Comic Books like Marvel’s X-Men and Inhumans have an underlying and sometimes blatant lesson for their readers: tolerate others and accept those who are different from us. Other than their powers, these fictional characters share similar shortcomings that we have in our own real lives. Teen angst, self-doubt, fears, heartbreaks, you name the symptom and some character is bound to have it. When you look at these social outcasts, you can relate to them especially when you’re a teen growing up and trying to figure out who you are and where you fit in this world. That’s all fine and dandy but what about the villains in their universe?
Glorifying a villain as misunderstood due to a deprived, troubled childhood is beyond inappropriate. It’s reprehensible and diminishes the hero, who should be the one being glorified and romanticized or what the heck is the point of the hero? The hero is not the supporting character, what part of “hero” do some hack writers not get? Romanticizing the villain without the character fully and permanently redeeming him or herself isn’t even good writing in terms of character development nor plot so there is no real point of doing it. Particularly when they are as twisted and evil as DC’s The Joker. There is no redeeming factor for some of these devils as much as can be said for some real life people out there who are just plain evil. Some do it by choice, for others it’s in their nature. Whatever the case, they commit terror against other people who have every right to live out their lives, so NO. It isn’t grey. It’s clear cut. They kidnap, rape, torture, and kill people in barbaric ways. He or she chose to do the bidding of evil. They are the bad guys. PERIOD. There should be no shades of grey here. A perfect life is rare, even for the hero. This incessant need to humanize villains is off center. It is the victim and the hero with whom the reader should identify with. Not the character who chose the wrong side of justice. We all have problems which is why we should tolerate and be kind to each other instead of miserable. It is part of being a mature, responsible adult and citizen. Most of us still know to take the loss and still do right by others, but glorifying and romanticizing villains, be it mobsters like those seen in The Godfather, The Sopranos, Scarface, and Goodfellas to comic book villains in the upcoming Warner Brothers feature film Suicide Squad, it’s twisted.
Marvel Comics’ The Punisher (Frank Castle), saw his entire family get murdered. He became a vigilante. He took the law into his own hands because he saw the law as slow, full of loopholes, useless. The law frowns upon vigilantism because of population control. The government doesn’t want everyone going around taking the law into their hands. It doesn’t justify the existence and authority of the police and the judicial system, so it’s seen as a crime in its own right. In real life, President Andrew Jackson supported vigilantism. If it was fine for the Democratic President, then it is fine for fictional soldier and citizen Frank Castle; especially when you have an inept criminal justice system and people whipped into fear through shaming and political correctness.
People refer to the Punisher as one who is glorifying guns, others see him as a hero who is getting rid of some bad guys before they hurt others. His character is reminiscent of Charles Bronson’s character in the Death Wish franchise and Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dirty Harry series. Punisher is doing Batman‘s job but in a more permanent way that goes against Batman‘s views. Both characters are known in their respective universes as needing psychiatric attention; Frank Castle is Dick Tracy on steroids. He just happens to be a more believable character than Bruce Wayne is. One whose existence could be possible and probable. He doesn’t have the luxuries Wayne has so he needs to come up with money and he needs guns. It’s hard to fight evil without a gun when evil has guns. He has to fight fire with fire. The difference is, the gun in Punisher’s hand is used for good; to take out evil. The guns in the bad guys hands are used to carry out crimes, usually heinous ones. Yet both Batman and The Punisher find that more often than not they have to work under the cover of night where there are less witnesses out and about. The night gives them the extra chance to disappear into the darkness without being caught by the local and/or government authorities who despise vigilantes because vigilantes are doing a better job than the ones deputized to do the work in the first place, particularly in literature.
Writers need to stop humanizing and glorifying a depraved individual like The Joker. When the final installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman movie premiered in a theater out west, a lunatic shot up a movie theater and killed a number of people. That sick individual did it for the notoriety. What made him into the monster that he is, isn’t guns or comic books. It was the medication he was on and his warped feelings toward society. Taking gun rights away from all Americans wouldn’t have changed anything. When you get an evil nut like him out on the street, he’ll figure something out to kill a large number of people. From building a homemade bomb to simply locking everyone in the theatre from the outside and setting the building on fire.
The movie theater tragedy re-ignited the gun debate. The irony is not lost here. The Batman character himself has his origin in gun violence as we have seen it played out time and time again in the comics, on film, and in animated media. As a result of what happened to his folks, Batman does not carry a gun. He originally did but that was before they concocted his origin; after his origin was explained, he never really carried a gun again and he never killed until recent reboots of the character by DC that is. Bad move on DC because DC just destroyed the most admirable part of the character. The issue here is mental illness, not the gun. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have guns and they have them at home to protect their families. Hundreds of thousands of these guns were not used in a crime today. It’s not the weapon. It’s who has possession of it. Much like Batman’s utility belt, the gun is a piece of technology and like any other piece of technology, it can be used for good or bad. The Punisher uses guns for the side of good; his enemies use them for evil.
The movie theater killer is an insane guy who got dressed up as the equally insane Joker with the only difference being that The Joker is fictional. He committed a heinous act while an audience watched the Batman movie, something like The Joker would do in the comics. Maybe that nut was trying to call out a real life Batman to his real life Joker. Surprisingly, the Media and the politicians did not attack comic books over this issue.
They chose not to because superhero movies are big box office for Hollywood and Hollywood is politically active. Hollywood gives lots of money and perks to the politicians who do its bidding. There is the crime that really goes unpunished. Comic Books are glorifying guns and evil as much as the rest of the entertainment industry is. It’s where the money is.
To quote the late professional wrestler Randy “Macho Man” Savage: “Where money lies, honor dies”…and usually it’s with a body count.