Learn from the mistakes of others

from time to time, i thought it might be cool to have superpowers. of course, i'd use them for awesome. that's a given. very occasionally, i'd wonder why the bad guys never won - despite all their apparent advantages. the schoolyard bullies and their cronies were never defeated by 'doing right', or 'being the best me' ...

i lost my faith in superheroes, and their superpowers. they never did come to my rescue, nor did i ever acquire powers beyond the ordinary. for a while i wondered if my power was being ordinary - practically invisible (unlike the invisible kid, who could actually become invisible - so long as no one was watching).

i turned away from the follies of the guys in spandex and steel, and found refuge in science fiction and tolkien. later i rediscovered batman, my original friend-in-a-mask. but by then, it was all cool toys, and bemusement that no one could pick the voice or anything else about him. we'll pass over superman. his friends were seriously blinded by the big s and the underwear-on-the-outside. superheroes live in a world as blind and self-absorbed as our own - only there it's all on the outside (at least for the reader).

superpowers seem to be all you needed in superhero worlds to rise above the ordinary. to become all you could be - hero or villain. in the real world™, you had to be lucky, work hard, or both.

in movies, and in comics, superheroes are fragile - their emotions are their weaknesses. but somehow also their strengths. and they always manage to work things out® ... no matter how dumb-arsed they'd been. oh to have a writer - a good writer mind you - penning my story. where's neil gaiman or warren ellis when you need them?


spiderman 3: everyone cries.