Superhero Fantasy

Dear Readers,

This is going to be a short one, but I’m curious to know what you all think about the idea of superheroes. Before you all jump down my throat about being delusional and superpowers not being real let me explain first.

So I just watched the movie Glass, and in it an interesting concept was brought up: are instances of the superhuman real or is it all just delusion? The idea of the movie is that three superhero/villains are put in a mental hospital and a therapist is trying to convince them that they are delusional. I don’t want to reveal too many spoilers, so I will try to keep it vague from here on (but do watch the movie, it is rather good).

The therapist argues that there is rational to the so called “powers” each one of them has, such as surviving being shot being because of poor gun and bullet maintenance coupled with environmental obstacles, and the supposed “visions” of another being because of their high observation skills being misinterpreted by the brain from a traumatic injury to their brain. Within the movie this seems logical and makes the argument for the super to be a mere figment of imagination.

However, one of the patients, Mr. Glass, makes a compelling counter argument. He argues that based on the long history of such occurrences popping up that this exactly proves the existence of the super. He sights such things as freak shows, where people were show cased for their talents that allowed them to do the extraordinary like bending steel and lifting excessive weight, being oddly deformed or having other strange abilities. He states that being able to go above and beyond the ordinary is what equates to being a superhuman, acknowledging that in reality there are limits but there are those that can surpass the average as well.

So my question is which side of the argument do you all fall onto? Personally, I’m with Mr. Glass. I choose to believe in the super. Do I think there’s necessarily an Aquaman who can breath under water indefinitely or a Superman that can fly freely through the sky? No. But, there are people who can hold their breath for 10 minutes at a time to free dive in the open ocean, and high jumpers that can leap many feet in the air! I would argue that those are super abilities, and in the right context could be used by a hero or a villain.

Sincerely,

Dagger