Hero No More

“HERO NO MORE?” by Fred Johnson

I’m going back to my roots, comic books.
Ok, laugh all you want but I enjoyed comic books and found myself lost in the adventures every week. Notice the word “enjoyed”, with all the hype surrounding the new Spider-man movie, I found myself wondering what happened to my relaxing and refreshing escape from reality found in comic books. Well the answer is that I grew up. What a weak excuse if you think about it because my smile and eyes were just as large as any of the small children who sat in the theater this weekend, age didn’t seem to matter. You can’t imagine the rush I felt hours after the movie. I used to get this kind of rush all the time by reading comic books, again I wonder what happened?

While walking to the pool, where I go almost every night for swim practice, I remember seeing this older gentleman who lives on the street wearing the same dirty clothes and drinking out of a bottle hidden in a paper bag. He smiles at me with his yellow teeth showing through his nappy beard as if to say “Hi”, yet I never said anything in reply. Well usually I am very friendly and talk to everyone. For some reason I only seemed to notice him when I walk past, and as soon as I’m gone he is “out of sight – out of mind”. That’s when a crazy thought floated into my mind: What if superheroes really did exist? Do we even need them anymore? Maybe that old guy is Superman.

Ok now your thinking I’m crazy, but think about it for a minute…Hear me out. Why would we need Superman in this modern world? Who needs to be “Faster than a Speeding Bullet” when we have bullet trains, and can easily catch a flight from point “A” to point “B” for a reasonable price? Today who needs to “Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound” when strength and athletic achievements can be gained by chemically enhancing our bodies instead of hard work and training? Who needs to be “Stronger than a Locomotive”, most kids probably don’t even know what a locomotive is. Why do we need to be that strong, when we have machines and inventions to give the weakest man super-strength? Lastly (especially before 9-11-01) “Fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way” is unrealistic. Most of us are to self-centered and selfish to understand what Superman really stood for; we found it boring and too “Goody-Goody”. Nobody could be that good, and not have some kind of dark side.

If you think about all those points mentioned above, it’s very easy to see why Superman would be unshaven, dirty, drinking from a paper bag, and homeless – most of us act like we don’t need him anymore. When Superman first appeared our country was not exactly perfect, depression and world wars these were being battled everyday. The people of that time worked harder for luxuries that we find small, trivial, and expected. Few had machines to help with the tiring tasks that they faced every day. Only the well off could enjoy the then expensive commercial air travel. Most important was that the people back then knew evil; they saw things like segregation, war, and the holocaust – the principals of America on its own were strong and uplifting.

Today the country that created the Superman is the same that has cast him off as a “not cool” and unnecessary. As I think back to that old gentleman, I never made it over to speak with him that night, nor have I seen him there since then. But, he did make me think; maybe he was a hero of some war long forgotten by society, once praised as a hero of America, but lost in a society in which those old ideals no longer exist.

We miss you Superman!

(originally written on May 6, 2002)