"We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition... We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed."
— Kara
Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot is a DC Comics short story published in Christmas with the Super-Heroes Vol 1 #2 (1989). Featuring Deadman and Supergirl, who had been exiled from continuity only four years before, it was written by Alan Brennert, illustrated by Dick Giordano and edited by Mark Waid.
It is Christmas Eve, and Boston Brand -a.k.a. Deadman- is having a rough time. He is helping people who will never know about his efforts. People are partying and being merry all around him, and he cannot enjoy the festive atmosphere by joining them. All in all, Boston is feeling despondent, very alone and quite sour.
Then, right when he is wallowing in his misery, Deadman meets an unfamiliar woman who knows a thing or two about heroism and sacrifice, and has a thoughtful word of advice to give.
The story was reprinted in the 2016 collection Tales of the Batman: Alan Brennert (which, in spite of its name, also reprinted non-Batman comics written by Brennert).
Tropes:
- Attention Whore: Deadman is having trouble coping with his existence as an invisible guardian angel because in life he was a performer. He loved being in the spotlight and being showered with the people's praise, admiration and adulation, and he cannot deal with it being gone forever.
- Body Surf: Through the story, Deadman quickly jumps from a corrupt businessman to a female skater to a random partygoer.
- Christmas Episode: The story revolves around Supergirl comforting a distraught Deadman on Christmas Eve.
- Cute Ghost Girl: Despite being dead, Kara keeps being a beautiful woman.
- Dedication: The story is dedicated to Otto Binder, who created Kara in The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), and Jim Mooney, her main artist during the Silver Age.
- Failed a Spot Check: At no point during their talk Deadman realizes the obvious reason why Kara can see a ghost like himself.
- Flying Dutchman: After her death and the universe's reboot, Supergirl's spirit became stuck into the new Earth, existing as an aimless wandering ghost.
- Friendly Ghost: Kara may be dead and forgotten, but her present status will not stop her from helping people in need.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Few know who Deadman is since he's a ghost who can possess anyone. This means whoever he possesses is the one who will get credit (if at all in the first place). On Christmas Eve, Boston Brand finally cracks and is going through a breakdown when he is greeted by Kara. Kara fought the Anti-Monitor when he was trying to devour what little was left of The Multiverse. She was killed by him, but she hurt him, shattered his armor, and destroyed his reality-eating machines, buying the surviving heroes a little time to regroup and defeat him. However, when the new universe was rebooted, Kara Zor-El and all memory of her was erased from existence. She saved the universe but no one remembered it. Nonetheless, she explains that acknowledgement and popularity were never her motivation.
- Guardian Angel: Deadman has been helping people as an invisible spirit since he died, but his role is beginning to take its toll on his mood...until he meets Kara Zor-El, another fellow hero who has just been killed off and forgotten by the whole universe, and has been acting as a guardian angel for people in need since.
- Healthy in Heaven: Kara's disembodied soul still looks young and beautiful. Her bruises and wounds have vanished together with the hole that the Anti-Monitor blasted through her belly, and she is wearing elegant winter clothes instead of her ragged and torn super-hero outfit.
- Heroic BSoD: After witnessing a Christmas party which reminds him everything he has lost, Deadman's mood rapidly shifts from frustrated to upset to mad to sad. After screaming angrily at Rama Kushna, Deadman deflates, sits down on the street and starts brooding over the Lords of Order, humans, his fate and everything altogether.
- Mysterious Protector: Deadman is getting upset because nobody is aware of the good he has done until Kara reminds him that fame and glory are not his goals. Of course, Kara knows what she is talking about, since she operated as a secret hero for many months since her arrival to her public reveal, and that is not counting that nobody knows she saved the universe.
- No Antagonist: The story revolves around Deadman feeling upset because his good deeds are being not acknowledged and Supergirl giving him counsel as discussing the nature of true heroism.
- Noodle Incident: Kara never explains what kind of business she had to go to attend to (what with being a forgotten ghost) when saying goodbye to Deadman.
- Paradox Person: Kara Zor-El still exists, despite being killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and DC going to great lengths to ensure that she couldn't exist in the new universe.
- Pride: Deadman is having troubles adapting to being an invisible ghost because he loved being a famous star, and he cannot deal with the fact that his life in the limelight is over. As Kara puts it, he soared and was cut down at his height.
- Ret-Gone: Deadman is wondering why he bothers going on when a young woman, who can see him, tells him: "We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition... We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed." Then she disappears into the night, but not before Deadman asks her name. "My name is Kara. Though I doubt that'll mean anything to you."
- Spirit Advisor: Kara Zor-El's ghost appears before a distressed Deadman to comfort and remind him why heroes are heroes.
- Unfinished Business: Kara does not explain why her ghost is wandering around the Earth, but when saying goodbye to Deadman, she states she has business to attend to.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Deadman complains that nobody acknowledges or even knows about his good deeds, Kara flatly asks if he is a hero only because he wants to be famous and beloved. Although she is not berating him directly, Deadman can hear the disappointment in her voice.Kara: "Could it be that what's really bothering you...is the fact that all these people around us don't even know what you've done on their behalf?"
Deadman: "And what if it is? I knock myself out fighting for them, but does anyone know? Does anyone care?"
Kara: "Probably not. I mean, you are dead, you know. Comes with the territory."
Deadman: "Gosh, thanks. I feel much better now."
Kara: "So you want recognition, then? You want glory?'"
Deadman: (thinking) There was something about her...about her tone...that made me feel like lichen, compared to her. I'd been feeling like Job. And here she was, making me feel like Judas. And I didn't know why. - What You Are in the Dark: Discussed. Deadman nearly steals an innocent man's Christmas by spending it in his body (those he possesses have no memory of the time he controls them). As he is lamenting how much it sucks that he can't celebrate the holiday without stealing it from someone else and how the nature of the way he operates means he will never be more than a circus performer that died years ago in the eyes of the world, he meets a mysterious woman that can see and hear him. She reminds him that, as long as good is being done, it doesn't matter if the world knows who did it. It doesn't matter if no one remembers you ever even existed at all.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Deadman is feeling upset over being an anonymous hero, Kara reminds him that he doesn't need the glory of superheroing — he does it because it's the right thing to do.Kara: "You're only human. You are still human, Boston. Don't be ashamed in it; rejoice in it. Because it means your spirit — as flawed or selfish as our spirits can sometimes be — is still alive."
- You Can See Me?: Deadman is shocked when Kara greets him. He does not figure out, though, that she can see him and hear him because she is also a ghost.
