Marvel Creates New Hearing-Impaired Superhero
Image via milehighcomics.com
Marvel Comics comes to save the day for a young New Hampshire boy. WFXT-TV was on the scene.
The little kid is Anthony Smith; he can’t hear out of his right ear and has extreme hearing loss in his left. One morning, 4 year old Anthony decided that he was no longer going to wear his hearing aid. Just like that.
He told his mother that he wouldn’t be wearing it anymore because he knew that superheroes don’t wear hearing aids.
His mother did what any responsible and loving mother should do in such an occasion: she reached out to the Avengers. Well, she e-mailed Marvel Comics. She wanted to know which Marvel superheroes suffer from hearing loss.
Marvel’s response was that one of the Avengers, Hawkeye, had lost 80 percent of his hearing and wears hearing aids. I didn’t beleive it, but researched it and it’s true! In Hawkeye Vol.1 #1–4, Hawkeye’s hearing is destroyed when he uses a sonic arrow to escape Crossfire. Since then he has sported hearing aids. I did not know that.
Image via news.com.au
But that wasn’t all. Marvel sent Anthony a drawing of a brand new superhero named The Blue Ear (apparently that’s what Anthony would call his hearing aid), a hero that himself wears aids because of hearing issues.
The response to The Blue Ear has generally been positive. Twitter’s #BlueEar has a list of positive comments.
Now, over recent years and months I’ve dropped more and more Marvel comics, to the point that I only pick up two monthlys from them. I used to be a big Marvel Zombi, but really, they’re just not making comics for a guy like me anymore.
But having said that, I take my hat off to whomever in Marvel is responsible for The Blue Ear. Who cares if The Blue Ear never appears in his own monthly comic? Or even gets his own one-shot? Or becomes a member of the Avengers? Or even guest stars in any Marvel comic? Will I start buying more Marvel comics? Nope. But I will acknowledge that Marvel didn’t have to do a thing, but instead went way above and beyond.
Right now there is a little kid who is maybe lying back on his bed, looking up at a big blue superhero picture and believing that even he, with this uncomfortable chunk of plastic and metal jammed in his head, can one day change the world.
And really, what’s wrong with that?
That’s a truly amazing and inspiring story! If only all corporations were so socially responsible! In this day and age, it’s they who have the power to change lives, and even though I’ve never bought a Marvel comic in my life, I applaud them for this selfless gesture.