“Only super heroes can save the world.” Discuss.

(You can tell I just watched yet another superhero film.)

Yes, I concur with the statement, ‘only super heroes can save the world’, but what is a superhero anyway?

The biggest thing that distinguishes super heroes from the ‘average Joe’ on the street is their non-human abilities coupled
with their virtues - justice, courage, truthfulness - as well as a strong desire to help humanity. The powers are often latent
within, and never acquired, much like the signs of God within us.

Super heroes rarely tell people that they are super heroes. You don’t hear Superman telling people, “Hi, I’m Superman:’ or Wolverine saying “Hi, im your neighbourhood Wolverine”.

People recognise super heroes from their actions, and their silly costumes. However, take the costume away, and they are still a superhero.

Super heroes go through periods of personal transformation. Baha’u’llah says that divine confirmations can alone change a gnat into an eagle. A gnat is obviously quite feeble compared to an eagle, which is strong, majestic and can soar high. That’s a pretty large transformation - on a par with a nerdy Clark Kent or Peter Parker, becoming Superman or Spiderman.

Heroes all have a weakness. It has ever been thus, since Achilles noticed his dodgy heel. It can be Kryptonite (for Superman), or the Ring (for Frodo). And unless they develop the strength to deal with it, they lose their powers. Those with evil intentions try to harness the power, e.g. Lex Luther. Inevitably, however, it leads to their downfall. You could quite easily substitute Kryptonite or the Ring, for attachment to the material world and the human ego. Only freedom from both can enable us to use our inherent super powers, the signs of God. If we let ourselves be overtaken by it, we will weaken and our powers will be lost. Superman recharges his powers by turning and drawing sustenance from the sun. We do much the same, through prayer and exposure to the Word of God.

So just what is the appeal, the attraction of super heroes in films and comic books? One Common Faith, commissioned by the Universal House of Justice, talks about the “widespread revival of spiritual search, an urge to discover a personal identity that transcends the merely physical”. Today, people lap up books and films on the spiritual, or pseudo-spiritual, whether it’s the virtues extolled by super heroes, the magical world within our world of Hogwarts or the supernatural intrigues of the Da Vinci Code.I would think it must be depressing leaving a cinema after watching Superman, switching on the news, seeing the wars, famine and bloodshed, knowing that Superman isn’t going to fly in and save the day. Who, therefore, will be our saviour? Do I need to answer that? The next time you go to the cinema and watch a superhero in action, smile inside knowing that in the middle of -the 19th century, not one but two Saviours came and gave us something so powerful it has so far turned millions of gnats into mighty eagles.

Ronnie Yousefzadeh-Bindra

(Originally published in August UK Baha’i Journal)