Heroes

Well my thoughts are just kind of all over the place today.  It’s been awhile.  Not sure anyone is paying attention, but here it goes.  We lost Stan Lee and George H.W. Bush and they are in my mind two heroes. They are completely different, but heroes nonetheless.

Stan Lee passing away really bummed me out.  It’s not like I knew him whatsoever, except it feels like I did.  It wasn’t a surprise as he was 90 something years old, but sad to me just the same.  He had a massive influence on my life.  And as the internet seems to do with everything now, it made me really mad to see people accuse him of being racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, and ridiculed those of us adults that still appreciate the comic arts and superheroes.  To those people I will say you’ve got to be kidding me right?  The guy brought the first major black super heroes Luke Cage and Black Panther.  Capt America and even Spiderman have been portrayed as black and mixed race.  The most powerful mutants/gifted of the X-Men, Avengers etc were women.  Captain Marvel and Jean Grey/Phoenix could move/destroy entire planets.  Racist? Sexist?  

Every female actress that has worked with him had nothing but nice things to say about him.  I’m not sure exactly who it is that he sexually harassed.  The Twitter warriors seem to leave that out.  Anti-Semitic?? That’s hard to believe considering he’s Jewish. Stan was born Stan Lieber, but changed his name being afraid he couldn’t get work not to mention the whole Nazi thing.  One of the most powerful mutants ever is Magneto who is a Jewish Holocaust survivor. He only becomes a bad guy when he’s tortured by the Nazis and they kill his parents.  Anti-Semitic?? I’m at a total loss.  

Then Mr. Snark Bill Maher comes along and insults all comic book readers on his unwatchable show.  Whatever douchebag.  Through my parents two divorces, nine different elementary schools in three states, being made fun of at every single school because of my name (New Teacher announcing to class: “Hey Everyone we have a new girl in class Gabrielle Zwilling” Effing for real lady?  You’re a teacher) or Junior high getting hit with with “Gay Gabe” that is until I hit 5’10” 180lbs as an 8th grader. The bullies became a little less brave.  Through my entire unique and somewhat stormy childhood I escaped through reading.  Books and comic books.  

While living in California and later in St. Louis I was occasionally allowed to walk to the 7-11 you know to buy my dad cigarettes.  While there I would read as many comic books as I could.  It was rare that I would be given enough money to bring any home.  I was also fortunate enough to have friends who collected comics and were kind enough to let me borrow them.  My favorites were mostly characters created by Stan Lee.  In the worlds he created I could escape the latest family drama.  I was let down by people quite often, but rarely did Wolverine, Spiderman, the X-Men, and Batman (not Stan Lee but you get the point) ever let me down.  They all had their own problems too.  Not all of them had the greatest childhoods either, but they persevered and as silly as it may sound they helped me do the same.  

In Junior High I hit a crisis of faith.  My mom was/is a hard core Jesus freak.  We went to a great church and at 13 I got dunked in the tub and reborn.  To be clear nothing I am about to say takes away from that fact.  Me and Jesus are totally cool.  Not long after I was baptized, the pastor of our church took all of the church’s money and another man’s wife and ran.  I was devastated.  I was let down by another man who was supposed to be looking out for me and supposedly cared for me.  This kept me from church for quite a long time.  A cycle I still seem to be caught in as we speak.  By this time I was earning enough allowance to buy my own comics which I did every chance I got and I dove head first into the storylines learning my right and wrong from them instead of a pastor.

I have never stopped buying and reading comic books.  As I started working and especially once I started deploying all over the world, I always had comic books with me.  They kept me tied to worlds I was comfortable in no matter where I was.  A bonus to living on a military base was cheaper comic books, so clearly I was not alone in my geekness.  Once I started making decent money I expanded my collection from books to collectible figures.  Why does a grown man buy super hero toys, t-shirts, video games, and graphic novels?  Because he can.  I love being able to look around my man cave or office and see not only my heroes, but examples of me being able to buy the things I dreamed about having as a kid when my parents nor I could afford.  “Collectible figures/figurines” not to be mistaken for action figures or dolls, are very expensive.  

With the advent of e-bay collecting figures got even more fun, because there is hunting and bartering involved.  When you get the winning bid it’s a little like a good buzz.  Then you get another one when your prize shows up in the mail and yet another when you display it.  Unfortunately  e-bay also drove up the price on everything as asshats go to the stores and buy up all the figures and then scalp them online.  Asshats ruin everything.  

I also love sharing this love of comics with my kids.  Once the super hero movies started rolling out my daughter and I had a tradition to see them at midnight the day before they would officially be released.  My boys love reading comics and they love the movies.  I am so excited to see them running around in elaborate hero costumes my parents could have never afforded even if they didn’t exist back then.  We love watching the movies together as a family.  We all get a kick out of the toys and Lego sets.  So bite me Bill Maher and Twitter Tools. Stan Lee was a great man and a good friend to me whether he knew it or not. 

President George H.W. Bush passing away also hit me pretty hard.  He was the first President I served under and I respected him very much.  He was a no kidding war hero, fighter pilot, a Yale grad, self made Texas oil man, then congressman, ambassador to the UN, ambassador to China, CIA Director, Vice President, and President.  He was also a kind and gentle God fearing man that raised an honorable family and served his country in every way possible for 40 years.  He was an amazing man regardless of your politics.  

Speaking of politics, what a stark difference in Presidents since H.W. Bush.  Even though his family vehemently disagreed with everything Donald Trump, they still invited him to the funeral.  Dignified and gracious even at the end.  George H.W. deciding to invade Iraq was the final straw in my decision to join the military.  For better or worse Desert Storm was long over before I could get there, but that’s a story for another time.  His professional resume is astounding.  He’s accomplished more in one lifetime than a normal human could do in three lifetimes. 

What I admire the most about him though is he’s more proud of the family he’s raised and the love of the same woman for 73 years.  That’s mind boggling.  Hearing heads of state, military officers, politicians, professional athletes, the other living Presidents, celebrities, and his family talk about his character his love of God, country, family gives me the chills.  

So I will close with Rest in Peace Mr. President and Stan.  Thank you so much for creating safe worlds for me to live in and heroes to look up to.