Tattered Page

Well, the City of Heroes Comic Book Creator contest prizes are announced this week.   I’ve spent quite a bit of time exploring some comics there, and while none of us would probably be “professional grade” there are some real noteworthy achievements out there.

When I started my entry, I had some aspirations to winning it- now, I don’t really care- there are so many entries over there that deserve some attention… so many with just a dozen or so views.  I just want all the participants to feel their entry is worthwhile.

I first tried this over in hypercomics’ blog, but I’m re-posting here.  Sometimes a story just drives me to give it a little more attention. It may be the humor, or the style, or the message it delivers. It just might resonate with my mood of the day. When it does, I’ll write about it here and share why.

“Not a Hero” is such a comic. Go read it now. There may be some spoilers ahead.

There are many things to like about “Not A Hero” but the overall message made this my pick for today’s / this week’s / this I-have-no-clue-how-frequent-I’ll-give-this-out award. I’ll admit to some early apprehension. The look and style were excellent but I was worried that the “I am not…” would be too overdone or lead somewhere that I didn’t like. When it finally concluded perfectly coupled with the closing pictures, all those worries were gone.

Too often, we describe heroes by their powers or appearance. We advertise our archetypes in game to get groups. We describe them as a “fire/fire brute.” We hold costume contests to give out prizes. Nothing wrong with that, but it misses the motivating force behind a hero. What makes him truly heroic and not just a super-powered bully that just happened to choose the right side of the law?

That’s something that can’t be easily coded in. It’s something that’s difficult to summarize in a character bio or even demonstrate in a PUG. Too often, it’s forgotten.

I’ve often liked the reluctant hero- the person that took up the duty because he saw a need. Partizan from Battlefields fit that model, so will my namesake, Chase when his story is finally told. A similar line defines Spiderman’s motives: “with great power comes great responsibility.” Both are good community-minded messages that focus on doing good to help others.

Levina’s message is even better.

The most popular heroes, like Spidey, all are characters we can relate to at some level. We look at these guys and think “if I had power like that, I’d do that too” or “if I ever fell into that situation, I’d do what’s right too” but they all let us stay inactive. We can remain complacent in our own lives, comforted by the fact that we don’t have to act; we’ll never have those powers or be in that position. It can remain fantasy.

Levina acts because she’s a friend, even to a total stranger. Friends help one another. It wouldn’t matter if she wore no mask, had no powers, no special position of birth, and no special situation thrust upon them. She would act because that’s what friends do.  It’s a scary message- there’s no “if I had..” to hide behind.  It’s how we all should act.

That’s quite a message.

Thanks, LJHalfbreed. For that you’ve earned the first “Chase’s Choice Award.”

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 2:23 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.