With Great Power....

Earlier this month, I suggested that Donald Trump was acting like a comic-book villain. Today, as I was watching coverage of the Republican Convention (I refuse to watch in real time), I wondered if he could be educated by reading the adventures of some of the great comic-book heroes, such as Spider-Man...and then I decided, probably not.

Consider Spidey's origin story: Peter Parker accidentally acquires super-powers and his first impulse is to use them to earn money. He becomes a costumed wrestler and then a TV personality. At one of those TV appearances, a thief runs past him and he makes no effort to apprehend him. He is then berated by a security guard, who correctly notes that--given his abilities--Spider-Man could have captured the thief easily.

Later that evening, Peter returns to his home to discover that his beloved Uncle Ben has been killed in a botched robbery. Pursuing the criminal as Spider-Man, he learns that the killer is the same thief he had refused to help capture at the TV station. Distraught, he decides to dedicate himself to using his powers not to enrich himself but to fight crime and defend the defenseless. As a final caption notes, "With great power comes great responsibility."

What would Donald Trump learn from this tale? Probably that Peter Parker is a loser. After all, Peter forgoes the rewards of fame and wealth that could be his and decides to help others, basically anonymously. Donald Trump not only uses his "power" to enrich himself, he has a history of treating others as mere pawns, as victims of his own schemes--Trump University, Trump Foundation, etc.

If he hasn't learned anything about compassion and selflessness from that Bible he awkwardly displayed in front of a church he has never entered, how could he learn anything from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko?