Where Are the Superheroes When We Need Them?
Where Are the Superheroes When We Need Them?
I grew up reading comic books.
Batman. Superman. Wonder Woman. Spider-Man. The X-Men.
In those pages, the hero always showed up just in time—swooping in to defend the oppressed, to rescue the innocent, to push back against those who would do harm.
As a kid, nothing thrilled me more than hunting for old issues at flea markets. I’d dig through long boxes and buy worn copies for a quarter apiece—or, if I got lucky, snag a big, glorious box of comics for under five dollars. I’d read until I fell asleep, the glow of superheroes still burning in my imagination.
Some of the comics I found were from around World War II. The pages were yellowed with time, but the message was clear: Superheroes stood against tyranny. They punched Nazis. They encouraged kids to be patriotic, to stand up for what was right.
Back then, it felt simple. Good guys wore capes. Bad guys wore swastikas.
When did we lose our way?
Today, even the word “patriot” feels corrupted.
If someone calls themselves a patriot now, you have to stop and wonder—is it a real patriot, or a MAGA?
Because the truth is: MAGA is the furthest thing from patriotic.
They wrap themselves in the flag and carry a Bible in one hand, while shouting things like “DEPORT ALL IMMIGRANTS!”
They ignore the basic reality that America is built by immigrants—and unless you’re Indigenous, your family came from somewhere else.
Let’s call it what it really is:
It’s not “Make America Great Again.”
It’s Make America White Again.
The racism is undeniable, and their tantrum-throwing, diaper-wearing leader—the Fanta Fascist himself—gave them permission to crawl out of the shadows, to wave their hatred proudly in public.
If ever there were a time when we needed superheroes, it’s now.
The kid in me—the one who believed heroes would show up just when we needed them—is still looking around, waiting.
Surely not all the heroes are fictional… right?
But if they aren’t going to fly in from the pages of comic books, then it’s up to us to crown new ones.
The superheroes today aren’t wearing capes.
They’re the members of Congress and Senate standing up against authoritarianism:
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Maxwell Frost (seriously, tell me that isn’t a superhero name).
They’re groups like the Alt. U.S. National Park Service, fighting disinformation with truth.
They’re independent journalists and news sources—MeidasTouch, Brian Tyler Cohen, Tennessee Brando, Democracy Now!—cutting through the noise when corporate media won’t.
They’re reporters like Jeffrey Goldberg, who risk their careers to reveal truths, like in Signal-Gate.
They’re the millions of ordinary Americans who are marching, protesting, resisting, week after week, against a rising tide of fascism.
I still hold onto hope.
Hope that Congress, that enough people in both parties, will find the courage to stop this slow-motion collapse before it’s too late.
Hope that we’ll save this fragile experiment we call democracy.
Because if MAGAs can’t see how 47 is tearing this country apart, the rest of us must.
We have become a laughingstock on the world stage.
And the world knows something too many Americans seem unwilling to admit:
No one has ever respected 47.
They never have. They never will.
And the damage he is inflicting on this country?
It will take decades to reverse—and even longer to heal.
The heroes aren’t coming.
We are the heroes.
It’s time to act like it.