9.25.2025

If a superhero were real, say Spider-Man, the economic and social consequences would outweigh the benefits, says a guy I'm thinking about, a Cliff Claven type, only this is on a bus, and I can see this guy clearly and in my imagination he looks exactly like James Brown. Think about it, he says, he comes in, starts cleaning up crime, every day he's in the headlines and on your phone, and what happens? The tourists show up, and the gentrifiers, and whole new demographics come in, the ones who can afford to move to these new crime-free neighborhoods and even worse you have the folks who follow him around with cameras, and the cottage industry around all of it, the way any big personality can become a cult figure for marketing purposes nowadays, and even if you don't have as many, say, group muggings in broad delight and supervillains starting chain reaction explosions and poisoning the water supply as you used to have, sooner or later you start missing the old days, and the cleaner things get the less you trust it, and then you have to move out of your old apartment or your house cuz things got too expensive, and maybe you even start your own crime ring, either to keep up with costs or just out of boredom, and now the super-guy starts showing up in your new neighborhood and the whole cycle starts all over again. You think about that, he says, and I promise I will.