Humanity's Greatest Idea

“We've always known we'd eventually be called upon to open our shirts and save the day, and the superhero was a crude, hopeful attempt to talk about how we all might feel on that day of great power, and great responsibility.” 
― Grant Morrison, Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

There's a reason I love Superman.

First off, let's acknowledge that Batman is cooler. He's rich. He has an awesome car. His house has a basement with a robot dinosaur and a crime lab. Batman is the straight adolescent  boys idea of the perfect life. Rich, powerful and gorgeous women come after you so you don't have to go after them.

These days, Batman is inarguably the more popular of the two. Which is a darn shame. Because as much as I love Batman, I think Superman, may just be the most important fictional character ever created.

While Batman is an adolescent's idea of what a great life is, Superman is a whole different thing.

Superman is a child's idea of what being good is.

He's selfless. He's friendly. He's the most powerful thing walking the planet, but he'll stop and help you get your cat out of your tree.

He has power, but uses it to help those without it. He was brought up to believe that the innate privilege brought by the conditions of his birth (yellow sun radiation giving him limitless powers and abilities) don't inherently make him more valuable than anybody else on the planet.

It's a complex world and that complex world requires complex responses. It's because of that complexity that I hold to the purity of the simple ideas that have never been proven untrue by life's difficult experiences.

Other people are as important as you are.

Being kind is it's own reward.

Unearned privilege can be used on behalf of others.

Hope is one of the most powerful forces in the world.

I know where I learned those things.