that quote from the Iranian cleric after the US assassinated one of their leaders, about how it would be a struggle to hit back in-kind, because the US has only fictional heroes.

"Think about it. Are we supposed to take out Spider-Man and SpongeBob? They don't have any heroes. We have a country in front of us with a large population and a large landmass, but it doesn't have any heroes. All of their heroes are cartoon characters — they're all fictional."

i think about that a lot.

like a fucking laser beam. every pro-military special forces bozo ends up being a dead-eyed psycho that can't even be stage managed to appear normal to fans for a 30 second spot with infinity re-takes, re-shoots and do-overs. not to mention, it becomes clear within a few months that they are focused on the cash grab of the spotlight when they cut ties with some "brother who saved my life 3 times" because they won't share the money. the attack dogs of america burn under the scrutiny, the flag officers that oversee them are bureacratic careerists and money launderers for industry.

the working class heroes of civic infrastructure, the nurses, the teachers, the firefighter, the 36 hour shift week ER residents, none of those people can be trusted with a heroes platform because they'll probably say, "the game is rigged" in a fit of unscripted frustration at whatever sinecure-holding asshole just cut the budget again to pay for a 2 week trustee/executive board training confab in Antigua.

so of course, the earnest and authentic american hero has to literally be a completely fictional character.