3.6

Part 6

Returning to class was an exercise in awkwardness. There was a sort of tension now between us as I tried to chat about superheroes without... you know chatting about superheroes.

I was about ninety percent sure I gave off the impression I that I actually believed just because I should shoot out laser beams my life was now going to go like it did in the comics. I tried to correct for it, but... Well, there was only so much of a explanation I could give without giving anything away. I'd been pretty blatant in gushing on the fruits of human imagination, and suddenly backtracking could be... weird. At least when I was speaking as impassionedly as I was.

Have I mentioned I liked comic books?

Well all fiction really. One of the greatest disappointments I tended to have with things like series reimagining's was almost always were more 'realistic'. The 'gritty edginess' turning lasers into rail guns, and aliens into genetically modified organisms. It always seemed to take a solid step away from the fantastic in the name of making things more 'real'.

Even when the subject of the show was something as fantastic as spaceships, or time travel.

...Actually I think there were a few capes that could actually do a limited form of time travel, so I guess even that wasn't really fiction anymore.

The point though was that it took the wonder out of things. Look at Star Trek. The original series had mobile communicators, automatic doors, detached headset communications link ups, and a dozen other things that we made reality years or decades later. Teleporters could be made with tinkertech, so it was only a matter of time until someone managed to catch us up to that. Then all that would be left is warp drive.

The way they set these things up was ridiculous. Throwing science sounding words at each other in complete gibberish, but the purpose of the devices inspired us. Planted ideas in the heads of inventors.

And not just them. They had a black woman as the head of communications in a time when neither someone black or female could hope to be treated as a true equal. A Japanese helmsman when most adults still knew of the horror of world war two from at least second hand accounts. At the height of the cold war, they had a bright, clever, loyal and very clearly Russian ensign on the bridge.

As nerdy as it is to say, and as many flaws as it had, Star Trek helped change the world for the better. An inspiration to so many minds.

And they weren't the only ones. In a world without Legend, the X-Men and Superman showed people that just because someone is different and powerful, it doesn't mean they're out to hurt you. And just as importantly, that just because the world fears you for abilities you have beyond the norm that you don't have to lash out with hate.

Uncle Ben told us the weight of power in words so memetic they could be quoted to almost any English speaker, and immediately recognized.

They were icons, and figures that didn't have to be realistic, because the lessons were real enough. Fairy tales for a new age. They were amazing and fantastic, and you didn't need to believe they were real to believe in them.

Or maybe I'm just a bitter old fanboy upset when new directors try and pull a genre shift on me.

Still it bugged me that just because we had real superheroes, fictional ones suddenly had to match lusciously 'realistic' standards. Let me dream of my ideal at least damn it! I know full well not everyone is going to make it, and all to often the bad guys win. That as much as we're still standing it's only barely so, but let me still dream at least of a world where things eventually turn out well.

The bell rung. Time for Drama.

I got up, packing away my copy of the notes I'd printed off. Hoping to be able to hang around Taylor long enough to clear the air a little, when I noticed Madison smiling cherubically again.

I frowned, and noticed Taylor going blank faced as she looked out at the door where I saw... Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess, the two other heads of Cerberus.

My frown became a scowl.

Right then. Class was over. Time for Drama.