That was so touching, so emotional, so, so GOOD. I love it this felt like more than a story to me, I took it to heart, everyone has a bit of superman in them, just makes me feel like being a better person. You are right in the deppression they would of needed heros and someone to belive in, and if it took a superhero to give them hope in the world, then I guess thats what they got. This was so real to me I felt like I was in the story, this is staying on my favourites and I am going to re-read this many times, I'm sure.

A lot of people think this, but very little can, or will, voice it as well as you. I think we all know, deep in our hearts, what Superman is for. We just wish we didn't.

Nice one.

I've never thought it that way;I thought people like them because they wish to have that kind of power. Ability to play god even in a small fraction.

Why look to superbeing for inspiration when there are real life ones in our world. They may not have big muscles and outlandish fashion sense, but they done what's within human's power allowed.

If bad guys can carry out their sinister plan into actions, why not the good guys? I wonder.

I wish I have the courage to do what I think it's right. Of course, what I think it's right may not be what the next person's idea of 'right.' Maybe... maybe if I can uproot a tree and throw it a mile away, I can convince a neighbor beating up his dog as he pleases is not 'right' at all.

Another inspiration for good guys can't be bad :P

Very, very lovely story. Great job.

okay...that was very depressing. Made me tear up, which I hardly ever do. Thank you for writing it.

Wonderful. Superb. Beautiful. Inspiring.

Oh, this is wonderful. Amazing! I love this...I love your writing, it's so honest and real. Great fic! Wow!

Okay, I was cool for this one, no crying, I swear.

Very good, very heartfelt. I'm also glad to know I'm not the only one that occasionally talks to fictional people. It's cathartic. BTW I never thought I'd hear the Spectre and 'Mazing Man mentioned in the same sentence.

I think probably anything that's happened in the past century, maybe more, could have inspired this. When we need heroes, we have always been able to find them it's the driving force of life. Mother cats going into burning buildings after their kittens. Dogs protecting their human partners with their own lives. But when we need more than we can be, we have no choice except to reach into our minds, our will, in the hope that for someone, someday, the miracles will happen. We keep doing it because, sometimes, they do."I also think we should be careful which heroes we choose," I said. "But I doubt very many went wrong, if they chose you." Amen. When I have someone at my back in a last-ditch situation, I want the one who believes in the power of that inspiration.

Great story, very inspiring!

Thank you DarkMark. Superman has always been my favorite hero. It was never because of his powers or costume, but because of what he stands for and for giving us something to believe in.
I told as much to my college english professor when she asked us to write research papers on our heroes. I wrote my research paper on Superman. In it I wrote why people need heroes and how those heroes need not have physically existed to be real. I wrote Superman is a hero and in the end I wrote the same thing you did.

Using an example from our world, I cited a quote from John Glenn in the book "Superman at Fifty :The Persistence of a Legend." Glen says "Despite being a comic book character, there has never been anything 'comic' about Superman. For over fifty years, he has shown generations of kids what being a hero really means.

I then used a example from Superman's world. I cited an issue of "Action Comics" during the Final Night saga. A man is walking in Centinnial Park guilty for not having helped some people earlier on. But, he thinks to himself, what can he do he's just one man and not a...hero? That is when he sees the Superman statue. The guilty man remembers how the statue was put up to honor Superman for having saved the world from Doomsdsay. Superman, thought the guilty man, gave his life, just for what he thought was right. And he was just "one man." He then went back to help the people in need.

I concluded my paper with that. I wrote "In the end, Superman's greatest accomplishment will not have been how many times he single handedly saved the universe, but how he taught people to do the right thing which is the greatest thing any hero can do.
You hit the nail on the head, thanks DarkMark.

Great story. Well thought out and well so true.

I read this entire fic with a wistful smile covering my features. I really liked it. It's thought-provoking, but, more importantly, so incredibly true. The other night, I was settling down to watch "Smallville" when my father looked at me and said, "Isn't it amazing?"What?" I asked him. "That the Superman franchise has lasted this long. My parents read the comics, I watched the TV show and the movies, and now you have come full circle, viewing some cheesy teen drama with relatively the same premise." How true, how true. You really touched on the reason for this, and I commend and thank you for that.

That's cool. Thoughtprovoking. I thought we knew all that stuff we create heroes to inspire us, etc, but if you put it down clearly it actually means something more than the words. (Oh, sorry, I started a Philosophical Ramble. On your review, too). Well, anyway, I think that your short piece is great.

Perfect.