America has plenty of superheroes in fiction. In real life, though, some of the people who come closest to that ideal have spent years being viewed with suspicion.
Police officers are expected to move toward gunfire. Firefighters enter burning homes as residents escape, and paramedics race to help when someone is critically ill. These are ordinary parts of the job for people who take extraordinary risks, often without knowing whether they’ll make it home to their families.
First responders also work amid political debates that can cast their professions in a harsh light, while departments may lack the staff and support they need. When fewer people want to do this work, the effects are hard to ignore.
After George Floyd’s death in 2020, calls to defund the police drew national attention. New York City officials announced about $1 billion in cuts and budget transfers for the NYPD, though independent analysts said much of the stated reduction reflected accounting changes rather than lower spending. In Minneapolis, voters rejected a proposal in 2021 to replace the police department with a Department of Public Safety.
Those arguments involved serious questions about policing and accountability. But they also left potential recruits with the impression that a career in law enforcement could put them at the center of a political storm. For departments already having trouble hiring, that likely didn’t help.
A Government Accountability Office report published in February 2026 found that resignations and retirements among officers generally rose between 2019 and 2024, adding to staffing losses. A subsequent survey found some improvement in 2025, but staffing levels had not returned to where they were at the start of 2020. Recruiting and retaining experienced officers remains difficult.
Violent crime, meanwhile, fell substantially again in 2025, according to the FBI. That’s encouraging, but it shouldn’t lead people to take emergency responders for granted.
Restoring confidence takes practical steps: fair pay, adequate equipment, sensible policies, and accountability. It also means renewing respect for the choice to answer a call for help. Michael Letts is trying to contribute to that effort.
Letts founded InVEST USA, an organization that helps provide body armor to first responders. His latest project focuses less on physical protection and more on how young people view the work. “Bulletproof: Blackweed,” created by Letts and written by Redd Harvey, is a superhero comic featuring a police officer, a paramedic, and a firefighter.
The characters face dangerous enemies and threats to their communities. Letts hopes the story will give young readers a sense of courage, faith, and sacrifice—and show them that public service is worth respecting.
“For years, I’ve worked to protect the people who protect us physically,” Letts said in a phone interview. “With ‘Bulletproof,’ I want to help protect that calling itself. Children should grow up understanding that courage, service, and sacrifice are worth admiring, and that the people who run toward danger deserve our respect.”
He has a point about the value of showing children positive examples of heroism. Popular culture can shape what they admire and what they imagine doing themselves. If young people encounter police officers only through scandals and grim headlines, they may miss that the work can demand real courage.
There’s a risk, of course, in overcorrecting. First responders aren’t comic-book characters. Some make serious mistakes, and some abuse their authority. Respect for a badge shouldn’t mean looking away from wrongdoing. A profession can’t expect public trust if it won’t hold its members accountable.
Still, focusing only on failures gives an incomplete picture, just as refusing to acknowledge them would. Most people won’t need a superhero. They may, though, need a firefighter to climb through a smoke-filled building, a paramedic to try to restart a heart, or an officer to protect them from someone intent on causing harm.
A comic can’t solve staffing shortages or mend every strained relationship between police and the communities they serve. It might remind some young readers that bravery and public service are worth pursuing. That shouldn’t be a controversial idea.
First responders need the tools to do their jobs, the trust of the people they serve, and some reason to believe the next generation will be willing to follow them. If “Bulletproof: Blackweed” helps even a few children see the person behind the uniform, its impact will reach beyond the page.
