Not Plane Nor Bird, Nor Even Frog ...

image credit: screenshot by Cujo359. Underdog is copyright Classic Media, Inc.

I got a wonderful birthday present the other day. My sister sent me a set of DVDs of the old cartoon series Underdog. She recalls my fondness for the series as a boy. I seem to remember that we all liked the show, but that might be a convenient memory lapse on my part.

For those who aren't familiar, Underdog was a hero who had a humble day job ("Thanks, Shoeshine Boy, you're humble and lovable") and wore a red, white, and blue uniform with a cape. He had an unrequited love interest, reporter Polly Purebred. Sound familiar? Of course, it was a parody of Superman, and a clever one at times. Character actor Wally Cox was the voice of Underdog, and Norma McMillan was Polly Purebred, the Lois Lane to Cox's Clark Kent. The series ended abruptly with Cox's death in 1973.

Like Superman and most comic book heroes, Underdog never used his powers for personal gain. He lived in a small apartment, and couldn't get to first base with Polly. He took famous paintings home at night for safe keeping, and always brought them back to their owners in the morning. Like most cartoon and comic heroes, he did what was right and respected others because that's what you were supposed to do.

Babylon 5 and Jeremiah executive producer J. Michael Straczynski once described his view of comic book heroes:

"Which also leads to the point of comics, for me. As profoundly stupid as this may sound, I learned my sense of right and wrong, my sense of morality, from comics. When I was at Chicago ComicCon, and helped tackle a shoplifter in the dealer's room and bring him to the ground, somebody asked why I did it, since I could've been hurt. I pointed to the booth where I was standing when it happened, and a six-foot cutout of Superman. 'How could I stand here, in front of The Guy, and do nothing?' Comics have the potential not just to entertain, but also to ennoble, and enlighten, and elevate; to ask questions in need of asking. That has not changed post-9/11. It has only made that function more necessary than ever. Because comics are about heroes, and they remind us that it is important that we be heroes, not just in the shadow of tragedy, but every day.

"The man or woman coming hungry to the neighborhood homeless shelter or food bank trembles no less than someone who survived the Twin Towers. It is easy to give to the latter, but we must remember the former as well. I donated my entire salary from issue 36 to the Twin Towers Fund, but I also tithe a portion of my salary to a number of charities, local and national. Because that's what I learned in comics: that we are stewards of one another. That we must be heroes to one another.

"That function has not changed post-9/11. It has only become more vital."

One Year Later: JMS, Jemas On Comics Post-9/11

Science fiction taught me a great deal about morality, and so did comics and cartoons. In all those forms of entertainment "using your powers for good", while it's certainly a cliche, was still something to admire. From Superman to the X-Men, comic heroes have always believed that with great power comes great responsibility. Even though in the backs of our minds most of us knew it was an ideal we'd be lucky to emulate, it was still something to strive for. Kicking someone when he was down, or stealing from the less fortunate was a shameful act that only pathetic losers engaged in. Heroes helped the powerless; they didn't take advantage of them.

Now contrast that with the people we see lionized in the press and on TV. Karl Rove is considered a genius, yet has succeeded mainly because he's comfortable with assassinating the characters of others without taking responsibility. Ann Coulter, the venomous woman who accused the 9/11 widows of "enjoying" their widowhood, is invited on talk shows to this day. She recently called John Edwards a "faggot". Edwards is a former U.S. Senator who made his reputation as a lawyer fighting against large corporations for the good of poor and middle class victims, and who announced his bid for the Presidency from a poor section of New Orleans that he was helping to rebuild. This is the sort of man who merits the term "faggot" in the eyes of Coulter and her all-too-numerous admirers. The newspapers that have gone on record with their reasons for dropping her after that particular outburst mostly objected to the word, not the mean-spirited, small minded insults that emanate from her mouth and keyboard on a regular basis. Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, can go to one of the child prostitution capitals of the world with a prescription for Viagra that wasn't even prescribed for him, and he's apparently a model of masculinity. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity can't seem to keep a thought in their heads that doesn't involve themselves. All of these people are looked up to by a substantial portion of the population for reasons I cannot explain, nor would I want to try.

Remember "Kenny Boy" Lay and Jeffrey "My Way or the Highway - Hey What Did My Employees Do To My Company?" Skilling? They, too, were praised as "geniuses" and "innovators" by the press, yet they succeeded mostly because they were willing to lie to, steal from, and intimidate people who didn't have the resources to fight back. If New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the U.S. Attorneys hadn't been willing to investigate them for the massive frauds they perpetrated, I'm sure much of the press would still be singing their praises.

Yet people like Edwards, President Jimmy Carter, and any one of thousands of celebrities and ordinary people who just try to make the world a better place however they can are regularly trashed by these folks, and TV and the press seem to just lap it up. You have to wonder just how pathetic they think we are out here, and how pathetic some of us really must be.

Some days I really miss Underdog.