We Don't Need Another Hero

[Rozlee]

I admit it. Growing up I was always a fan girl. And there was a certain comfort in the constancy of the comic book world. Archie would always be the boy meat in the middle of the Betty/Veronica sandwich. Superman would always be there to save the world. Captain America came back from the mists of the second World War to fight new battles in these modern days. The Fantastic Four have always been, well, a fantastic foursome.

Sure, they killed off Superman back in 1992. I faithfully trouped over to the local Atomic Comix and bought my equally fan boy/girl kids a half dozen of tear-jerking issue, secure in the knowledge that it was just a clever ploy; they'd never kill off their biggest money-maker. Of course, I was right. Captain America was offed in 07, but, naturally, it was a Stan Lee ploy; his alter ego, Steve Rogers came back. Then, they told us breathlessly that Archie was really, REALLY, going to grow up and marry one of the girls. He did. Well, he married both of them in a kinda, sorta psychic vision of the future. (Aside: is it just me or does Jughead seem sort of gay? I mean, he hates girls, wears that silly crown and never dates. Naw. If he was gay, he'd love hanging with the girls and he'd be too cool to wear a crown. Besides, his clothes? Forget I mentioned it.) Currently, the word in the comic book world is that Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix might be making a permanent re-re-return.

Now, Marvel Comics is saying that they're going to really, honestly, cross-their-hearts-and-hope-to-die kill off one of the Fantastic Four. No seriously. As in kill off. Never coming back. Hasta la vista, baby.

I vote for Mr. Fantastic. I always considered him a nose-in-the-air, know-it-all. Sue Richards can do better than that. I vote for her rebounding and having a fling or a relationship with Spidey or even her old flame Namor; y'know, the guy from Atlantis that defies all laws of aerodynamics by flying courtesy of those tiny wings on his ankles. But, I've been burned before; no one in Marveldom, DC Comics or Archie Comics ever stays dead or married. Actually, scratch what I said in the first sentence of this rant. I no longer find a comforting constancy in the characters' smooth, unchanging lives. Doesn't anyone stay dead or grow up in the comic book world? It's getting to be like a zombie novel or movie where no one ever gets eaten.

So, you might say, this is a political discussion website. How does an adolescent rant about super-heroes/comically angsting teens fit into it?

It doesn't. Unless, you stop to consider that in politics, like in the gimicky attempts to sell comics by faking the deaths of major characters, we see a correlation in the way today's Rethugs are constantly making up one crisis after another to keep Americans on the edge of their seats. They're killing off one New Deal Program after another, only this time, there's not much of a chance that any of them are ever coming back. Glass-Steagall. Please, was anyone really fooled by that Wall Street Reform Act that was passed? The safety nets and programs that are currently being dismantled or cut back because the revenues in the form of taxes has been dried up to give gargantuan tax breaks to the wealthy. Safety nets like Medicaid that's facing cut backs in many states; police and schools; roads and our infrastructure.

It's good to get lost in a fantasy world when this world is so fucked up. But, in real life, we don't need another hero. Heroes die and leave the world hurt and hurting in between their deaths and reanimations. We just need ordinary people that are willing to see what our country is turning into and doing something about it. So, far, they've just become desensitized to the pain, watching their world crumble around them, waiting for a hero to fly from the sky and fix everything for them. Maybe Sarah Palin will make it better. Maybe Barack Obama will. Got news for you people. It doesn't take a hero. It takes a country. George Bush fucked up this country good and well two and a half years ago. The American public seems to have forgotten that. They seem to expect a hero to fly in and make it better; they think that by not caring a damn in being informed that unemployment insurance, schools, Medicaid, and 911 services are being bartered for tax cuts for the rich, that it's no problem. A hero will appear and save them and where the hell is he? It's been two and a half years, dammit! Let's throw these bums out! Maybe he'll appear once we make a sacrifice.

We don't need another hero. We need a country that gives a shit that it's being bent over and screwed.

[elocs]

1. So, "George Bush fucked up this country good and well". One man can be a villain and do this,

but we don't need another hero? Another hero? I'd settle for one with the same ability to be the villain that Bush was step up to the plate and do what is right without having us make him do it.

[Rozlee]

2. You've got a point.

We stand by and let our villains and their minions destroy the world and passively do nothing. In that respect, many of us share complicity in their crimes. The over 80% that thought Bush was right in invading Iraq was proof of this.