Getting Our Act Together
By Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife.
There's this "Brave and Bold" DVD I've watched. One of it's stories has Wildcat training the Outsiders. It occurred to me that few superhero teams need a coach/trainer/manager more than the Mighty Heroes do.
So I like Ted Grant. With thanks to "Simon and Garfunkel": "In the corner stands a boxer, a fighter by his trade. And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down. ..until he cries out: "I am leaving, I am leaving", but the fighter still remains.
One day, over the ''town"(1) of Goodhaven, the signal for the Mighty Heroes lit up the day. In case you're interested, the signal is a "short", a movie projected on a whitewashed blank wall of a skyscraper owned by a company that develops film for medical reasons (x-rays) and needs to control the amount of light in the building.
The building, which has four blank sides can be seen thurout the city and stands on the edge of town. So the signal DOESN'T cost the town as much as you might think. Of course, unless the day is unusually bright and sunny, the signal can be seen thruout the sky.
The Mighty Heroes, in their civilian identities, saw the signal and came a-flying. An automobile mechanic changed to Strongman, a sailor changed to Ropeman, a meteorologist changed to Tornadoman, an orphaned baby in an orphanage changed to Diaperman, a clock salesman changed to Coo coo man. They flew towards the signal, but saw nothing untoward. Just the Mayor of Goodhaven, standing next to an elderly man wearing a superhero costume.
"I'm sorry for calling you when there isn't an emergency, Mighty Heroes, but I have no other way to contact you and want you to meet somebody." the Mayor said.
"You're Wildcat." Strongman said. "I read your comic books when I was a kid. You were a superhero before any of us were born. No superpowers, yet."
"That's right. I'm semi-retired now. Goodhaven's hired me to be your coach. You guys are forever getting in each others' way. You trip over each other. You hit each other instead of the bad guy. You destroy public and private property without meaning to. This has gotta stop." Wildcat said.
"He's right, you know. That DOES happen to us an awful lot." Ropeman admitted.
"You- Strongman. You used to play football, didn't ya?" wildcat asked.
"It shows,huh? Sure. Before I got my full strength. I had to quit or risk accidentally killing somebody." Strongman said.
"You had to learn the playbook, didn't ya? Learn the signals so you could tell your teammates what you were going to do and visa-versa?" Wildcat asked.
"Sure. You're suggested that WE have a playbook? And signals?" Strongman asked.
'Why not? You guys are going to learn plays. And PRACTICE them until you can coordinate your efforts in your sleep!" Wildcat said.
"You- Coocoo man. You can barely fly, right? We're going to work on your costume. Try one with silk "wings" going from your cuffs to your sides. Like a flying squirrel. We'll see if that helps." Wildcat said.
"You're going to be in charge of the playbook and the signals. You do the least amount of fighting, so you're in the clear most often. Beside, you know how to talk to birds, don't ya?" Wildcat asked.
'Yes. But I can't command them. I can only ASK them to help. I don't like to do it to often, least they say "no" when I need them."(2) Coo coo man replied.
"What if you offer them all the birdseed they can eat? That could easily be arranged. But what I had in mind was you teaching a few words in Bird to your partners. If you're giving the signal in Bird, there's not much chance of a bad guy understanding what you're saying." Wildcat said.
Soon, Wildcat was training the Mighty Heroes. He had a remote controlled "robot" (3) with a mean-looking face painted on it and the words "BAD GUY" painted on it's chest. The Mighty Heroes pretended it was a REAL bad guy and tried to stop it, practicing their plays.
Ropeman (who IS a sailor after all) taught the Heroes about "port" and" starboard", since left and right varies on which way you're facing. The "bow" was the direction they came from, the "stern" was the opposite direction.
Coo coo man learned to glide on his wings, rather like a seagull does. Like a seagull, he doesn't do much flying, but he doesn't need to. He can stay up by gliding most of the time.
It wasn't long until definite improvement was seen by the town of Goodhaven. The Mighty Heroes stopped accidentally destroying property. They still got in each others' way occasionally (they're the Mighty Heroes, ain't they?) but soon that was the exception instead of the rule.
The End.
(1) It looks like a city to ME.
(2) In my favorite episode of the Mighty Heroes the bad guy had captured all of the Mighty Heroes EXCEPT for Coo coo man who asked the birds to help and led an army of birds to rescue his friends. If anybody knows the NAME of that episode and will tell me, I will thank them.
(3) A pile of junk on wheels