EDITORIAL: 4 Superheroes Who Helped Make Me A Better Person

1. GREEN LANTERNS

The Emerald Knights have helped me in numerous ways in my life. After all as a senior in high school I have had to go through quite of bit of peer pressure and have a had a lot of temptation in my four years. Now as most of you know there is plenty of peer pressure that I high school student faces and though he has helped me with that there is something else he has helped me with more. It was the temptations the impulses to be selfish, mean, and to use my abilities for my benefit that they helped me with. You see when I was in elementary and middle school I did things that I consider to be bullying. Now I didn't go around bullying numerous kids at my school but there was one kid who I know I treated wrongly hell i feel so bad about it that I created a separate account just to talk about it. Now just in case any of you are wondering how The Green Lanterns helped me to stop being a bully then just listen to what I have to say. As many people on this site know the Green Lantern Corps bestow upon their members the most powerful weapon in the universe a weapon powered by willpower. Now when I really started to read Green Lantern comics I realized that the greatest show of willpower not when they create their energy constructs it's every second that they spend with that ring on their finger, every second that they choose not to use it for their own selfish desires. After all Abraham Lincoln said "Any man can overcome adversity. If you truly want to test a man's character, give him power." and the corps members don't just have power they have one of the greatest sources of power in the universe and that is how the Green Lanterns have helped me. You see they showed me that just because I have power doesn't mean I'm strong. That your real strength isn't measured by your power but in how you use that power. So now I try as hard as I can not to be that person anymore and to put my abilities to better use.



2.CAPTAIN AMERICA

Now onto the Star Spangled Avenger. During my freshman year of high school I started to feel worthless. I had made mistakes that I didn't think I could rectify and I began to think that I wouldn't be able to accomplish any thing. Now while I was feeling all these things The First Avenger was set to come out in several months so I did what I always do when a CBM is set to come out which is I begin to read many of there books. So during my readings I came across the Infinity Gauntlet series which is where the above image came from. In that issue Captain America stands face to face with the mad titan Thanos. Now at this moment Captain America was nowhere near my top 5 superheroes. I mean during this time I didn't think he was very impressive after all to me seemed to be nothing more than a normal man who didn't seem to contribute much. Yet as I read I really started to appreciate the character and that moment when he faced Thanos was when he really earned a spot in my top 5. Again some of you may be wondering what he did to help me. Well as he read I started to think back to the character and how he was just a weak little man who even though deep inside probably didn't think he would ever accomplish anything worthwhile but he kept trying. Then one day he earns his chance and then he is fighting people like Red Skull, he leads the Avengers, and he even stands up to people who have pretty much god like power. So now even when I don't think I will ever accomplish anything I decide to keep going to keep trying because I may not have accomplished much left but I still have plenty of time to do something significant and I remember to always have the courage to stand up and take my chances even if they look slim.





3. SPIDER-MAN

Now it's time to get our Friendly Neighborhood Wall Crawler. Okay I know most of you can piece together what lesson I learned from him but I will continue since he still had an affect on me. Now once again I am going back a couple of years you see before I was very irresponsible, now I will admit that I am not as responsible as I would like but I was a whole lot worse I mean I would lie and let other people take the blame for what I had done. Then I watched the Raimi Spider-Man movies and started to read comics about him from the library. As I read I began to see all the stuff he went through yet he didn't give up on his responsibilities even though he knew it would make his life a whole lot easier.




4. SUPERMAN

Okay now I am getting to the last and most influential of the heroes that helped make me a better person. First I will tell you all a little more about myself. First off i was raised in a Catholic household but even then I was still taught some values that aren't very Christian like. You see when I was younger I believed that if your life was at risk you do what ever is necessary to survive even if it means taken your attackers life. Though as I got older I started to question my morals I started to question whether it was right to take someones life no matter what the circumstances. Now I didn't just suddenly think that killing was wrong in fact for a period I was really on the fence when it came to this. Then when day I came across the story called "What's So Funny About Truth Justice and The American Way". As the story kept going I slowly found my self siding with Superman and by the end I was completely on Supes side. Yet this wasn't the only thing that Superman helped me with he also inspired me to look at the good in people rather than the bad, and to believe that a world where we all work together peacefully is possible and to always have hope that things can be better.



So that's the end of my editorial so now all I have left to say is to remember that....


"We are responsible for each other. That's part of being human -- isn't it?"

- Robin"Never Scratch a Cat" Batman #355, Gerry Conway