On being gifted, what does it mean to really have special talents? If you are especially good at something, that means you want to make billions of dollars and retire on an exotic island, right?
The answer to that is an easy no. Quite probably the easiest “no” I have ever written. If money and fame were everything, people like Elon Musk would have left the spotlight years ago. Sure, money comes with perks. People respect you and congratulate you. Still, it really isn’t everything. Money didn’t bring Batman’s parents back. That horrific tragedy propelled him to become one of the most iconic heroes in history. Not only did Batman have money, he also had special talents. He used them for the good of all humanity. His money and his talents are interchangeable—but certainly not everything.
The Disney cartoon of Marvel Rising may be one of the greatest shows on television. Currently, the show streams on Disney XD. Not only is the epic writing stellar and reminiscent of the 1993 Batman: The Animated Series (that series was so good!) but the cast is a group of misfit girls. Yes, the Powder Puff girls were rockin’ kickbutt youngins, and the writing was out of this world (you can thank Lauren Faust for that) but the audience was directed at the very young. When I was a young teenage girl, I yearned for lady characters who didn’t take their clothes off to work their magic. I found that in the 1993 Batman: The Animated Series with many of the female characters like Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Not to forget Harley Quinn, who was so much better in this series than in the recent movie featuring the epically-talented Margot Robbie.
I will always remember being a young prepubescent girl and having to special order my X-Men dolls because ToysRus didn’t sell Storm or Rogue. On a recent trip to Target I saw the characters Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Quake, Patriot, American Chavez who in the show Marvel Rising save people and go on epic quests. I never got to see that as a kid. Girls these days, they don’t know how good they have it. In my day I had to special order my heroes and hide my comics because “Good girls didn’t read that kind of garbage.”
I also remember my sister finding my comic stash and saying they were words of the devil and making me hold her hand while she cleansed the house of evil spirits. She always hated me, and often used religion as an excuse to belittle the things I read or did. As a grown-up adult, I now know that she literally just hated me and there was nothing good I could ever do. That’s why I feel no shame at going to church and I still read comics!
Dealing with that and other bullies, is why heroes and comic book characters are essential to our ethos. As humans, we all want to feel like we contribute to society. That same society likes to tell us that dollars define our worth not our virtues. I.E. “If you don’t have a million dollars by 30, then you’re worthless!” Well, you’re not. Just ask Elon Musk. That guy has billions and he still does cool stuff. These characters on Marvel Rising will positively influence young girls who want to be more than just a sex object. If we are getting to Mars we need all brains on deck. That includes the lady ones. Thank you Disney for creating Marvel Rising!
The reason we love heroes isn’t because they’re all rich. It is because they all have unique talents that we all wish we had. Well, you don’t have to ask Oz, I’m telling you, you already do. Our life mission is to find them and give them to all humanity. That makes us all rich and living breathing Iron Man and Iron Woman. We are all also Batman.
Tammy Marshall is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of writing. If you really want to get her on a subject, bring up Star Trek. She loves talking about traveling through space and what Gene Roddenberry’s vision did for science. When she’s not plotting interstellar travel, she’s digging in the dirt. Her vegetables are legendary and her chickens have won awards. When her hands aren’t in the garden, she’s traveling to conventions around the country hoping to inspire the next person willing to go to Mars and aid Elon Musk on his mission.