Super heroes

Sometimes, the world needs a superhero. Sadly, we don’t always get one.

 

I am saddened and appalled by the actions of lone deranged gunman James Holmes, who early today opened fire in a crowded theatre that was showing the new Batman movie. Many will approach this with politics or legislation or civil institutions in mind, rightfully seeking for the ways to head off future tragedies like this inasmuch as we are capable of doing so. I haven’t the time or wisdom to come up with answers to that right now, busy as I am learning how to fake violence… tomorrow we stage a large shootout for our TCW class, and I’m sure this incident will be in the back of at least some of our minds. News has a way of doing that, even though life goes on. I will always remember working on staging a beheading in a film fight the week after American contracter Nick Berg was beheaded on Al-Jazeera… these things should be allowed to affect you.
Instead, at this time, let me look to the inspiring power of superhero, and even nemesis when done ironically. Seattle has been a hub for real-life superheroes for years, as I’ve several times discussed on this blog, Phoenix Jones being the most prominent of them. He continues to be active, seeking new duds even. His romantic partner (girlfriend? wife? I forget) is also a superhero and runs a domestic violence prevention campaign as well, and he has a crew of regular would-be crime-fighters he patrols with.
This last year, he also gained a mysterious arch-nemesis, Rex Velvet.

It appears Rex focuses more on “the People’s” than “Villain”. Seattle is home to a smaller batch of inspired superheroes as well, thanks to the Make-a-Wish foundation.

Not embeddable video as best I can tell, so just CLICK HERE: http://www.uproxx.com/gammasquad/2012/07/rex-velvet-make-a-wish-seattle/

This is not the first diminutive superhero make-a-wish has assisted, either:

Good for them, I say. Superheroes, real or otherwise, can have at best limited effect. Their biggest impact is in how they inspire others, in how they convince us our actions matter.