“We’re all just one bad day away from being the bad guy on some level.”
“The hero is only as good as their villains.”
“From their point of view, Villains are the hero of the story.”
Watching Adam West Batman or 60s cartoon Spider-Man it always seemed so clear. Growing up in the late 70s/ early 80s was a glorious time because it was easy to see that good guys were just that. Virtuous. Pure. Even framed for a crime they did not commit the A-Team always were the good guys. They did they right thing not because their caretakers were harmed but because they were noble, and doing the right thing was the correct way. It was a case of correlation, not causation, that created the Dark Knight. Batman did not want vengeance; he wanted to project us from experiencing the same pain. And somewhere along the way that changed into a naïve way of thinking. Nothing is that black and white.
I think I first unconsciously noticed it in the slasher movies of the 80s. Instead of cheering Ginny or Tommy, we wanted Jason to kill Horshack. Heck, we cheered when Jason was resurrected and did just that. I dressed as child killer Freddy Kreuger in the 6th grade even! Not soon afterwards Hannibal Lector was the coolest guy and Agent Starling was just a means to get us from violent set piece to even more violent set piece. And my beloved comic books were doing the same. Venom, a slightly better version of an evil clone Spidey rip-off went from lines like “Kiss your Aunt May good-bye Spider-Man! You’re gonna die!” and “Alas, Poor Spider-Man. I killed him well!” to getting his own series call Lethal PROTECTOR! Protector of being a pale imitation of the original at best. The only way to best Spider-Man was to actually become him. Burying the hero is pretty damned horrific, maybe too much so.
And over at DC the Joker killed Robin after we asked for it! Can you imagine how far removed from doing the right thing we could be, that we voted to kill a teenager because he was not “our” Robin? A few years later, we cheered when that dead teenager came back and was even more violent and even fought against Batman with guns?!?! Guns! Batman’s famous quote is “these are the weapons of cowards!” Yet here we are 20 years later and Red Hood is still one of the most popular “heroes” in the DCU. Always tortured and tragic, Jason is still searching for his final redemption, looking for hope.
My favorite comic book issue of all time, is Thor #362. It is the redemption of the “villain” pure and simple. Skurge the Executioner, after being laughed at and failing at everything for millennia finally realizes that being honorable is the better choice. And he heroically sacrifices himself so that Thor and the Asgardians can rescue the lost souls Hela has stolen. It is as epic as it is satisfying. In the end Skurge dies a hero’s death, is redeemed, and enters Valhalla.
I guess what I am trying to get at is, we are all human, we all make mistakes, and we all want to be the hero of our own story. We need to remember this and try to do right by others, not just ourselves. Being a hero is not winning. Being a hero is helping everyone win. Read more comics.