With Great Power Comes Great Stupidity

April 22, 2009

Today's Reading: Judges 13-15 and Psalms 1-2

I’m going to talk about something that I really like to talk about: superheroes. I used to read comic books as a kid, and I still try to keep up on what the heck they are doing with comics now. Just so you know, they haven’t really come up with a decent idea in a while, and the just love to re-tell the stories of the great superheroes.

Samson is really the first super-hero, in the comic book sense of the word. He has the strength of Superman, but doesn’t have any of the altruism that the man who stood for “truth, justice, and the American way” has.

In fact, Samson’s origin is more like Spider-man. When Peter Parker got his powers, he turned from a target of bullies to someone who would be willing to exact his revenge. In fact, he becomes so much of a jerk, that he pays a price for his arrogance. He could have stopped a criminal who later kills his uncle and legal guardian.

Personally, I think that comic book heroes are partially male power fantasies. You know, the idea that if someone is beating you up, then you have supernatural powers that more than level the playing field.

In all honesty, I can see why God does not allow this concept of a super-hero to exist. We all know what happens when someone ordinary gets power: they do stupid things.

Spider-man became a jerk, and I’m surprised that I can’t recall a story from Clark Kent’s early years where he didn’t just up and become a bully that is more powerful than a locomotive.

Maybe it is because, as the Psalms say, the Lord does reward those who don’t travel with evil company. And wicked, they just lose. I suppose this is the comfort that many see in comic books, even though many heroes have that dark thing going on with them.

In other words, a person with super-powers would abuse them, and there is no guarantee that he or she would eventually use them for good.

Look at what Samson did. He was a complete jerk. I mean, here’s an example: he takes 300 foxes and ties them together in pairs. Okay, I don’t know how this works. Does he put them in a big cage for this? Wouldn’t the foxes fight each other? Okay, so he puts them all in individual cages. I suppose he could put them on a big platform and carry it around with them. Of course, he would have to bungee it down, right? Then he would have to tie these guys together, and I don’t know how he did it without them biting him. Then he tied the torch in there, lit it, and repeated the whole process 150 times.

Is it just me, or is this just stupid? I talked yesterday about how people do stupid things, and this one probably takes the cake. I mean, all this power given to Samson, and this is what he uses it for?