I Am More Than My Alter-Ego

Life is hard as a superhero. Before the horrible high-school chemistry lab accident that gave me my powers, I had dreams of all the wonderful things I could do as a superhero. The reality just isn't like my dreams at all. Sure, there are the battles and supervillains, but most of my hero work is pretty mundane, and I still have a life to run. On top of it all, hero work is like having two full-time jobs, and only one of them pays.


As you may imagine, I have to keep my true identity a secret. This becomes a double issue as I write this, because publishing my thoughts to the world is a big thing. I might reveal things about my personal life that could cause my friends and family to be put in danger, so I have to keep my superhero identity a secret as well. Nobody ever worries about their family being put in danger because of their job as an accountant, but we heroes chew a lot of antacids over the issue.


So, without revealing too much, I'll try to give you an introduction to myself.


I am the guy down the block. My life is pretty boring. I am husband to a wonderful wife, and father to two great kids. I have a son we'll call Franklin, with a nod to Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four title. He's in elementary school, and wants to be a superhero and a fireman. Personally, I think the latter job entails the former. My daughter is entering her teen years, and attracts far too much attention from the boys. I'll refer to her as Kathryn, from a character from the glory days of the X-Men. I think her superpower is charm. Her mother thinks it's bedroom destruction.


I live in a small but growing town. My house is located near the downtown area, but all the growth and action is happening on the edge of town on the other side. We've got Wal-Mart, K-Mart, two McDonald's restaurants and, rumor has it, we'll soon have one of those big bookstores like Borders or Barnes and Noble. Most of the crime around here is small, so I end up going out of town to help out when there's a big crime going down in the capitol city or somewhere else nearby.


One thing about being a small-town superhero is that supervillains don't just pop out of the woodwork. Granted, before high school, I only remember there ever being one supervillain in town. That was when I was a kid, and the local police wrapped it up fairly easily. Since I "donned the costume," so to speak, I've been involved in a couple dozen supervillain crimes. Most of those have been fairly tame, compared to the exploits of Superman or the X-men.


I mentioned that I have a job. I need one. Being a superhero rarely pays. When it does, it's usually a nice country-cooking meal by a grateful crime-victim. I work in a support role for the largest company in town. They are a major player in a small, but important role of the high-tech industry. My job there is probably the equivalent of being a superhero. When you fix, over the phone, something important that a customer is having trouble with, you really feel like you've done some good. When that doctoral student can't turn in her thesis and calls you in tears, and you save the day, you know you're making a difference in someone's life.


Being a superhero is truly like having multiple personalities. In the comic books, the true identity is seen by the reader as secondary to the hero's life. In my life, being a superhero is a responsibility of real life. I am not my hero identity. I am a man, with a life, a job, a wife, kids and a station wagon. My secondary identity as a hero is a lot of work, and plays a small part in my whole life. I hope that you, the reader, will come to understand this fact through my writing.


Sincerely,
The Unknown Superhero