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Not every epic hero has to travel from Troy to Ithaca, across Middle-earth or Westeros, or along the Yellow Brick Road to battle monsters, forge unlikely friendships, discover hidden powers and vanquish the shadow that threatens to engulf their world.

Whenever there is a decline in dharma — this is me paraphrasing Krishna speaking to the epic hero Arjun — and a consequent surge in adharma, I bring myself forth: “In order to reestablish dharma, and to deliver the just while annihilating the unjust, I appear in eon after eon.”

Naturally, an epic hero needs a deputy; Bird’s first act is to find Sadie, who has been taken from her home — her Black mother was automatically suspect — and sent to live with a set of bland, compliant foster parents.

Yeah, we could have used an epic hero about now.

All this serves to frame O'Rourke as a figure akin to Luke Skywalker or Odysseus or Jon Snow, an epic hero who has been picked by supernatural forces to lead the rest of humanity.