Pulp Hero

With soon-to-be President Obama getting the accolades of the press as a hero, part of me wonders where the concept of hero resides. Is a hero ordained by others or self-made? Some may think this is an exercise in sour grapes. Yes, I did not vote for Obama and like most people over forty, I should be forbidden by law from saying the word "cool." Be that as it may, what is the worth of a media hero or villain for that matter. George Bush was the recent Mr. Evil, but after the election he's portrayed as the accommodating helper, giving what help he can to Mr. Fabulous. Perhaps this was deemed necessary in an attempt to get Bush to go along with yet another Bailout. (one less that Obama himself must do and rest assured they'll be plenty more)

And yet, if a media hero is simply of the moment, what are the ones that stay with us. Those are the ones that strike a chord of truth. For all the hard times as a child, once Obama got into a tony Hawaiian prep school, he was on his way. Sure being abandoned by a philandering Dad is tough stuff, but Obama was able to party it up at Columbia and still get into Harvard Law. A hero has overcome the adversity everyday and triumph. There's a smugness with Obama that just doesn't click with the hero caste.

Ken Kesey, author and major league partier, said "There's more truth in a Batman comic book than in Time magazine." Obviously, after this election, Time and most big media worship Obama and worked to make him that hero. But what about Batman, the real or imagined pulp hero? Deprived of parents by murderous thugs, he seeks vengeance on the criminal brotherhood. The trajectory of that life makes sense as the rage of pain is controlled as a force for good. Everyday that battle must be fought.

Superman might be a better comparison for Obama. An alien deposited on this world through no wish of his own, he must fit in (as Clarke Kent) and still save the day for those indelibly sweet, yet totally blundering humans. Interestingly, Superman was invented during the Great Depression of the 1930's. With 25% unemployment, lots of Americans didn't feel like supermen and yet that's when he appeared. Obama seems to relish the save the day part, but most of his life, others seems to have accommodated for him. We heard ad nauseum about how he could have taken that big Wall Street job, but decided to represent Acorn instead. The faux humility makes an interesting contrast because Superman is humble in both his personalities; humble as Superman because wisdom has informed him that great power must be wielded with great care and humble as Clarke Kent cause he's a total dweeb with the babes. Obama seems quite aware of his purchase with the younger set.

Maybe the most similar pulp hero isn't a hero or heroine. Wonder Woman might be a dead ringer of Obama in pulp form, though much better built. Come to man's world from an island paradise (sound like Hawaii?), to battle injustice and save man from the heinous Nazis. Powerful, but a bit haughty, Wonder Woman in her alter ego as Diana Prince, must serve as secretary to lovable, but dopey Steve Trevor. Since back on the Island, she's a princess, this must be pretty demeaning stuff. When Obama was a kid, his mom used tell him stories of his heroic African heritage. While Obama may have felt special, his black and white parents probably were the most defining part of his growing up. A drag not an asset in the 60's and 70's, it became a big plus in the 80's and 90's with the increasing gale force wind of affirmative action at his back. Funny, though this pulp heroine, seems to have much less appeal, perhaps because she isn't seen or perhaps portrayed as having that daily struggle like Batman or Superman.

I could go about the X-men and others, but since they arrived in the 1950s, the pulp hero now is mostly an outsider and stays that way. Interaction with the average people is different -no more secret identities to blend in.

Perhaps the pulp hero Obama most wanted to be was John McCain circa 2000. Here was the insurgent, of the so-called Straight-Talk Express. McCain lost, but the Media loved him. McCain himself, like Obama, was a bit of a coaster, getting by on his impressive Navy ancestry, but Vietnam tested him in a way an adult coaster like Obama never experienced. The NVA actually tried to use McCain's coastering ways against him by trying make him a political pawn in a propaganda war aimed at his father, then head of US Navy forces in the Pacific. At times, McCain could be frustrating because on a certain level, you knew he didn't need to be President to make himself into a hero. He had already showed as much and whether it was a zen-like understanding of who he was or something else, John McCain simply would not pose for the prize in any manner he deemed unworthy and he would not allow anyone else to do it either. Perhaps, that's all a hero is: sticking to a standard. By allowing others to understand that duty and how to adhere to it could be part of it. If Obama can stick to a standard and show what it means to stake out a position, however lonely, he may become a hero. For others, the testing is over. For Obama, the testing is only starting.