Moms might be the original superheroes
I have to admit it
– I love superhero movies and TV shows.
I was watching a new one,
”
The Cape,
”
last night on TV, and it has all the elements that used to
thrill me as a kid reading a comic book
– a guy battling evil using special talents that only he
possesses, strange-looking villains who are totally villainous, and
nefarious plots that the hero must uncover and defeat.
Americans in general are big superhero fans. You can’t go for
more than a month without some kind of movie popping up that’s
based on a Marvel comic book or graphic novel. Right now in
theaters we’ve got the Green Hornet and soon we’ll have the Green
Lantern.
Moms might be the original superheroes
I have to admit it – I love superhero movies and TV shows.
I was watching a new one, “The Cape,” last night on TV, and it has all the elements that used to thrill me as a kid reading a comic book – a guy battling evil using special talents that only he possesses, strange-looking villains who are totally villainous, and nefarious plots that the hero must uncover and defeat.
Americans in general are big superhero fans. You can’t go for more than a month without some kind of movie popping up that’s based on a Marvel comic book or graphic novel. Right now in theaters we’ve got the Green Hornet and soon we’ll have the Green Lantern.
People who are into that kind of thing (and who isn’t?) are all abuzz about the new Spiderman and Batman films that will be coming out, a possible Wonder Woman revival on television, and “The Avengers,” sort of a roundup of comic book heroes that will include Iron Man, Captain America and a host of others.
Superhero movies are popular, I think, because they’re simple. The evil is simple and massive – there’s someone who wants to take over the world or some such thing –and the good guy must stop the evil.
There is no laying about and thinking too much about it: “Is this an evil plot or isn’t it? Maybe it actually does have some merit to it … hmmm, let me cogitate on that some more.” No, you never hear a superhero saying anything remotely like this.
The superhero just gets out there and does what needs to be done without hesitation. The whole thing’s pretty obvious.
In a complicated world, it’s refreshing to sit back and enjoy a superhero story where everything’s divided into good and evil, without those irritating shades of gray.
Sometimes I wonder, though, why a movie hasn’t been made about a mom as superhero. (I know, there’s “The Incredibles,” although that was not just about a mother, but concerning a whole family of people with extraordinary powers.)
As far as I can tell, mothers are the original superheroes.
After all, when you’re a mother, you possess powers far beyond the mortal realm. You have super senses – seeing out of the back of your head, for instance – and you can sense the moment when your kids are doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
Not only that, I’ve seen moms stretch a meal to cover all their kids’ friends who unexpectedly show up at dinner time, and I’ve seen them be in two or three places at once, a necessity when you have kids of different ages who have to be at different back-to-school nights.
Moms can leap a tall building at a single bound, if that’s what it takes to bring a homemade lunch to their progeny, and they can move heaven and earth to get a kid into the right summer camp.
Moms can change identities at the drop of a hat, from costume maker to science fair advisor to computer fixer, and not only that, can do all this while making cupcakes, talking on the phone and pointing out homework mistakes.
They’re not battling evil – well, not usually – but they do accomplish amazing feats every day, without asking for much in return besides a few kisses and hugs.
I realize it’s not Mother’s Day quite yet, but maybe now is the time to start considering the fact that your mom is, well, pretty super.
Mom the Magnificent. There’s a movie in there somewhere, isn’t there?
