Iconic T-Shirts in Dr. Horrible

While watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for what must be the 368th time, I noticed something I'd never noticed before- the frequent use of t-shirts with pictures or symbols on them. Captain Hammer sports a t-shirt with his iconic hammer symbol on the front. Captain Hammer's fans wear various kinds of t-shirts with his face branded on them. Dr. Horrible's white coat sports a sinister looking Hippocratic symbol on the left pocket. Penny, as a common, non-hero/villain character, frequently wears shirts that appear to be either symbol shirts or band shirts. This got me thinking about all the other "heroic" symbols that end up as pop culture advertisements on the chest of every nerd in America. I am reminded of the infamous Green Lantern t-shirt, a leprechaun green colored symbol on the same colored shirt, that at least a quarter of my high school class owned. My annoyance at the abundance of these particular shirts is dampened by the realization that I'm guilty of it myself. My batman t-shirts that I shamefully collect from Goodwill are no different from the Green Lantern ones. This leads me to ask why. Why do we idolize not only characters, but characters who are superheroes, who could not possibly even exist? I'm not a psychology major, so I have no answer to this, but I do find it interesting that most of us find ourselves at one point or another living, walking advertisements for people who do not exist.

(By the way, Team Hammer and Team Horrible t-shirts are available at the Dr. Horrible site.