Yesterday I stumbled upon a coincidence that cannot be explained, and it involved my favorite superhero. Her name is Promethea. It got me wondering. How would she get us out of this mess?
How would Promethea save the world in 2009?
If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times. Promethea is the best comic book ever made. Alan Moore, JH Williams III, Mick Gray, and Todd Klein created a transcendant testament that tickles while it teaches. There is, perhaps, no greater source for learning about magical and spiritual traditions while being totally entertained. If you have never read the 32 issue series, please do it as soon as you can.
The rest of that link explores some of the reasons that I love Promethea with everything I am. It also gets a bit religious, including the prayer our family spoke every night before bed. Therefore, I will not include it here out of reverance for the locally strong agnostic and atheist views that I understand completely.
Here I want to talk about saving the world, by any superhero neccesary.
Promethea is the embodiment of the collective imagination. She is a magical myth that comes to life inside those who honor her with their full attention. Sophie Bangs is the college student who studies the folklore surrounding the imaginary superhero at the beginning of the series, and SNAP!
She becomes Promethea herself.
The Promethea force embodies in various people at various times in history, and it becomes a vehicle for Alan Moore to give one the the most thorough and thoroughly entertaining history lessons of all time. The curriculum is heavily laced with Kabbalah and ceremonial magick, but it follows the consensus social timeline quite accurately.
Promethea is known by angels, demons, and sorcerors alike as "The End of the World". She is sort of December 21, 2012 in the flesh. That's how I think she would get us out of this mess. She would incarnate the collective unconscious, or "God" if you like that word, and see how to reprogram all the human brains. Teach us how to love unconditionally and only do healthy things to ourselves, our fellow humans, and the planet itself.
I think the world could also reach this "Hundredth Monkey" state through technology, although comic books often point the arrow.
Let's say there is an upcoming interface between the human brain and the silicon chip that boosts the user up to 12% brain functioning. That would probably be enough to experience the fourth dimension and see the future. The enhanced brain could invent something that produces free energy or free food or total antibiotics. It could also see the long term consequences of such things. It might choose to eliminate most of the human population and start over, it might just roll out new technological solutions. Who knows.
Whether Promethea did it spiritually, or a superbrain enhanced with a megachip did it scientifically, I think the solution to our current problems is an acceptance of our common humanity. We need to drop all the divisions and get on the same page as a species. Can you imagine how much progress we could achieve for ourselves and for the Earth if we all worked together instead of constantly fighting each other?
Anyway, that's what's rattling around this skull on a glorious Saturday morning. How about yours? Who is your favorite superhero, and how would they get us out of this mess?