
It’s Keeping It Short Week, 250 words or bust:
The question is fraught with peril for any comics nerd: Who’s your favourite superhero?
I’ve clearly got too much time on my hands because I think about this a lot. One of the first comics I ever remember reading was Amazing Spider-Man #200 and for years Spider-Man, web-swinging worrywart, was my choice. He was a geeky teenager and then a harried student! I identified!
For a brief while I succumbed to the bristly charms of mutant Wolverine, before overexposure and dire 1990s comics ended that affair. Then for a long time, I’d go with Batman, because pound for pound I think he’s probably had the most great stories written about him of any superhero.
There’s others I adore, of course, like the endless duelling personalities of the Hulk, angst-ridden Daredevil, lumpy everyman The Thing.
Yet, these days, when I think of the superhero I dig the most, it’s always the most basic – Superman, the Man of Steel. He may be uncool compared to edgy Punishers and Spawns but honestly, the older I get, the more I like his fundamental decency.
I love lots of superheroes, but when it comes down to it, the one I’d really like to see in our troubled old world, the role model – well, Superman was the first for a reason. He’s also still kind of the best. I’m old now, and superheroes don’t just have to be cool to me. They have to actually be kind of super, too.
In the immortal words of the Crash test Dummies –
Folks said his family were all dead
The planet crumbled, but Superman, he forced himself to carry on
Forget Krypton and keep going
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve gone through a very similar superhero “midlife crisis”. Spidey will always be my #1 with Nightcrawler close behind, but I’ve come to appreciate and admire Supes more and more, particularly over the last few years. He’s a superhero we don’t deserve but absolutely need.
LikeLike