Flip on the television, head off to the movies, or open up a comic book. You’ll see ghosts aplenty, monsters hiding behind every bush, and more evil than you can shake a stick at. Those that battle such terrors are inevitably endowed with superpowers, expensive high-tech gadgets, or an arsenal worthy of the legions of Hell. The conflicts in each of these tales are challenging, but you don’t exactly see Everyman hunting dark forces in most pop culture stories. There seems to be an unwritten assumption that Everyman would get his ass handed to him.

Who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters were a for-profit corporation founded by three guys who each sported PhDs and came from cushy, grant-funded research studies at a major university. Mulder and Scully had the authority and resources of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, with an expense account, sidearms, and cell phones. Buffy Summers inherited superpowers and the insight of an ancient feminine legacyone that even came with a snooty British guy who had most of the answers. Hell, even poor ol’ Carl Kolchak had a steady job and a press pass.

The Brothers Winchester are playing in a high-stakes game where the deck is stacked against them and the dealer wants to rip out their soft and squishy parts. Sam and Dean aren’t sporting proton packs. They have no superpowers to speak of (save a few unreliable incidents for Sam, and he can’t count on them to even pick up a bar tab). There’s no legal authority  …