I've never liked Superman. He's big, handsome, all-powerful, almost godlike. What's he got to be afraid of? Likewise, I've never liked the term "Superhero" for the same reason. You can't be a hero, in my view, if you're "super". As I've defined it in the past, a hero is a guy who's so scared he's pissing his pants... but he goes forward anyway. To be a hero, you must be out-matched. This is part of what I didn't like about the heroes in AS; they were too obviously and easily superior to their antagonists, in my view.

Last night I got an idea for a video game (a passion of mine as old as science fiction); the premise is that all the "knight-errants" in the kingdom have been kidnapped by the evil whatever, and the only person left to rescue them and defeat the bad guy is an ordinary little craftsman with his tools. The tagline I thought up was, "Real heroes aren't ten feet tall" (a JFK reference...)

Then today I remembered this Heinlein story, "No Bands Playing, No Flags Flying". It's about a real hero. Only there's a flaw to the story, which Heinlein reveals at the very end.

Maybe this is the story that made me develop my definition of "hero".

Next time you're out in public, look around you. The odds are strong that you're surrounded by quiet heroes who just have had their turn yet.