No More Heroes?

[Dimocritus]

I suppose it's easy to say, these days, that there are no more heroes. What, with Superman turning out to be a nazi, and Iron Man's overt self-interests. Hell, even the good ones weren't ever really the heroes we needed them to be. Batman, he was on the right track, but he lacked the balls to finish the job. And Spider-Man, well, that poor guy eventually collapsed under the pressure of such great responsibility. It was bound to happen when all other great power piled their responsibilities onto his spindley shoulders. Crushed like a bug. The Irony...

We, in many ways, did this ourselves. We are the ones that put that extra weight on Spidey's back. We're the ones that told Batman not to kill. We are the ones that told Mr. stark that we'd rather have a flatscreen TV and a giant trampoline in the back yard, than all this "holier than thou" superhero nonsense.

However, this day I come, bearing a lantern, and I'm mad as hell. We have killed them, our heroes. Be it by being uninformed or apathetic, we stand convicted of the crime of murder, and by "doing nothing" we may as well have injected the poison ourselves. And so it seems we're doomed to an eternity of Arkham mad-men with their laughing gas balloons and fear inducing chemical compounds. But I say, it need not be this way. We can be reformed. Must we not become heroes ourselves just to seem worthy of the charge?

But, what does it mean to be a hero? Well, I can tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean you have a robotic suit of armor, or super strength, or weirdo bug powers. The real powers start long before all that stuff. Power means being informed. It means sharing that information, and exchanging it. It means adaptability under harsh circumstances, and innovation and imagination, to see creative new solutions to archaic problems that seem to refuse to die. All these above attributes, well, I've described something that every human alive can accomplish, given the motivation.

There may be no more heroes now, but that's only because the new pantheon of protectors are in their infancy, eagerly awaiting personal perfection, in order for them to champion the people, their friends, family, country men and the world. This new breed of hero will be unlike anything this world has seen before. And it's up to us, not to abandon all hope or step up and get silenced faster than a phone-call from a creepy stalker, but to clear the road for these Overmen. Destroy the roadblocks. Re-route the enemy. Confuse and delay them. Buy some time. Perfect ourselves. There are no heroes, but I see the early stages. I see people with knowledge and imagination, with the power to motivate people. I see these people everywhere, budding into super flowers of progress. I see them here, every day.

One madman came too soon. Let's not wait to hear hear the words of the madman that comes too late.

[Disco Pickle]

will read again

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Superb!