situation calls for it, not people who possess supernatural abilities that distinguish them from the masses. This is something that the Western mind cannot comprehend.
To be fair, there was admittedly a personality cult towards a few people in a few socialist countries. Stalin as a personality cult was a pragmatic choice by the soviet administration during the tough 30s and 40s to add cohesion and unity to the country.
Absolutely, they can't conceive other forms of heroism apart from being some sort of special individual, a typical liberal sickness.
As an example of something different, a comic I would recommend is The Eternaut (by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Argentinian), it's a classic from the late 50s. There, the hero is conformed by a group/a collective. I don't want to spoil it too much but the enemy is a very interesting allegory for western imperialism. It's available in english at libgen.
You know it's funny but I can't conceive of a comic or really any story where the main character isn't this 'better than everyone else' type. Novels? Drizzt was my favorite recurring character and he is the best swordsman, and if it isn't Drizzt, the main character is still either the best swordsman, best wizard, best thief, a literal king or prince, or the best....at whatever he/she does. Comics? Superhero stuff.
Movies are probably one of the few places where this doesn't apply as I'm a huge horror movie fan and I like them for the monsters, not the protagonists; I like my protagonists to be ordinary people, not folks who are specialized in one thing or another. I could never get excited about simple action movies, so movies like John Wick don't do anything for me.
Sadly I came to the realization that 'best guy' trope is a lazy one, because if they were ordinary like us then the difficulties are real and many times insurmountable, especially for us as individuals; also the best guy doesn't need the system to improve, he's already doing great and once the villain is defeated, he can go back to his cozy life. Imagine if the superhero main character was a guy who belongs to a dirt poor family, for whom fighting crime meant time not working and earning a necessary income, where while he's out fighting crime the cops break into his house (or even visit because maybe his father thought he saw a criminal in the house) and they end up shooting a member of his family and guess what, as the good guy he's not allowed to do something about it and has to trust the system; also he has a member of his family who's addicted to really hard drugs because there's nothing else in their lives and they have to choose between spending their free time fighting crime or trying to help their family member break their addiction. Also perhaps the cops decided to arrest him on false charges and guess what? He can't afford a good lawyer and his public attorney is both swamped with tons of cases and telling him to just take the damn plea deal and he's also a drug addict who's literally on drugs even during the trial (I read of one case where that actually happened), so now....do you use your powers to break free and be on the run forever (and God only knows how you'll eat or where you'll sleep, or how your desperate family is supposed to survive without you), or do you just go to prison because even though the system failed you, you must do as the system demands?
If I wrote a realistic superhero story the main character would just toss his superhero identity aside or would probably just emigrate to China.