And its about time.
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That said, when it came to Superman, he was on to something.
But Im here to tell you: It really, truly isnt.
This is something new and urgently needed.
ButThe Boyshas no such illusions.
Theres a slight pause.
You think hed at least express doubts about it.
In that moment, he sees that this was always going to be the point of his existence.
But wait, you say.
Supermans not a bigot.
Well, I get where youre coming from, but youre looking at it the wrong way.
Everyone thinks that they could make the world better if they only had the strength to do so.
We all think were superheroes, or at least that we would be, given the chance.
Were all utterly and profoundly wrong.
But this isnt just about actual commission of violence.
Only, there are no superheroes in our world.
There are no powerful people who do only good.
Such is the way evil has been perpetuated since time immemorial.
They could not be more wrong.
The sins of the Bush era never went away, despite our superheroic illusions on Inauguration Day 2009.
But more important, Kripkes incarnation ofThe Boysis eminently of the now.
It is, to put it simply, the only superhero story that feelsrealin this moment.
(Try the Brave Maeve Veggie Burger; I hear its sappho-licious.)
Which brings us to the diseasedelephant in the room.
The president of the United States inThe Boysis an offscreen nonentity and certainly not supposed to be Donald Trump.
But, in some ways some desperately important ways the show does, indeed, revolve around him.
The first perspective is that of Trump himself.
Over and over again, he grunts out, I can do whatever I want.
It was always leading to this.
I love so many works of superhero fiction.
They have changed my life in profound ways.
But if it is to have any moral legitimacy or relevance, it has to completely reinvent itself.
Many have pointed out thatThe Boysis in dialogue with the ideas that writer Alan Moore put intoWatchmen.
But, as we learn in the end, it is Superman who kills himself, in a sense.
In our world, superheroes can never be what weve dreamed them to be.
Maybe we never should have had those dreams in the first place.
No one is flying to the rescue.
Its long past time we dreamed of a world where we make Wertham proud by saving ourselves.
