Alternative History...

If you were or are a comic book reader you're familiar with the whole multiverse thing. Alternative timelines in different worlds that are all changed, sometimes subtle changes, sometimes drastic ones because different decisions were made. It's a storytelling tool they use to try and inject something new into stories that have been running for decades.

Another one is the "what if" series. Like what if the first person Diana saw wasn't an American but a German? Would Wonder Woman then have fought for them? If Superman hadn't landed in a Kansas cornfield and been found by the Kents but near Metropolis and found by the Luthers how would that have gone? Or not in the United States at all but in the Soviet Union? How would that story go?

These are "our" stories so of course the heroes fight for us. But really isn't that by accident more than anything else? The values we hold dear we don't hold any stronger than other places hold theirs.

Who you are is an accident of birth as much as it is anything else. Where you were born, who your parents are, where your parents were born. Those things shape who you are before you even start making choices. What language you speak, what religion you follow, what anthem you sing, birthplace has more to determine that than anything else. Yes, there are people who move, or learn a new language, or change religions but they are the exception, not the rule.

Right now it feels like I've dropped into a comic book where Superman landed in Russia. Or Wonder Woman turned the tide of WWII in favor of the Germans.

America, for all it's faults and we have many, used to not be on the side of Russia and Germany. The Soviets and the Nazis were bad guys, not something we were helping to bring back into power.

Watching as we abandon our allies and stand with their invaders, watching as our diplomats lecture Germany about being nice to Nazis, knowing that our own government is being hollowed out so it can be sold off for parts has left me a little off balance.

I don't like this storyline.

And I'm not sure I'll ever get a chance for a rewrite.