The words in the headline are attributable to Uncle Ben, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. And you might know Peter Parker better as Spiderman. This iconic phrase, however, was not spoken by Uncle Ben, but appears in a narrative caption of Marvels’ Amazing Fantasy #15: “. . . with great power there must also come – great responsibility!”

Correction: in Stan Lee’s Amazing Fantasy #15. Correction: it was famously first quoted by Albert Einstein. Correction: it originates in 1817 with William Lamb, a British Member of Parliament, who said: “The possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility.”

When I was contemplating what I was to write about, news broke that Lee had passed away at age 95. His name might not be that familiar to you, but his characters – iconic characters – sure are. If you do not recognise any of Lee’s creations, then you are not from this world and have not been in this world for some time. The more famous Lee creations are Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Black Panther and The Fantastic Four. Lee was the co-creator of Marvel, arguably the world’s most popular publisher of comic books, which has grown to include a film studio that has produced several Hollywood blockbusters in which Lee makes cameo appearances.

Lee’s passing made me think about South Africa’s superheroes – its economic superheroes, that is. Some might say I should say its lack of super- heroes. For a change, let us not dwell on the negative and focus on the positive instead, no matter how weak that ray of light might be.

When thinking about South Africa’s economic superheroes, there are a few things to consider, such as whether they would act as an individual or as a collective. If they act as a collective, would their superpowers be supplementary? This leads to this important question: What would the individual superpowers be?

In contemplating what your superhero, or superheroes, would be, just bear in mind that a hero is a person who is admired for his or her courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities.

As for superpowers, according to Comic Book Resources, a website dedicated to the coverage of comic books, the top 20 superpowers in descending order are X-ray vision, heat/laser vision/optic blasts, intangibility, body manipulation (growth and stretching), shapeshifting, enhanced senses, immortality, absorbing powers, regeneration, invisibility, force fields, flight, teleportation, superstrength, invulnerability, superspeed, time travel, telekinesis, telepathy and elemental control.

Most of the superpowers seem to me to be focused on fighting and manipulation, which is quite disheartening. If anything, all that South Africa needs is for a superhero, or two, to be engaged in fighting, other than to prevent injustice that is. Unfortunately, however, the temptation to attain power at all costs and the associated accumulation of wealth at the expense of all others is a major South African economic superhero flaw.

The distinguishing feature of the comic superheroes is that they seek to continually return their universe to justice and to eradicate the injustices. They do not do so for personal gain – financial or otherwise – or for recognition; they do it merely for the collective good.

There have been far too many injustices of all kinds and descriptions that have been perpetrated against South Africans from all walks of life. These injustices need to be dealt with at great speed and precision.

Singer Nina Hagen reminds us: “We can change the world if we change ourselves. We just need to get hold of the old patterns of thinking and dealing with things and start listening to our inner voices and trusting our own superpowers.”

What is your superpower? It is time that you harness it.