My face changes, masks of strength and beauty applied most liberally. Will you now believe I am a superhero? Am I now the demi-god you reverently bow before? My hands raise in benediction, raise in punishment, and the sheep cower before me, bidding me to do with them as I will. Mask the pain of uncertainty and fear with this gaudy tinsel, the gay paint, the glitter of charisma, it is all a lie yet you cannot see that. You cannot see beneath the mask, for a god, a hero you need, and your gods and heroes must be lovely and unafraid, as you choose me to be.
Look, look and see beneath your imposed disguises, peer beneath the trappings of your daydreams and acknowledge me for my own self, for the power of my fear and yearning. I pray that you let me cease these lies, and take me for who I am, alone and afraid on this throne, this pedestal, this alter. You must open your eyes, you must see me as I am, for I cannot maintain this illusion for long, or I must go mad.
Do you not see what you have done? I am not an idol, a figure, a plaything, I am real, I need what you need. Please, do not cast me aside as you do your unloved toys, the luxuries that have ceased to amuse you, the pills that no longer stifle your self-imposed pain. Please, do not raise another to my place, do not take away what little love you have given me, what little adulation you have fed me on, for shallow and foolish as it is, it is yet all I have. Do not take away the masks, the silks and velvets of worship, and leave me naked in the cold dawn, naked to the bright and cold sun that will soon rise.
Please, do not leave me to be revealed in all my pain, in all my fear, my weakness. Do not leave me stripped of all, in the sun and to the wind’s cruel mercies. I beg, I plead, you may not unmask me yet!


Triggered by a picture of Spiderman, and the constant question in my mind of "what makes a hero?". If you look through our history, so many of our superheroes, mythological figures and other legendary figures have been masked, and beautiful, without flaw or fear. But what goes on behind the mask?

And it's quite interesting that Spiderman was the first superhero to have a fully concealing mask, and remains one of few that do.

Yes, but isn't Spiderman also the only main-stream hero who's really just a dork out of costume? Batman and Superman are both absolute hunks if I remember correctly, which means they've already got the beauty.

Clark Kent was supposed to be THE dork of dorks.

It's only because we can easily see through his disguise that we see him otherwise.

Meh, goes to show how much I've seen.

But partial masks still cover the most essential, telling part of the face, the eyes. I think that is their real purpose, when they aren't hiding actual scars or deformities.

I used to wear a mask.

But it always messed up my mascara...