The Saturday List #145 - My top ten Superheroes!

I've rather tired of Hollywood blockbuster Superhero films, which all seem to have recycled plots, trivialising violence and wallowing in a very lame reliance on very average CGI. I was thinking about  the term Superhero and concluded that none of these characters are. Being a Superhero should mean you do something which is not just heroic, it is heroic over a very long period of time and the net result is that people's lives were changed for the better. Here's mine (in no particular order).

1. Nelson Mandela.
2. Ghandi.
3. Martin Luther King.
4. Florence Nightingale.
5. William Wilberforce.
6. Winston Churchill.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
8. Bert Trautmann.
9. Ian Dury.
10. Polly Styrene.

I guess that most of you reading the list were not too surprised by the first 5-7 choices. They should need no explanation, if they do look them up on Wikipedia, as I assume readers of this blog are educated enough to get it. The last three, I will explain. Bert Trautmann was a German paratrooper, who became the goalkeeper for Manchester City, post war. At the time, there was hostility to Germans, but Trautmann won the fans over by his brave and skilful play. He became a hero in 1957, when he played the last 18 minutes of the FA cup final with a broken neck. No rolling around on the floor, pretending to be hurt for Bert. Probably Germany's best ever ambassador to the UK.

Ian Dury, a very complex character. Perhaps the only UK disabled pop star of the 1970's. Made great music and fought a heroic battle with cancer. A genuine Superhero.

Poly Styrene, another pop sensation who could have only appeared on the scene in the punk era. When she felt shed said what she had to she stepped away. But her example inspired a generation. Sadly she passed away, a year after a triumphant comeback tour of cancer. Whilst most female singers used looks as a key selling point, Poly was the antithesis of this and showed exactly why such misogyny is nonsense. I was tempted to list Patti Smith, but went for Poly given her stoic battle with cancer.