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The following excerpt is from an editorial following the passing of Michael Smith, better known as 'The Atomic Eagle', by Mitch Frank in The Pacific Gazette, published May 3rd, 1982
The Vietnam Era was a time of political upheavel, that's indesputible. For the first time, the average American saw the brutality of war in full color right on their TV screen; gone were these star-spangled notions of Uncle Same waving the red white and blue. The last war truly fought on American soil was between the blue and gray, so when a young college student sees a blood-splattered Vietnamese corpse on Walter Cronkite, it comes as a shock. I remember being a part of that zeitgeist myself; when Tom Marin was drafted, put on the front lines, and then put in some Vietnamese prison camp, it was no less than tyranny to a Mission Hills kid like me. But when he came back with lightning shooting out of his hands, boy, that was a different story.
Was the American public wrong to shun the soldiers who came home in 1973? Of course. But we were a skeptical bunch; we saw what people were capable of, and we didn't like it. What we didn't realize was that Vietnam was a relatively tame war; it just got caught on tape. And the symbol, the greatest achievement, the spectacle of the American military machine was, of course, the Atomic Eagle. A true American story; a young airforce pilot on the Pacific Front one day, someone with the ability to fly through the air at the speed of sound and destroy a Japanese Cruiser by looking at it. The real difference between the Eagle and Lady Liberty or any of J. Edgar's 'Homefront Heroes' was that unlike these other superheroes, the Eagle wasn't just a propaganda stunt; he was a real weapon. And a dangerous one at that; his recorded number of kills, or at least the best estimate of it, stands at around 100,000. If you, like me, were outraged, appalled, or otherwise shocked by this, you should be; this is one man. One man who was given the power of a god. At the United Nations Convention on Superpowers in 1975, Markus Jansen of the Netherlands said that The Atomic Eagle represents "A weapon and mindset the world superpowers [The US, Soviet Union, and China] have embraced with the grace of Icarus and thoughtfulness of Narcissus." Classical mythology aside, upon seeing the destruction left in the Eagle's wake (Vietnam was his third war, mind you), many Americans who once saw the classic Superhero as a beacon of liberty and justice now gazed upon what superpowers truly were; a weapon made to be held in the hands of those who controlled us.
Maybe that was why when Tom Marin came home from the war like a human Tesla coil, we didn't greet him with open arms. Maybe that was wrong of us. Maybe it wasn't. Yes, Marin put it to...'productive' use, making sounds with his amp that someone who wasn't a weaponized lab rat couldn't have ever dreamed of, but what if he didn't? What if he did what the Salamander notoriously did in the forties and fifties and decided to instead run amok, fighting for some perverted sense of 'justice'? And while I sit here writing that such powers shouldn't be put in one man's hand, I still have to acknowledge the irony of the fact that the power of any president, general or senator dwarfs your Tom Marin or Salamander.
The problem is that the power of these individuals no longer lies in the hands of the generals and presidents. Seven years ago, we were all left speechless when a young girl from here in Esperanza, who claimed never to have undergone any radiative therapy, was shown to be able to lift a car by sheer force. Increasingly, we've seen more and more reports from around the world of children and teenagers with powers; like the kings of old, people aren't granted powers anymore, they're born with them. And that brings us to today, when the Atomic Eagle got shot down by a guided missle in Afghanistan. A man we once thought to be immortal now has ceased existing, and any physical remnants of his existence are in the burnt corpses of his enemies. We've heard statements from people ranging from President Reagan to ol' lab coat himself, Seymour Starling. But what none of these people addressed was why it was that this happened. The Eagle was in his fifties; surely the country wouldn't have sent a man into war who wasn't physically capable? Surely, they would've found some replacement or allowed him to retire peacefully. Not just thrown their greatest weapon, a man who has spent his life fighting for what he saw as true American values, into a conflict he would likely die in. But I wonder if people like The Atomic Eagle, or Michael Smith, whatever you want to call him, ever had any power at all. If when he went through CRT all those years ago, he traded in his dog tag for a collar and leash. So as I pose this question to you, dear reader, I quote The Bard:
“Th’ abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.”
The Question of Powers
The Vietnam Era was a time of political upheavel, that's indesputible. For the first time, the average American saw the brutality of war in full color right on their TV screen; gone were these star-spangled notions of Uncle Same waving the red white and blue. The last war truly fought on American soil was between the blue and gray, so when a young college student sees a blood-splattered Vietnamese corpse on Walter Cronkite, it comes as a shock. I remember being a part of that zeitgeist myself; when Tom Marin was drafted, put on the front lines, and then put in some Vietnamese prison camp, it was no less than tyranny to a Mission Hills kid like me. But when he came back with lightning shooting out of his hands, boy, that was a different story.
Was the American public wrong to shun the soldiers who came home in 1973? Of course. But we were a skeptical bunch; we saw what people were capable of, and we didn't like it. What we didn't realize was that Vietnam was a relatively tame war; it just got caught on tape. And the symbol, the greatest achievement, the spectacle of the American military machine was, of course, the Atomic Eagle. A true American story; a young airforce pilot on the Pacific Front one day, someone with the ability to fly through the air at the speed of sound and destroy a Japanese Cruiser by looking at it. The real difference between the Eagle and Lady Liberty or any of J. Edgar's 'Homefront Heroes' was that unlike these other superheroes, the Eagle wasn't just a propaganda stunt; he was a real weapon. And a dangerous one at that; his recorded number of kills, or at least the best estimate of it, stands at around 100,000. If you, like me, were outraged, appalled, or otherwise shocked by this, you should be; this is one man. One man who was given the power of a god. At the United Nations Convention on Superpowers in 1975, Markus Jansen of the Netherlands said that The Atomic Eagle represents "A weapon and mindset the world superpowers [The US, Soviet Union, and China] have embraced with the grace of Icarus and thoughtfulness of Narcissus." Classical mythology aside, upon seeing the destruction left in the Eagle's wake (Vietnam was his third war, mind you), many Americans who once saw the classic Superhero as a beacon of liberty and justice now gazed upon what superpowers truly were; a weapon made to be held in the hands of those who controlled us.
Maybe that was why when Tom Marin came home from the war like a human Tesla coil, we didn't greet him with open arms. Maybe that was wrong of us. Maybe it wasn't. Yes, Marin put it to...'productive' use, making sounds with his amp that someone who wasn't a weaponized lab rat couldn't have ever dreamed of, but what if he didn't? What if he did what the Salamander notoriously did in the forties and fifties and decided to instead run amok, fighting for some perverted sense of 'justice'? And while I sit here writing that such powers shouldn't be put in one man's hand, I still have to acknowledge the irony of the fact that the power of any president, general or senator dwarfs your Tom Marin or Salamander.
The problem is that the power of these individuals no longer lies in the hands of the generals and presidents. Seven years ago, we were all left speechless when a young girl from here in Esperanza, who claimed never to have undergone any radiative therapy, was shown to be able to lift a car by sheer force. Increasingly, we've seen more and more reports from around the world of children and teenagers with powers; like the kings of old, people aren't granted powers anymore, they're born with them. And that brings us to today, when the Atomic Eagle got shot down by a guided missle in Afghanistan. A man we once thought to be immortal now has ceased existing, and any physical remnants of his existence are in the burnt corpses of his enemies. We've heard statements from people ranging from President Reagan to ol' lab coat himself, Seymour Starling. But what none of these people addressed was why it was that this happened. The Eagle was in his fifties; surely the country wouldn't have sent a man into war who wasn't physically capable? Surely, they would've found some replacement or allowed him to retire peacefully. Not just thrown their greatest weapon, a man who has spent his life fighting for what he saw as true American values, into a conflict he would likely die in. But I wonder if people like The Atomic Eagle, or Michael Smith, whatever you want to call him, ever had any power at all. If when he went through CRT all those years ago, he traded in his dog tag for a collar and leash. So as I pose this question to you, dear reader, I quote The Bard:
“Th’ abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.”