With “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” opening Friday the timing is perfect – April 28 is National Superhero Day.
The actual term “superhero” didn’t begin until 1917 or so, but history has long been filled with super heroes – those whose deeds in truth or myth superceded anything a normal man might achieve.
Thousands of years before David killed the giant Goliath, The Epic of Gilgamesh was written, a story where the hero slew monsters of all types and survived a world-wide flood (Noah, anyone?). ![]()
If not superheroes, then what were Paul Bunyan, Robin Hood and Ivanhoe?
In case you think of superheroes as made-up stories, consider the case of mountain man Hugh Glass (1780-1833). Frontiersman Glass’ most famous adventure began in 1822 when he became part of the 100-man fur-trading corps selected by General William Ashley; the group included notable mountain men like James Beckwourth, Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith.
Scouting ahead of the party, Glass accidentally came upon a mother grizzly bear and her cubs; she charged before he could fire his rifle. The bear viciously mauled him as Glass desperately fought back with his knife. Glass managed to kill the bear with help from two of his trapping partners – Tom Fitzpatrick and 19-year-old Bridger.
Bloodied and scrapped raw, the rest of the party was certain that Glass could not survive. Two volunteers were left behind to bury Glass when he died, and the rest of the trappers moved on.
Though only 23, Fitzpatrick was already a veteran mountain man, while Bridger was a novice. They waited for Glass to die so they could bury him. But Glass, fighting in and out of consciousness, did not die.
Later claiming that an Indian attack forced them to flee, the pair took Glass’ rifle, knife and other equipment and left their friend. They reported him dead.
But Glass regained consciousness, finding himself abandoned without weapons or food, with a broken leg and severe wounds on his back that left his ribs exposed and were festering. Glass set his own broken leg and then – with the bear hide he had been covered with – began crawling the 200-mile trek to the nearest white settlement, Fort Kiowa
To prevent gangrene, Glass laid his wounded back against a rotting log and let the maggots eat his dead flesh. He survived by eating wild berries and roots. Once he managed to drive two wolves away from a bison calf they had killed and so feasted for one good meal.
It took him six weeks to reach the Cheyenne River , where friendly Indians helped him by sewing a bear hide over his back to protect the ribs and provided him with weapons to defend himself.
Making a crude raft, Glass sailed down the river to Fort Kiowa
He and two other trappers were killed by Arikara Indians in 1833.
So, you don’t need a mask or a cape to be a superhero; just true grit and determination.
Who knows, maybe there’s a superhero – or heroine – in you now, just waiting until you need one?