Douglas Rushkoff has an interesting reflection about the hero myth on his his weblog where he is talking about a pannel he was recently on:

Where seemed to connect most was in our shared sense that Aristotle’s narrative arc - the male heroic narrative - no longer adequately describes our experience of this world. It’s something I’ve been thinking and speaking about for a long time, but it was very rewarding for Grant [Morrison] to respond so favorably to this notion. He’s experienced it, himself, in his work as a comic book writer trying to move past current expectations for superhero characters. I confront it, myself, as I try to help people conceive of more emergent narratives for human history - to break our addiction to stories with endings or intrinsic, pre-existing meaning.

Interestingly he doesn’t just leave it there. He asks the question which must go with such musings, which can be thought of as a question about myth and agency or narrative identity, or from a differtent perspective, a questiona about myth and ideology:

The problem is whether, without artificially constructed heroic narratives, we still have the will to rise to the world’s many problems. Will we dare to approach hunger, violence, and confusion without the promise of a happy ending? Or do we still need charismatic leaders with beautiful stories to our motivate us?