Marvel creates superhero for boy with hearing aid
A little boy wears a hearing aid but doesn't want to. Superheroes don't wear hearing aids. So his mom writes to Marvel Comics. Marvel decides to create a new superhero, complete with hearing aid, just for the little boy.
I defy you not to be moved by this.
Yes, you might be a nerd who is only moved by machines and impossible superheroes.
But here is a small hero, 4-year-old Anthony Smith from Salem, N.H. Anthony wears a hearing aid. He was born with several chromosomal abnormalities. He doesn't have a right ear. He can only hear a little from his left, so he wears a hearing aid.
He calls the hearing aid Blue Ear. But he got fed up wearing it. Why? Because superheroes don't wear hearing aids. They might have been blind, like Daredevil, but wear a hearing aid?
So his mom e-mailed Marvel Comics. Please, she said, can you help?
As Fox 25 in Boston reports, the next day, Marvel sent her Hawkeye, a fine superhero who actually lost 80 percent of his hearing.
But this didn't seem like enough. So the company's artists then sent Anthony a drawing of a totally new superhero: Blue Ear.
Yes, Marvel created a whole new superhero, straight out of the life story of Anthony Smith.
"Thanks to my listening device, I can hear when someone is in trouble," is Blue Ear's mantra.
You will be astonished to hear that Anthony is now proud of his hearing aid. His mother, Christina D'Allesandro, calls it "amazing." Anthony now wants to "help people."
From one simple creation, a boy's life is altered.