I'll confess here and now that I'm a fan of the superhero movie. It comes from an early childhood peppered with comic books that today have become billion-dollar blockbusters with amazing story lines, and I'm enjoying many of them. Those kinds of "heroes" are important for an escape from day-to-day reality, for some relaxing fun.

But for real heroes, the work is a little harder. Yet in the real world, the bad guys can be just as devastating, even if not spouting world-ending worries. Years ago, when my daughter was a little girl, we talked about movies, and I made it clear that a good movie has to have a good bad guy — if the villain isn’t threatening in a convincing way, the movie won’t be good. In agriculture, we must be making a blockbuster in real life, because some of the “bad guys” are pretty tough. Perhaps if we could characterize them as “super-villains,” we could better understand how to find their weaknesses and defeat them. Here are a few that I’ve observed:

• Captain Misinformed has the power to reach millions of blog followers with little or no knowledge of the subject he or she writes about. Whether talking about bread ingredients, the air we breathe or any other topic, the good “captain” spouts whatever new idea appears, and readers blithely believe the info without checking the facts. 

• Monument Maker isn’t so much a person, but an idea that’s made real through the creation of a machine; perhaps it works in the home office like a giant robot waiting to take over the world. Like many super-villains, MM is misguided into believing the idea espoused is the “right” way — no matter the facts. For example, the idea that GMO-free means something on a product that never had biotech content shows that the Monument Maker has powers beyond those of mortal men.

• The Lawyer is a kind of consciousness that builds into its own ideas about what’s right or wrong. The Lawyer may become a petition that leads to a lawsuit. The Lawyer is powerful because even in defeat, this villain can arise again with a new cause or new program idea that gets pushed through, regardless of its value to the market — or even the consumer.

• The Changer is a movement or an idea that tends to change shape when you try to throttle it out of existence. Perhaps this villain starts on one path with the idea of making you do something new on your farm, without any financial value or for a specific reason. But when the reason falls through, The Changer isn’t worried, he just changes the rules of the game. Perhaps that oil pipeline must be stopped, because it infringes on property rights — but the court rules otherwise. Then, the Changer strikes back with an even bigger counterargument, noting that said pipeline goes over sacred land. You name a cause, and the Changer has an answer.

I’ve had a little fun with some ideas, but where are the heroes? Turns out, as with many good movies, the hero will be a normal person with a need to succeed against these potent foes. Real heroes don’t parade around in tights — or even the fancy leather that’s common in the movies these days. Real heroes understand that with the right effort, any villain can be stopped.

Based on the bad guys we’ve observed, there’s work ahead. Are you heroes ready to suit up?