What Makes a Hero? [IFC S2R10]

Every Hero Begins As Someone Ordinary

As this post is for the @IFC, I know the image above has already grabbed your attention. Do you know the source of the image? If so, I like you already.

If not, I forgive you, because you would have had to be watching network tv in America circa 1981 to know this story, which is the story of The Greatest American Hero.

Drawing inspired by this photo from the original series

He Does Not Choose The Challenges - But He Chooses To Face Them

Ralph Hinkley was an ordinary man. A high school teacher, a father, an imperfect guy just trying to do his best. Unexpectedly, he is visited by an alien spacecraft, which presents him with a super suit and instructions, which are lost in the desert in the ensuing confusion.

Ralph's life is turned upside down. The suit looks ridiculous, anyone who sees him in it will think he is crazy, and to make matters worse he doesn't know how to use it. Without the instructions he not only doesn't know how to reliability access his powers, he does not even know why he's been given the suit. What is he supposed to do with this amazing potential?

In moments of desperation, he discovers powers he didn't know he could access - often awkwardly. The suit makes him able to fly, to be incredibly strong and fast, and impervious to bullets. It gives him visions of people in trouble, which does not help with the whole "I'm not crazy" thing. At one point, he is admitted to a hospital after flying straight into a wall, and his girlfriend finds him talking to the vision he sees in the wall (which he can't quite stabilize, so he has to keep tilting his head).

My hero, Ralph Hinkley, might seem at first to be a pretty flat character. It's an early 80s sitcom; the storytelling is pretty simple. Yet they got something right with this hero's journey, and they took me along for the ride.

A Hero Inspires Others

The story of The Greatest American Hero is fun, which is probably why my mother found my three-year-old self running around the house, going "whooooah!" and crashing into furniture whenever a certain song came on the radio. It took a while to figure out what I was up to, since I was so young she had not even realized I'd been paying attention when the show was on. Being the smart, intuitive Mom she was, she made me a costume.

Ralph Hinkley was my hero. Someone I aspired to be. I'm quite sure I also had a crush on him, as much as a three year old can have. I drew pictures of him in crayon, alongside other heroes like Hulk, alongside me in my own super suit.

_{It was the curly blonde 'fro that did it for me.}

You see, it wasn't just that Ralph could fly and save people, it's that he couldn't do those things very well and yet he did them anyway. Every day he had the choice to walk away, to let people down and give in to his doubts. Who was he trying to kid? He had no idea how to do this! Superman had always been powerful; Batman had access to resources and tools no one else could even imagine. Spiderman at least understood having that great power and great responsibility thrust upon him, but his spider instincts ensured effortless use of his superhuman powers. Ralph was just an ordinary man. He had to put on the mantle of Hero knowing that he wouldn't be very good at it, that it would be difficult and embarrassing and people would think he was crazy.

And when he crashed, he got back up to try again. Because no one else could do it. That's a Hero who inspires people to do more and be more than they believe they can be.

That's what makes him The Greatest.

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