In the new DC Super Hero Girls graphic novel, Powerless, Wonder Woman, Bee, Zatanna, Supergirl, Green Lantern, and Batgirl set out to save Metropolis but hit a little snag; a power outage cuts off their communication and knocks out all of Babs’s gadgets. Concerned that the team’s resident non-meta will get hurt, the other members of the SHG try to send Babs home but they’ve forgotten about her other power, the one that spawned all the gadgets in the first place.

They’ve forgotten about her brain power.

As a collective, it’s possible we’ve forgotten about brain power. Now is the perfect time to hit the recall button and teach your kids that  heroes aren’t always the ones in the center of the political or physical food web.

But Shiri, you’re thinking, how is now the perfect time for anything?

Allow me to explain.

Take a look at the people wielding control over us at the moment. Actually, you know what, scratch that; it’s like looking at a gorgon’s oranger, meaner, dumber rough draft.

Consider the people in power. Consider how much they’re enjoying the flex. How much they revel in screwing with us because they can, in having literal control over who lives and who dies. Being able to say whatever they want whenever they want. Controlling the flow of information and making promises they can’t keep. At the moment, our problems are so huge and demand so much focus, there isn’t much we can do about it.

Now think about the heroes. Doctors. Nurses. Hospital cleaning staff. Respiratory techs. Delivery drivers. Vaccine scientists. Study participants. Blood donors. The folx stocking shelves at the grocery store. Factory workers making masks and gowns. Their powers are of an entirely different sort – they’re brave, honest, selfless, patient, and determined.

They can’t, perhaps, change national policy or the course of history – at least not right away and maybe not in broad, sweeping strokes – but the small differences they make in day-to-day lives? Those minute gestures and incremental acts are what will save actually save us.

I know you feel helpless. I know you feel that if you’re none of the above, there’s no way you can make a dent in the chaos being wrought by those in power.

But you can. It won’t be flashy. It won’t make you famous. You may not see the difference it’s making right now. But down the line, it will change the world.

You can be like Babs. You can teach your kids to be like Babs.

Use your head. Teach them to use their heads.

We’re all being bombarded by information right now. We’re all on devices more than normal because there are a lot of hours in the day and it’s harder to fill them when you don’t have anywhere to go. The thing about the internet, and especially social media, is that anyone can say anything they want; there’s no vetting process, no peer review, and no fact checking.

Part of what’s made the Covid-19 situation so dangerous is a preponderance of misinformation. Because when you’re scared and desperate, it’s hard to remember that what you’re looking at might be a half truth, a rumor, or an outright lie. It’s hard to take a moment, breathe, slow down, and investigate because we all want so badly to protect the people we care about and/or for the mess to be over.

Alas, forging ahead with a yawp and blinders is not, as we say in the medical community, best practice.

You don’t have to be an MD, an RN, or a PhD to find the reliable stuff. Look for information being posted by hospitals and universities. By the CDC and the NIH (National Institutes of Health). By MDs, RNs, and PhDs (take an extra 30 seconds to check their creds; Dr Oz does technically have a medical license but it should have been revoked long ago). If you have questions, hold off until you can ask a medical professional you trust to say, “You know what, I don’t know, let me find out for you,” if, well, they don’t know. Verify with second and third and fourth sources that are equally, if not more, credible the your first.

Do this before you repeat or repost. Do this before you say anything in front of your kids because they are looking to you and listening to you and, like you, trying to figure out how to handle whatever the hell is going on.

Let them see you questioning. Let them see you verifying. Let them see you waiting. Let them see you taking the path of greater resistance, the path of patience, the path of science and verification.

Let them see you being a Jim Gordon and then they, too, will be Gordons.

You’ll be teaching them the most important powers they’ll ever wield – no matter what they do, no matter who they become – are those of their minds. You can lose the strength to punch. Maybe someone throws a glowing green rock at you and you suddenly can’t leap those buildings anymore. But it’s much, much harder for someone to take your mind away.

Brain power is one kids can use to protect not only themselves but also the people they care about. Hell, if the vaccine that’s in its first round of trials now works, the scientists who created it have used the powers of their minds to protect the whole world.

I’ll take that over flight any day.

DC Super Hero Girls: Powerless by Amy Wolfram and Agnes Garbowska is available now. If your local comic shop or bookstore is still open for curbside, give them a bump. Even tiny flexes make a big difference right now.