Superhero Manifesto

Introduction: My case for Superheroes

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Saturday mornings. I would rise early to my parents’ consternation and race to the living room where I would watch Saturday morning cartoons. My favorites were always the cartoons about superheroes. Between toy and breakfast cereal commercials I would watch the Superfriends or Spiderman and his Amazing Friends fight evil and always emerge on top. I was fascinated by the idea of superheroes –- a team of super-powered heroes working together to defeat the bad guys and help people. The idea had behind it the lure of an unselfish system of modern day knights devoted to the cause of justice and working together for the welfare of mankind.

Of course it was a harsh reality to grow up to discover there are no real superheroes or superteams. Perhaps it’s ridiculous that I held on to these childhood dreams of superheroes that were so obviously fantastic characters of fiction. And it can and should be pointed out that superheroes of sorts do exist, only we call them firefighters instead of the Avengers or police officers instead of the Justice League ofAmerica. But it can also be pointed out that super-villains are very much a reality in the world only instead of The Joker or Dr. Doom we have the Unabomber and the Zodiac Killer. They even have super-villain names.

What follows is a primer. A “manifesto” for those who would like to become a superhero in real life. When I originally wrote my manifesto years ago, I wrote it with a half-serious, half-humorous tone. This is my third edition and in the time since I wrote that fist hand written, pencil-drawn version there has arisen a new community of Real Life Superheroes (RLS). Thanks mostly to the internet and social networking sites such as Myspace, RLS in New York, Seattle, Indianapolis, Boise, Washington, DC and other cities have emerged to form grassroots campaigns to try and help their communities. My purpose with this manifesto is to try and inspire and encourage other people to become Real Life Superheroes and form teams. Because I still want to live in a world where real superheroes exist.

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