It’s that time of year when the ringing of the school bell drowns out the sounds of a summer gone by. America is returning to learning, and whether that’s good news or bad typically depends on what that means to you. In the DC Universe, for many heroes it means it’s time to fold up the costumes and return to class—not as students, but as the molders of the bright minds of tomorrow. After all, don’t they say that education is really the best way to fight crime?
Though it may be harder to fill a splash page with a pop quiz than a finishing blow against a ruthless super-villain, Superman would surely tell you that our teachers are the real heroes. Therefore, it’s all the more admirable that some of the costumed set commit just as much to making the world better in their day job as in their spandex routines. Here are five of the heroes who do it best.
1) Guy Gardner
The most irascible Green Lantern in the Corps has a bit of a reputation among the superhero set. A bully. A blowhard. An egoist. The first into the fray when there’s a punch to be thrown. In his personal life, though, it’s a different story. Follow him out of the green jacket and you might get to know the real Guy Gardner.
Before he ever donned the ring, Guy Gardner, son of Baltimore, dedicated himself to becoming a pillar of his community. After his brother Mace was critically injured for his involvement in a drug trafficking ring, Guy demonstrated the true will of a Green Lantern by turning his own life around. He went back to school and got a degree in education, and provided it to the people who needed it most as both a prison counselor and a gym teacher at a special education school. Guy Gardner wasn’t chosen for the Corps just because of his hard head—it’s because despite his rough upbringing, he has the will to ensure the next generation and others who have lost their way have a brighter future.
2) Huntress
Helena Bertinelli is the Huntress because of the unignorable call of the omertà—the cry for blood. It’s the need for vengeance which boils within her. Teaching is what Helena Bertinelli does for herself. It’s in the classroom teaching English that Helena is at her most fulfilled…or at least, where she’d like to be.
The omertà within her restless soul will not release its grip until all those who took her family from her, and those like them, have paid the ultimate price for their crimes. It’s gotten to the point that Helena has lost teaching jobs for her multiple unannounced and unexcused absences from the classroom in favor of the crossbow. In Grayson, however, Helena finds a way to combine her passions as an instructor at St. Hadrian’s Boarding School for Girls, where as a covert spy academy, her nighttime activities are viewed as more asset than liability.
3) Ryan Choi
Ryan Choi is the dedicated adjunct professor to the renowned physics professor Raymond Palmer at one of the DC Universe’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, Ivy University. So why are we nominating him instead of Ray? Well, because unlike the Atom of the Silver Age, our modern Atom is actually there for his students.
Ray is usually too busy exploring the microverse, the multiverse, or some other subatomic realm we mere mortals can scarcely comprehend, let alone perceive. He’s always been dedicated more to the research end of being a professor than his role as an educator. It’s Professor Choi who develops a connection with Palmer’s students, passing on the fruits of their research to inform tomorrow’s physicists. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that he’s a real cutie.
4) Black Lightning
“Where is the future?” “Whose life is this?” “And what are you gonna do with it?” These are the questions that Jefferson Pierce asks of all his students. Their respective answers: “Right here.” “Mine.” “Live it, by any means necessary.”
Formerly an Olympic athlete, Jefferson’s passion to shape the future brought him to the classroom as an English teacher. Then a principal. Then, for a while, the Secretary of Education in the presidential cabinet. It’s hard to deny the man’s power to inspire his kids, whether he’s working in Metropolis, Gotham City or Freeland. Jefferson defines himself as an educator more than any other hero we can think of, and if it were up to him, it’s what he’d be doing 24 hours a day. But, like Huntress, old wounds to his family call out to be answered. The classroom provides long-term solutions to society’s ills, but some immediate dangers must be answered right here and now. That can only happen as Black Lightning, a burden he bears so others won’t have to.
5) O-Sensei
The DC Universe is a place of action, a world of conflict, and it’s for that reason that most of the teachers we meet are martial arts teachers.
Of all the great masters who have taught the likes of Batman and his allies, one stands above the rest: the O-Sensei, teacher of Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva. This great master of martial arts teaches his students not only how to fight, but how to live with value and integrity, to discipline themselves in a way which brings them in harmony with the universe. O-Sensei knew Batman, Green Arrow and the Question for but brief moments near the end of his long life, but in his encounters with them, he changed each of their lives and personal philosophies forever. There may be deadlier masters of martial arts out there, but none so wise.
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Find him in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros., nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
