What if Super Heroes Really Exist?

Super Heroes have dominated the Hollywood box office for the last few years, with Marvel and DC comic book characters becoming franchise players bringing in billions of dollars in ticket sales. Obviously, people love Batman, Spider Man, Iron Man, Superman, Thor, Captain America and, to a lesser extent, Hulk, Green Lantern and Ghost Rider. The list goes on, the ever-expanding universe of heroes in costumes, blessed with super powers and facing the evils of this world (and others) on our behalf. Comic book heroes have been around since the Great Depression, exploding with the baby boomers and now finding a new generation through movies, video and a comic book renaissance (print and e-comics).

Let's face it, we want to believe there are champions out there who will save us when times get desperate. But is this just a fantasy or are there real super heroes out there?

There is a great hunger for super heroes, a yearning for the great warriors to battle for us and make our world balanced once again. Of course, they are fantasy characters because no one can leap tall buildings with a single bound, wield a hammer that emits lightning or swing from building to building on a thin strand of a spider's web. However, we have real-life heroes without super powers, and some fictional super heroes have no real powers except stamina, martial arts and billion-dollar bank accounts to develop enhanced armor and weapons (Batman, Iron Man).

The X-Men, with their mutant genes are the closest we come to viable super heroes in real life. Genetic adaptations create people of rare genius, extraordinary abilities and behaviors that cannot be readily explained through normal, rational experience. Are there mutants among us? Probably, but having a genetic ability does not immediately translate into super powers. No, there is training, enhanced equipment and other augmentations that could create the "super soldier" of Captain America's model (one drink, one rare metal shield and a lot of courage).

Are we really that far from humans with cyber-limbs, genetic enhancements or psychic abilities, with the right amount of money, research and a willingness to move in this direction (i.e. a military super hero competition between super powers?)

We label nations as super powers because of their overwhelming military and economic resources. Could these nations extend their reach into super soldiers? Super heroes to save a nation at war? A planet at war? A galaxy far, far away who's coming to wipe us out? More important, if there was a program to develop a super soldier, would we even know about it?

So, do super heroes really exist? Are they hiding from us? How would we really know? The short answer is obvious from sales of movie, comic book and video game series: we want them to exist. They are our favorite fantasy. Free rock climbers are Spider Men, great strength serums are taken every day (steroids) as athletes strive to become Captain America and the billionaires of the world build great toys to save our world (mining asteroids, anyone?).

We mix fantasy and reality every day in our real and virtual worlds, living life with one foot in our home and the other in our comic book fantasy life on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

It was not that long ago that people believed Thor was real, hammer and all. Every vigilante models himself after the Batman. Now, if only we could develop the psychic abilities to read each other's minds. Now that would be a super power we could use every day, at home, with the kids. Darwin explained that we adapt over time to survive. I think now is the time to start mutating the human race to a new level. We are SO ready to be super. Maybe we already are.