Just Something I Noticed...
So, I was rereading "Kingdom Come" by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (published by DC Comics, duh) the other day, and I suddenly came to the realization that the message behind Kingdom Come is the exact opposite of the mini-series "Wanted". Allow me to elaborate.
"Kingdom Come" is set in the "near future" of the DC Universe. The premise is that, at some point in time a group of "New Wave" Superheroes show up. They're flashy and bright, but at the same time, dangerous and unstable. These new Superheroes go around killing off the Supervillians, which of course is a big no-no to the older heroes like Superman. Eventually, the Old School Heroes leave and go into seclusion. The New School Heroes wipe out all the Bad Guys, and then spend all of their time beating each other up for absolutely no good reason. Eventually, the Old School Heroes return and a War erupts between these two sets of philosophies. And in the end, everything goes straight to Hell. The Moral of the story is: Superheroes shouldn't go around killing Bad Guys.
Then, there's Mark Millar's "Wanted" from Image Comics. Set in a world eerily reminescent of the DC Universe, the premise behind Wanted is that one day, all of the Supervillians get together and stomp the Superheroes flat. They brainwash the Superheroes into thinking they're ordinary people, and they brainwash the entire planet into thinking that superpeople are fictional. After that, the Supervillians secretly control a world that looks more than a little bit like our current one. The Moral of the story is: Supervillians are bad guys, and left to their own devices, they will eventually succeed in doing something really, really, aweful.
Here's where I slap my two cents in. I don't think that Superman should run around killing people. Or Spiderman. Or even Batman for that matter. It's not right for their characters. And even though they've all got a rogue's gallery full of dangerous supervillians, any one of whom could awful things to them, the whole point of being a hero is that at the end of the day, the heroes overcome the villians. Maybe that's not how it works in real life, but hey, it's not like there's guys who can leap tall buildings in a single bound in real life either.
BUT, on the other hand, I don't get what the big deal about superheroes killing supervillians is either. Think about it. A cop is chasing down a criminal. The criminal shoots at the cop. Now, does the cop try to take the criminal alive at this point? Hell no! The cop shoots back, because this is a life or death situation. Oh course it's worth mentioning, if the criminal surrenders, the cop probably isn't gonna gun him down. I hope I never get put in a dangerous situation, but if for some reason some guy comes at me with an intent to kill my ass, then I'm gonna come at him just as hard (Hahaha! Listen to me talking all tough. I'd probably just piss myself and run away, screaming like a leetle girl...).
That's pretty much the philosophy behind most of the action stories in the TORCverse. My characters aren't fighting to save the city or a group of bystanders, or to stop a jewel thief. They're fighting for their very lives against an enemy that will not stop coming until one of them is DEAD. There is no surrender, and even if there was, what would you do with the bad guy after he surrendered anyway? How do you put a Demon from Hell in jail? Most of my characters are rejects from society who don't exactly have access to prison facilities. (Course, even then there are exceptions to even this rule. After all, the Sheriff's office in Mosquito Village probably has a jail, and the hard working cops of the MCPD probably have access to prison facilities...) It's kinda like that old samurai proverb, "Don't draw your sword unless you're prepared to get cut down."
"Kingdom Come" is set in the "near future" of the DC Universe. The premise is that, at some point in time a group of "New Wave" Superheroes show up. They're flashy and bright, but at the same time, dangerous and unstable. These new Superheroes go around killing off the Supervillians, which of course is a big no-no to the older heroes like Superman. Eventually, the Old School Heroes leave and go into seclusion. The New School Heroes wipe out all the Bad Guys, and then spend all of their time beating each other up for absolutely no good reason. Eventually, the Old School Heroes return and a War erupts between these two sets of philosophies. And in the end, everything goes straight to Hell. The Moral of the story is: Superheroes shouldn't go around killing Bad Guys.
Then, there's Mark Millar's "Wanted" from Image Comics. Set in a world eerily reminescent of the DC Universe, the premise behind Wanted is that one day, all of the Supervillians get together and stomp the Superheroes flat. They brainwash the Superheroes into thinking they're ordinary people, and they brainwash the entire planet into thinking that superpeople are fictional. After that, the Supervillians secretly control a world that looks more than a little bit like our current one. The Moral of the story is: Supervillians are bad guys, and left to their own devices, they will eventually succeed in doing something really, really, aweful.
Here's where I slap my two cents in. I don't think that Superman should run around killing people. Or Spiderman. Or even Batman for that matter. It's not right for their characters. And even though they've all got a rogue's gallery full of dangerous supervillians, any one of whom could awful things to them, the whole point of being a hero is that at the end of the day, the heroes overcome the villians. Maybe that's not how it works in real life, but hey, it's not like there's guys who can leap tall buildings in a single bound in real life either.
BUT, on the other hand, I don't get what the big deal about superheroes killing supervillians is either. Think about it. A cop is chasing down a criminal. The criminal shoots at the cop. Now, does the cop try to take the criminal alive at this point? Hell no! The cop shoots back, because this is a life or death situation. Oh course it's worth mentioning, if the criminal surrenders, the cop probably isn't gonna gun him down. I hope I never get put in a dangerous situation, but if for some reason some guy comes at me with an intent to kill my ass, then I'm gonna come at him just as hard (Hahaha! Listen to me talking all tough. I'd probably just piss myself and run away, screaming like a leetle girl...).
That's pretty much the philosophy behind most of the action stories in the TORCverse. My characters aren't fighting to save the city or a group of bystanders, or to stop a jewel thief. They're fighting for their very lives against an enemy that will not stop coming until one of them is DEAD. There is no surrender, and even if there was, what would you do with the bad guy after he surrendered anyway? How do you put a Demon from Hell in jail? Most of my characters are rejects from society who don't exactly have access to prison facilities. (Course, even then there are exceptions to even this rule. After all, the Sheriff's office in Mosquito Village probably has a jail, and the hard working cops of the MCPD probably have access to prison facilities...) It's kinda like that old samurai proverb, "Don't draw your sword unless you're prepared to get cut down."
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home