The Hope of Superheroes

When I was younger, my grandmother was in an accident and was in a coma for a month. When she woke up she lost a lot of everyday functions such as movement of her tongue, sense of touch, etc. My dad's family, except for my dad, is very superstitious. They believe in things like astrology, horoscopes and the main Hindu gods. Naturally, when my grandma woke up without these functions my grandfather resorted to these things. He prayed every day, had his and his wife's horoscopes read by many different astrologists and even went on a pilgrimage to a famous temple in India. Unfortunately, after almost a year of doing these things, my grandmother's condition had not improved in the slightest. So my grandfather gave up hope and stopped believing in everything.

I've found that I've done something similar with my condition. Whenever I try a new medication or therapy I don't expect it to work at all. Oftentimes I feel as if there is no hope for me because it's been a year now and no medication has worked yet. However, then I think of the superheroes that I love and I think about their hope. If you think about it, superheroes are some of the most hopeful beings.

It seems like no matter what a superhero does, the world somehow gets messed up again. A new villain appears, an old villain comes back to get even or just the normal people have lost faith in them. However, superheroes never give up. No matter how many villains they fight, they don't stop. Mr. Incredible said it himself, "No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!"

Mr. Incredible

Yet, they don't just stop saving the world. I mean Mr. Incredible kept saving lives even though being a hero was illegal. But it really makes me think What do they see in this world? In us? So much so that they continue saving it? I like to believe that they keep saving us because they hope that we'll use that life that they saved to do something good. Even when we don't have hope in the world, other people or maybe even our own lives, superheroes do :)

We Are All Bobby Drake (Iceman) from X-Men (Mild Movie Spoilers)

When I was 12, more than anything in the world I wanted to be accepted to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (or Hogwarts... but that never happened either). Unfortunately, my acceptance letter got lost in the mail and so I never attended. But just because mutants, Professor X or fancy training schools don't exist doesn't mean that we can't relate to the characters from X-men. In the second X-men movie, we learn that Bobby Drake (Iceman) hasn't told his parents that he's a mutant. When Bobby does tell them, his mother says, "Have you tried... not to be a mutant?" Bobby's mother doesn't understand that not only are Bobby's powers part of his nature, but they make him gifted.

Most mutants have trouble accepting themselves for being different. For example, when Rogue first discovers that she is gifted, she runs away from home. However, Bobby's situation is different in that society is not accepting him even though he accepts himself. In way, don't we all have that one thing where we're completely okay with it but our parents, friends or just people in general aren't? It doesn't have to be a big thing, but most of us have something like that. If you do then learn from Bobby Drake and own it. Make it your "gift" and use it to benefit not only yourself but the people around you too. So maybe you won't become the next member of the X-men or get accepted to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but you'll make the world a better place. In the end, isn't that what super heroes do?

Spider-Man Always Gets the Short End of the Stick

Lately I've been reading a lot of Spider-Man comics and I've noticed that he oftentimes gets the short end of the stick. For example, in The Web of Spider-Man (great series, I really recommend it) issue #13, Spider-Man is accused of trying to hit a pedestrian while he was actually saving him from getting hit by the truck. However, no one believes that he was saving that stranger because Spider-Man was wearing his black costume (picture below for reference)

I do not own this material. The original picture can be found here.

Obviously no hero wears a costume that color. I mean Venom wears a costume pretty similar to that. Why does Spider-Man have to wear his black costume? Because his red one was destroyed in a fire. So now Spider-Man has turned from a superhero into murderer all because of his costume color. So then Spider-Man goes bonkers because who wouldn't in that situation? He spends countless hours risking his life for these people, not asking for any credit, yet the people are judging him on the color of his costume. If you want to know how the comic ends then you'll just have to read it. Moving on, something similar happens in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2, issue #47 where one of his enemies tells a reporter that she used to be Spider-Man's "lover" and that he was "kinky." While this is obviously untrue, the media blows this story out of control and suddenly Spider-Man has completely lost the faith of the public. There's one scene where Spider-Man hitches a ride on/in a cab and leaves without paying because he is about to die and while the driver screams that Spider-Man didn't pay the fare, a pedestrian replies:
"Fits though, y'know? I was watching TV and they were saying he's kinda weird..."
Yes, Spider-Man is weird enough to save your life countless times. In my opinion, in many different Spider-Man stories the public has no faith in him and when they so then it is very fragile. So next time you see your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, give him some love :)

Best Superhero Moments: All-star Superman #10

I recently posted my story on r/comicbooks where the response was overwhelming and extremely supportive. In response, u/1204Sparta commented with this scene from All-Star Superman #10:

I won't spoil any of the plot for you guys because it really is a great series, but this scene especially spoke to me as well as u/1204Sparta. Even if you can't connect to the way Regan is feeling, you have to admit that Superman is especially awesome in this scene. Whenever we think of Superman we immediately think of all of his superpowers. I mean he can fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes! But this scene just proves that his powers are not what make him a hero. As I'm sure anyone who's felt like Regan can relate, Superman couldn't have saved Regan with any of his powers. Yet Superman doesn't give up on her or the situation, he finds a way to solve the problem without using any of his powers. I think that this scene not only defines Superman, but defines superheroes in general. In the DC universe, powers are easy to obtain: one is simply born with them. However, it's how those people act when their powers are useless that determines whether they are a hero or not. Being super is easy, but being a hero isn't.

Why I love Superman Returns (Spoiler Alert)

Superman Returns is my favorite superhero movie hands down. But the pyrotechnics aren't as good as Man of Steel! But Superman doesn't end up with Lois! But none of that matters. In my opinion, Superman Returns is a thousand times better than Man of Steel, but we can save that argument for another post. Here's why I love Superman Returns: Superman would have died without the help of humans. That's right, Superman the Man of Steel, the Metropolis Marvel, the Last Son of Krypton would have died (like bye bye Superman died) without the help of people who had no powers whatsoever. Let's recap. So Superman has been gone for five years in search of his home planet Krypton but has know returned to Earth and is being all super again, saving lives and kicking bad-guy butt. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor made a dying widow sign her fortune to him and is now using that money to build his own technologically advanced super-continent where America is. Luthor plans on doing that by using Kryptonian crystals that he found in a hide-out that Jor-El, Superman's father, made for Superman. I know what you're thinking: Superman will never let Luthor get away with this! That's correct, however, Luthor has already thought of that and melded the crystal with Kryptonite so that Superman is weak on this new land. Fast forward a little and we have Superman on one of Luthor's crystal islands (which are quickly encroaching on Metropolis) unable to fight off Luthor because of the Kryptonite. Fast forward just a little bit more and Lex Luthor stabs Superman in the back with Kryptonite and lets him fall into the deep abyss of an ocean below. Meanwhile, Lois, her husband and her son are flying back to Metropolis after being saved from Lex Luthor's sinking yacht by none other than The Man of Tomorrow, Superman. "But wait!" cries Lois, who knows about the Kryptonite, to her pilot husband while they're leaving, "He's going to die if we don't help him!" (I'm paraphrasing) And so Lois makes her husband turn the plane around and once her son spots Superman in the water, she fearlessly jumps into the deep ocean and pulls him out. Okay all that and she still doesn't end up with him? That's another reason why this movie is so great: she doesn't have to end up with him for the audience to know that she loves him. In that scene, Lois dives into the ocean without even thinking to save Superman. After she jumps in, her husband screams "Lois!" and gets out of the plan (he's standing on one of the water skis of the plane) but doesn't jump in after her. Lois jumped in for Superman, but her husband couldn't do the same for her? Yeah Richard, screaming her name is really going to save her from drowning. (Richard is the name of Lois's husband). Okay but let's get back to the whole humans saving the superhero thing. So Lois gets Superman out of the water, brings him onto the plane and pulls the shard of Kryptonite out of him. Without Lois doing that, Superman would have drowned, Luthor would have won and the world would be one big I Love Lex Luthor fest. So can a single human save the world? Of course not! That's preposterous! There's a reason why they're called superhero movies and not average joe movies! So maybe saying that Lois single-handedly saved the world is a bit much, but Lois does end up having a great effect on the outcome even though the Man of Steel is present.

Good vs. Evil

The classic superhero story is a good guy (the hero) versus the bad guy (the villain). In these stories it's normally obvious which one is which, but in life it really isn't that simple. Haven't you ever misjudged a person? Thought they were bad when they were really good or vice versa? Humans aren't perfect and everyone knows that, but then why are we the ones who get to determine the good from the evil? In Justice League season 1 episodes 3 & 4 "In the Blackest Night" this question is raised while the Green Lantern is on trial for blowing up an entire planet and destroying millions of lives. During the trial, Green Lantern is asked how he determines who's a villain and who isn't. Green Lantern says that it's just a feeling he gets. Us mere mortals would call that feeling our "gut instinct." However, we later learn that the Green Lantern was chosen by the Guardians because he was worthy enough to be trusted with the power of deciding who's good and who isn't. (If you're really confused right now then watch the episodes. They're on Netflix and are extremely well done). Yet, in reality the Guardians and the Green Lantern don't exist so how do we know who's worthy of making these crucial decisions? The short answer is we don't. We trust judges to put the bad guys in jail or congress to do the right thing for our country, but they are only humans not superheroes and humans make mistakes. I'm not saying that every judge or congressman should be fired, but what I am saying is that we are all tasked with the duty of determining good vs. evil. Whether our judgments send someone to jail or simply determine whether or not we buy a shirt, they still affect things. Keeping this in mind, I think that we could all, myself included, be a little less hasty to judge other people. Maybe we don't have the Justice League to catch the bad guys, but we aren't incapable of doing that ourselves.