In today’s day in age of big blockbuster superhero movies and Emmy winning superhero TV shows, one would start to imagine how the world would be if all of these fictional heroes came to save us here in the real world. However, there’s still a question out there that hasn’t been answered;

How beneficial exactly would real life superheroes be

Well, if one were to take into consideration the science of it ever becoming true, the legality of what they even do, and the actual need for heroes in the real world, then the realistic idea of heroes would be greatly flawed.

First let's tackle the science behind becoming a superhero, and let's use ‘the Incredible Hulk’ for an example. The Hulk’s origin story of how he got his ‘powers’ consists of an extreme exposure to gamma radiation, which is already overwhelmingly fictional as exposure to gamma radiation is harmful enough for you to just die on the spot. But let’s say you do survive, according to Ashley Strickland’s article, “What Would It Take to Become a Superhero?,” “Radiation is known to create some useful mutations… it is entirely possible that you could change the chemical makeup of your cells through radiation.” However, changing the chemical makeup of your cells is, yet again, deadly, and well result in, you guessed it, death. So don’t rely on the Hulk becoming a real life superhero anytime soon.

Though, let’s imagine that one does, in fact, become a superhero through some type of wild break through. There’s still the question of how legal is it to fight bad guys while also destroying everything in your path to do so. Well the answer… not so much. Taking into consideration the crime fighting styles of Batman when he gets called into action via bat-signal in the sky, the bat-signal technically wouldn’t allow him to legally do any crime fighting activity in the state of Nevada. You see, according to “2010 Nevada Code,” “A private person may arrest another: 1. For a public offense committed or attempted in the person's presence,” meaning that Batman would have already had to have been at the scene of the crime when it was committed to be able to conduct a citizen’s arrest, because Batman also isn’t legally an official police officer to be making arrests whenever he deems fit. This points out just how much superheroes, other than Batman, would have to technically break the law for the ‘greater good’, however, breaking the law is still breaking the law and these real life superheroes would then have to face real life consequences for trying to save the world.

Finally, let’s say this real life superhero is able to maneuver past all those roadblocks, do we really even need a superhero to come save us from all of our problems? The first answer to come to our heads is yes, of course, sadly, the only thing that could really save us from our man made problems is mankind themselves. Frozone from the Incredibles can’t exactly fight global warming by himself, and Captain Marvel will at some point run out of homes to find for every homeless person in our planet. These are issues that need to be addressed by us, the normal everyday humans who make the pollution and decide on community projects for affordable housing. So instead of trying to rely on superheroes that really have their own flaws too, why don’t we become our own heroes and take this great power within us and be responsible with it.

Works cited:

“2010 Nevada Code :: TITLE 14 PROCEDURE IN CRIMINAL CASES :: Chapter 171 Proceedings to Commitment :: NRS 171.126 Arrest by Private Person.” Justia Law.

Strickland, Ashley. “What Would It Take to Become a Superhero?” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 May 2016.