Superheroes – we all love superheroes, don’t we? Having extraordinary abilities which other humans don’t, and using them to fight the bad guys and to save the day – isn’t that the most satisfying form of escapism? As kids we used to idolize these superheroes and used to be hyped about getting home the next new comic book from the stores, or watching the next episode on TV to see what new challenge our favorite superhero is going to face and how he/she is going to defeat the evil villain’s ploy.

Everyone has or would have had a favorite superhero. I remember my first favorite childhood superhero – the wall-crawling, web-slinging Spiderman! Mostly because ‘Spiderman-the Animated Series’ of the late 1990s was first TV series that I ever watched in this genre and I was in total awe with it. This shy, nerdy guy who accidentally gets bitten by a radioactive spider and develops abilities like clinging to surfaces, detecting danger with spider-sense and shooting web from wrists.

Later on when I started watching the X-men series, I came across these terms called ‘mutants’ and ‘mutation’ – one little genetic change that can possibly give you super-human abilities – like controlling metal, or controlling people’s minds, or shooting lasers with your eyes! Isn’t that the most awesome thing? I was especially fascinated by what I think is most people’s favorite mutant – the Wolverine. This guy has retractable claws and skeleton made of an indestructible metal, plus a body with a regenerative healing ability – man, this guy is as invincible and badass as he can be!

A few years later I came across the first two movies of the MCU’s Iron Man, played by the charismatic Robert Downey Jr. Here is Tony Stark, who doesn’t have any superpowers of his own, but is a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist who actually builds his own armored-suit that lets him fly supersonic and shoot missiles! Let me remind you, this was at a time when I had just started my engineering degree and was trying to wrap my head around different fields of engineering – like electrical, chemical, mechanical, computer programming, and last but definitely the worst – physics and math. While I was breaking my head to understand these concepts just enough to keep me afloat in the semester exams I come across this character – this guy is a master engineer who aces in all of those fields, well enough to design and build a personal flight-suit with in-built AI agent, all by himself! It was at this point I used to think – if you appreciate engineering, then Iron Man is probably your dream superhero. Yes, Iron Man should absolutely be every engineer’s favorite superhero!

When I was much younger, I used to fancy having a superpower of my own – whether it’s the ability to climb walls, or ability to fly, or to teleport, or anything else. So there was this point in my childhood where I used to make desperate attempts to climb walls and see if I can stick to them, or to make hand gestures at nearby objects just to see if I have telekinetic powers, and what not. I would have caught a fancy spider and get it to bite me to grant me superpowers, if not for the fact that spiders creep the hell out of me! I mean why not right? Somehow if you discover that you have a superpower it is going to make you much more powerful than the mere mortals around.

But as I grew older and I saw more and more superhero stories, as an adult, I had a startling discovery, the undesirable side of things – you may have abilities that put you in a league apart from fellow humans, but more often than not it also brings unexpected problems, or in many cases the abilities prove ineffective against some of your biggest weaknesses. The mutants in X-men had to always fight for their acceptance in the society ruled by humans. Spiderman’s dual identity always put his loved ones at risk. Batman is forever haunted by the death of his parents, and is frequently put under moral dilemma by the Joker. Iron Man and Captain America found themselves on opposite sides of a certain ideology, underwent manipulation by an ordinary guy and ended up fighting against their own friends.  

When you see all this you realize that even the most powerful superheroes have their weak spots, and apart from the battles they fight outside they also have to continuously fight a parallel battle inside their minds. But in spite of these shortcomings they still emerge victorious – and that’s not mainly because of their superpowers, but because of their tenacity, their endurance, and ultimately their conviction to act towards the greater good. And these qualities are what make ordinary humans like us relate to these superheroes.  We all have our own abilities, that which makes someone else’s life better in some way – a doctor’s ability to save lives, an engineer’s ability to create life-changing technologies, a lawyer’s ability to fight injustice, or the ability of a father or a mother to make every dream of their child come true – every person has an ability. And we choose to put these abilities to the right use – and we too have our weaknesses and we have to fight battles in order to stay in the right path. But what matters most is believing in the greater good and standing by our belief in the face of adversity. Ultimately all this contemplation about superheroes led me to the big realization – it’s not about being super, it’s about being a hero, is all that counts.

And as you finish reading this and go back to your seemingly insignificant daily routine, it maybe worthwhile to remember the words of Commissioner Gordon in his speech to police officers in the Gotham Central comics –

“You’re going to make a difference. A lot of times it won’t be huge, it won’t be visible even. But it will matter just the same.”