First responders run toward danger. Why do we keep running them down?

America has no shortage of superheroes. The trouble is that some of the people who come closest to being superheroes in real life have spent years being treated like villains.

When a gunman opens fire, police officers are expected to run toward the bullets. When a house catches fire, firefighters enter while families flee. When a child stops breathing, paramedics race against the clock. These are the daily realities of Americans who accept extraordinary risks, often without knowing whether they will return home to their own families.

A comic book cannot fix recruitment problems or repair every strained relationship between police and the communities they serve. It can, however, remind young people that bravery and public service are worth aspiring to.

Yet too many first responders work in