Are superheroes real?
Well, the real question is can superheroes exist in our current times? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself ever since I began writing The Night Howler. It’s also something I’ve been discussing with other people on their podcasts (more on that in the future). But I think it’s an interesting question that deserves some thought. With the undeniable success of comic book movies and the rise of comic book stories onto our television screens, the question presents itself: is this something that can actually happen?
Let’s consider a few things first. When debating this topic, there are three different kinds of heroes to consider. Let’s call them Alter-Ego, Celebrity, and Supernatural. There may actually be more out there but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to consider these three as the most/least likely.
ALTER-EGO: To put it simply, these are the heroes with secret identities. Batman/Bruce Wayne, Spiderman/Peter Parker, Hulk/Bruce Banner. The list goes on. These heroes real identities are kept secret, usually to protect themselves and the ones they love. On the surface, it sounds like concealing your identity to take justice into your own hands would be a noble and celebrated cause. But look at it through the lens of the modern age and you can quickly see how it could all go south. A masked vigilante jumps from rooftop to rooftop. He beats people up in an alleyway. He causes collateral damage. Gets in the way of the local authorities. Sounds like someone with some real mental problems, right? There would be less calls for this person to clean up crime and more calls for him to see a shrink. We believe it would work because we typically see these stories from the hero’s point of view. But as we all know, everyone is the hero of their own story.
CELEBRITY: Imagine if Elon Musk decided to build a suit of armor and fly around the country stopping bad guys. (Or perhaps Jeff Bezos doing the exact opposite.) Elon would have a much better time doing that than say, almost anyone else. Why? Because we know Elon. We know his pension for extraordinary things. He builds cars, rocket ships, digs tunnels, sends cars with fake astronauts into space. It’s not too farfetched to imagine him flying around in a metal suit, a la Tony Stark’s Iron Man. The key to getting people on your side is for them to know who you are. Be a face people already recognize. Unlike having an alter-ego, you run the risk of putting the people around you in danger but the path to worldwide acceptance is already laid out in front of you. And without that, the whole crime fighting thing doesn’t really seem all that worth it, right?
SUPERNATURAL: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…no, that would never work. Of all the different types of superheroes out there, the supernatural or otherworldly seems like it would be the most polarizing. You’d have two schools of thought here. If a Superman-type showed up from another planet, people would either revere him as some kind of deity or people would think he was an alien sent down to destroy us all. There would be debates not just between media pundits but within religious communities and high-level government agencies. It’s hard to say. Someone not from this world would either have a really easy go of it, or one that would be met with a lot of contention.
So the question you may be asking yourself now is, why does this all matter? Who cares if superheroes can or can’t exist in our current age? But I think it’s an important question to ask ourselves. More now than ever before, so many of us are looking for someone to blame for our problems. Problems are easier to deal with when you have a clear-cut enemy. And it’s so easy to vilify someone just for doing a few bad things. But what about the other way? How quickly would we accept someone for trying to do the right thing, but doing so imperfectly? Like a caped crusader who takes justice into his own hands but doesn’t follow the rules, or a tech genius who tries to make the world a better place but doesn’t always say the right thing. Is it really that fair to expect perfection?
I think we need to soften our stances a bit as a society. Because someone might be trying to do the right thing, but they may not be doing it right all the time. We need more forgiveness and compassion. Understanding. A path to redemption. It’s impossible to understand everyones intentions. But we should try harder to give more people the benefit of the doubt. You never know, they may be trying to save us all.