100+ Definitions 26

Invincible #26

Low-Frequency Listener (L-FL):  Issue 26 has its gutters in the stars, so here is the issue itself to tell you the plot, dear reader.

Invincible #26 (I#26):  Mark recognizes his father, Nolan, and the two talk.  Nolan explains that he has started a new life on a new planet with a new wife and a new child.  This issue also shows Mark’s mother preparing for her real estate exam and receiving a visit by Cecil.  Robot (of the Guardians of the Globe) visits with the mutant-tank baby who talks of moving their mysterious plan onto phase two.

L-FL: So, how does this issue define a superhero?

I#26: This issue notes that a superhero doesn’t carry grudges and accepts people and their choices.

L-FL:  In our final essay taken from the anthology What is a Superhero, edited by Robin S. Rosenberg and Peter Coogan, we look at Tom DeFalco’s “Superheroes are Made” for another definition of  “superhero.”  DeFalco defines a superhero as “someone who shows great strength, courage, or some other admirable trait.”  In regards to the purpose of the superhero, DeFalco notes, “Superheroes also present us with idealized versions of ourselves.…They show us that no problem, no matter how great, no matter how overwhelming, is truly insurmountable.  That’s why we love our superheroes.  They never accept defeat.  If they can always find a way to succeed, so can we.  Although we might never possess super-strength, courage, honor and any other admirable trait is always within our grasp.  We just have to believe in ourselves.”  Such thinking supports Wordsworth’s line “the child is father of the man.”

I#26: And if Wordsworth’s line holds true, then the superhero comic, that…is your little brother.”