The Real Heroes



"Bart: Being a star is every patriotic American's dream. Milhouse: Not mine. It's a sham, Bart. You get up on that movie screen pretending to be a hero, but you're not. The real heroes are out there, toiling day and night on more important things! Bart: Television."

- From The Simpsons

In many works of fiction, the hero does good deeds on a level that would be difficult, if not impossible, for anyone in the real world to emulate. They stop wars, dismantle criminal syndicates, Save the World so often it becomes part of their regular schedule, and never shy away from performing a Heroic Sacrifice (sometimes even giving their lives for the greater good several times). Yet if the hero runs into a firefighter, volunteer worker, or soldier (if they're on the idealistic side of the spectrum), the hero will often make a comment along the lines of, "You guys are the real heroes."

The idea of such a scene is usually to pay tribute to real life heroes, who may not have their own TV shows or look like supermodels, but still give of themselves to save other people's lives. This is a noble motive on the writer's part, but it can create some problems if the story's Fourth Wall is firmly in place. The characters don't know they're fictional, after all; from their perspective, Superman tossing a nuclear bomb into outer space is no less real than a firefighter saving someone from a burning building. This can make the audience wonder why the story's hero considers him/herself a lesser hero than some guy who's never even saved the world once. If the main character is a superhero, writers justify this by pointing out that rushing into danger takes a lot more courage if you're not Nigh Invulnerable. Of course, this doesn't explain people like Batman and Green Arrow who are just Bad Ass Normals.

On the other hand, there's nothing that suggests that the various heroes have to be at odds with one another. Cops who handle Mooks, firefighters who fight blazes after a big showdown, and emergency workers who take care of wounded Innocent Bystanders can free up the protagonist to deal with the Big Bad who's causing all the problems to begin with. Likewise, these same emergency workers might appreciate the help of the superheroes-being a firefighter is dangerous at the best of times, but having to dodge the attacks of a flame-spitting Pyromaniac while trying to fight the fires he started risks becoming a suicide mission unless someone can actually deal with him. The basic point is to pay reverence to the mundane heroes who risk their lives to save others in our world.

Advertising

 * Parodied spectacularly with the series of Budweiser commercial "Real American Heroes", or "Real Men Of Genius", if you're post-9/11.
 * This... Meatloaf... thing..

Comic Books

 * A great number of comic books companies and creators rushed to publish stories featuring The Real Heroes in the aftermath of 9/11. And with good reason. Of course, they probably shouldn't have been set in the mainstream superhero universes considering that A) it didn't make sense that it happened, and B) even if it did, the average supervillain does things 10 times worse a couple of times per week, so seeing Doctor Doom and Magneto (especially Magneto, who you may recall is himself a terrorist who has repeatedly tried to kill many nonmutants) cry over it when they've blown up countries was more Narmful than anything.
 * The fact that a few months before 9/11 most of the Marvel Universe did not bat an eyelid when 16 million mutants were killed in Genosha did not help, especially as that should realistically concerned Magneto (and not just him) a lot more.
 * Subverted and Deconstructed in Superman: Doomsday. Superman and Lois discuss a reporter who is going to Afghanistan to cover the war. Superman says that, because he's invulnerable, he's not putting his life on the line when he does what he does, as opposed to the people who are fighting fires, fighting for freedom, and bringing the truth of such feats to the world. He even explicitly states that he's not brave, he just can take a bullet better than others. Of course, the reporter that sparks this discussion is Clark Kent, so there might be some ego stroking in this statement.
 * Played with in Watchmen as the police and normal citizens eventually grow to resent the costumed vigilantes who take the hero-ing business into their own hands. This fake PSA advertising the movie mentions "real American heroes" who "don't need to wear masks", and at one point a group of rioters is seen with a sign reading "Police, not masked freaks". (The film version mildly bowlderises this to the honestly somewhat snappier "Badges Not Masks".) You can kind of see where they're coming from.
 * Though the one hero who quit the business before the civilians came to resent the superheroes, Ozymandias, retains a lot of public respect after his retirement in his public identity as Adrian Veidt, to the point of even being able to sell action figures in his own image.
 * Interestingly, the original Night Owl was a cop, moonlighting as a costumed vigilante in his spare time.
 * Samaritan from Astro City says this when receiving an award from the fire service. He really believes it, though he wishes he could skip the ceremonies and spend more time saving civilians instead.
 * There's also a poster seen in one story of the Silver Agent next to a police officer. "Silver Agent says salute your local heroes!"
 * And the story "Since the Fire", written for one of the 9/11 benefit books, is all about this.
 * When Metropolis featured a non-powered superhero, Gangbuster, he and Superman had a talk in this vein: Gangbuster has actually run into fights joining Superman, when he was in far more danger than Superman was, and Superman tells him that he deeply admires it and wonders whether he would do the same without his powers.
 * For the record, he did, literally assuming the Gangbuster identity himself when he briefly lost his powers. Also, Gangbuster eventually crippled himself and died alone.
 * The new Power Girl series manages to squeeze it in, and it does not even seem too Anvilicious, it actually makes perfect sense given the context. Power Girl is unconscious and lying in the middle of a large blast crater, being tended to by firefighters and EMT's. When she regains consciousness while being carried off on a stretcher they put her down and work to clear away the growing crowd of onlookers taking pictures while one firefighter helps her walk away. He says that he rarely gets a chance to help somebody like her ("Like me?" "Yeah...a hero") and she replies "I can say the same thing about you."
 * While never specifically addressed, the issue is confused in Top Ten. When everyone is super, who are the real heroes?
 * A bunch of these turn up at the end of Civil War to stop Captain America (comics) finishing off Iron Man.
 * Naturally, there's no reason that superheroes and "ordinary" heroes have to be antagonists. One issue of Iron Man has Firebrand set fire to a homeless shelter while trying to kill Iron Man and Captain America. Cap and James Rhodes (who's serving as a Costume Copycat in wearing the suit for Tony Stark) concentrate at first on protecting the inhabitants of the shelter, but once the emergency crews show up Iron Man leaves them to take care of the fire and the wounded while he keeps Firebrand from doing any more damage.
 * Gotham Central explored the implications of this trope in depth, as we see how frontline police officers deal with the costumed psychopaths that infest the city like a plague...as well as the hero who fights them.
 * One of the hooks behind The Order is that the team was chosen from a group of volunteers, all of whom were in one way or another some kind of "hero" in civilian life. Meaning that a guy who developed advanced prosthetics and a decorated war hero are now superheroes, too.
 * A couple of Spider-Man comics published in the early 1980s took a decidedly more grim look at this trope:
 * One issue involved police officer Joey Macone, who's known for his recklessly heroic actions on the job. The risks he takes are putting a serious strain on his marriage, and his wife is afraid he'll get himself killed. Macone helps Spider-Man defeat the Beetle, but it literally costs him an arm and a leg as the Beetle's punch breaks both of these limbs. The story ends with Macone sitting in a wheelchair and getting a medal from the police commissioner, but his wife is still extremely upset and Peter Parker gets a firsthand look at how stressful a cop's life can get.
 * Another issue featured Spidey helping a pair of beat cops fight a gang of gun smugglers. Spider-Man saves one of the cops from being shot, but the other officer isn't so lucky and gets killed by the gun runners. Spider-Man is naturally torn up about it, and the surviving officer points out that makes six of them: Spider-Man, the surviving officer, and the dead officer's widow and three children. The wall-crawler feels lower than ever after hearing this, but the surviving officer reminds him that Spidey saved his hide. As for the officer who was killed, the cops know the risks they take when they put on the badge.
 * Ultimate Spider-Man has a scene where Peter Parker and John Jonah Jameson have a talk about heroics. He claims (in a surprisingly non-brash way) that Spider-Man is just a punk in a costume while people like his son (an astronaut) are truly doing good for this world. Ironically, this is just before the Daily Bugle starts praising the Wall-Crawler.
 * Mostly subverted in JLA: Act of God, where every superbeing is depowered. They do pay some lip service to this trope but when Supergirl (Linda Danvers) tries to continue fighting as a cop, she gets tired of doing the paperwork and decides to join some other depowered heroes to learn the Badass Normal school of fighting. In this story, guys like Batman are the Real Heroes.
 * Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, cannot be used or even lifted by any but the "worthy". History shows that this worthiness is not a common trait, but a random paramedic, not even named, once picked it up and handed it back to him.

Fan Works

 * The Tear Jerker Fan Fic February 1, 2003 has Superman telling Wonder Woman that he can fly into space without any threat of personal harm, which is why he admires non-powered astronauts who do it regardless.
 * A City of Heroes fan story published in the monthly comic had a short tale about a hero defeating a gang of Trolls who were threatening a young couple - the hero denied that he receive any praise for what he did, as the Trolls were of no threat to him, but instead drew attention to the fact that the young man stood up to the thugs, protecting his girlfriend - even though he could have been killed with a single punch.
 * The DeviantArt work seen here, posted during the COVID-19 outbreak, shows several popular Marvel and DC heroes stepping aside and bowing as three doctors pass by.

Film

 * Hancock did it... reluctantly.
 * It was true though since Hancock was a Jerkass.
 * At the end of Mystery Men, The Shoveler said this to the TV reporters interviewing him.

Literature

 * In The Pale King, the IRS employees are likened to policeman, firefighters, and other emergency service members in a few places. Chapter 17 is a single paragraph that explains the idea, and the IRS seal depicts the mythical hero Bellerophon slaying the Chimera.

Live-Action TV

 * Dirty Jobs is all about this, since the whole point of the show is to show just what happens behind the scenes to keep modern society functioning as well as it does.
 * Played for Laughs in Monty Python's Flying Circus, where all the normal Supermen stand in awe of their hero, Bicycle Repair Man.
 * Played in Witchblade, The Savage Dragon and Rising Stars - main characters from the first two, and one from the third have superpowers and fight crime not as superheroes, but cops.
 * Inverted by Dwight Schrute on The Office: "No, don't call me a hero. Do you know who the real heroes are? The guys who wake up every morning and go into their normal jobs and get a distress call from the commissioner and take off their glasses and change into capes and fly around, fighting crime. Those are the real heroes."
 * The Japanese Toku series Tomica Hero Rescue Force and its sequel, Rescue Fire, both had episodes dedicated to the team learning about/assissting Hyper Rescue, a real life rescue organization that inspired both shows. Naturally, Hyper Rescue ended up receiving a good amount of praise.

Music

 * Rush deals with this theme in the song "Nobody's Hero".
 * The Eric Bogle song "Our National Pride" was written after a group of volunteer firefighters were killed battling a bushfire in Victoria. It is all about how these people, and not athletes, deserve to be called heroes.

Tabletop Games

 * In the tabletop roleplaying game Silver Age Sentinels, Officer Promitheus (super-liaison between NYPD and the local superhero team) lampshades this, pointing out that people hope a superhero will save them, but when things go wrong, they call the police.

Web Comics

 * Played with in The Non-Adventures of Wonderella: Wonderella, being a Jerkass, refuses to acknowledge The Real Heroes. After all, she has a cape.
 * Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: "Lex Luthor had a much easier time"...

Web Original
""Everyone's a hero in their own way/In their own not-that-heroic way"."
 * Near the end of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Captain Hammer sings a song with this message. Unfortunately, his massive ego prevents him from going too far with this, repeatedly pointing out just how much cooler a hero he is:

Western Animation
"Police Officer: I just want to thank you Justice League guys for turning out in force. It means a lot to us. Green Arrow: Hey we can't thank you enough--you're the real heroes."
 * This was pretty much the premise of the kids' show Higglytown Heroes. Although there were no superheroes in that show, it was all about "normal" people being heroic for different reasons.
 * Parodied in an episode of The Fairly OddParents. The first time Timmy needs a number of regular adults with jobs to help him (such as a firewoman to help him against Francis or a milkman to give him some milk when he has a mouth full of peanut butter) they're distracted by Cosmo, who is currently in cat form. They end up helping to take down Nega-Chin.
 * The Looney Tunes short Super Rabbit had Bugs Bunny receive a supply of Supercarrots that turn him into the titular Super-Rabbit. At the end of the cartoon, he loses his carrots to the bad guy and his horse after he unwittingly dropped the case and carrots midflight (and running out of power), at which point he says, "Hmm, this looks like a job for a real Superman!" He then runs into a phone booth and emerges wearing a Marine uniform, then he marches off to fight in World War II.
 * The Marines were so thrilled by this, they made Bugs Bunny an honorary Marine, eventually promoting him to Master Sergeant.
 * Taken to a logical conclusion in the Rescue Heroes cartoon based on the toyline, where the characters are a team of firefighters, police and other professions (mountain climber, construction worker, doctor) who operate like superheroes, who focus on disaster relief and rescues around the world rather than fighting crime. (no, not a superhero version of the Village People) All we know is that it had a theme tune that made me believe it.
 * We'll leave that to Kingdom Come, shall we? (Look close and don't blink.)
 * Played straight in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Patriot Act":


 * Done in an episode of the Super Mario Bros Super Show when Mario and Luigi find a way to return to New York. Unfortunately, Bowser and the Koopas follow them, and Bowser decides to conquer Earth along with the Mushroom Kingdom. Fortunately, the NYPD is there to help Mario and Luigi fight the Koopas.
 * In the episode of The Simpsons where Milhouse is chosen to play the Kid Sidekick in the new Radioactive Man film, Milhouse responds with the above quote after being sick of shooting the picture and running away. Bart however responds that they are all pathetic losers who have done nothing of value and that the true heroes are the Van Dammes and the Stallones.