Thoughts on Heroes

 What makes a hero? Specifically, what makes a superhero? Extraordinary abilities, obviously...but some superheroes--notably Batman and Robin--have no superpowers; their extraordinariness comes from training and study.

But I think there has to be something more than that. I have always been drawn to the characters who would have been heroic before they gained superpowers or put on a tight-fitting suit. Prime example is the original version of the 1960s Green Lantern: Hal Jordan. Jordan was a test pilot before he met the alien who handed him a glowing lantern and a ring. If you read the accounts of his past as they were revealed, he was to all extents the DC Universe equivalent of Neil Armstrong. Had that fateful meeting not put him on a different path, he might well have been one of his world's Mercury astronauts. He was already a hero.

Similarly, because of the way he was raised by his foster parents, Clark Kent might have been a hero even if his alien origins didn't give him superpowers. In some ways, even when he wasn't flying around dressed in red-and-blue, he was: Reporters take risks, put themselves in danger as part of their jobs. Clark was dedicated to helping his neighbors--he didn't need a cape to do it.

I don't feel the same way about Batman, at least not as he is characterized today. In the 1950s and '60s, I did. In those days, Bruce Wayne, having exorcised his own demons, set about to protect everyone else. Today, it seems as if he is still all-consumed by those demons, viewing the world as bleak and corrupt, barely worth saving, except as doing so eases his own soul. That seems incredibly narcissistic to me.

I'll always prefer the hero who can smile when his job is well done.

Serial Issues 2

 I realized after posting my first discussion of this topic that I had left out one way of dealing with the characters and world of a continuing series--aging and changing both in real time. One of the best examples of that I can point to is Kathy Reichs's novels about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (which, BTW, have nothing in common--save the protagonist's name and occupation--with the TV series, Bones, ostensibly based upon them). Tempe Brennan ages from her early 30s to her early 50s in the course of the novels, and the cities she works in--Charlottesville, NC and Montreal--reflect the changes in those locales over the 20 years as well.

With that oversight out of the way, let's turn to the problems of dealing with time in comic books. Traditionally, comic-book heroes remain unchanged from issue to issue, so that a new reader can pick up any issue and understand the hero and his world just from the contents of that one story. That has changed a bit in the past 30 years or so, but still the problem remains--we don't want to deal with a 60-year-old Superman. 

Actually, Superman is one of the characters least affected by all this. His origin is not specifically tied to any one real-world event. It is enough to know that he arrived on Earth as an infant about three decades ago--whether that means pre-World War One, as it did when he first appeared in print, or in about 1990, as it must today. Much of the same is true of Batman--except for one thing: It is well-established that his parents were killed, when he was about ten, on their way home from seeing a movie, most often said today to have been about Zorro. When that was first proposed about 30 years ago, the presumption was that it was a revival-house screening of The Mark of Zorro, starring Tyrone Powell. Today, it would be easy to assume it was 1998's The Mask of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas.

Other characters present more challenging circumstances. When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four in 1961, they probably figured the series would last no more than a decade or so--and in that time, the readership would turn over two or three times. Instead, it has lasted six decades--and many of those initial readers are still with it today.

They tied the quartet's origin to the space race...with Reed, Ben, Sue. and Johnny sneaking onto a military base to take off in the ship of Reed's design to be the first humans to orbit the Earth. Now, with the four having barely aged in those 60 years, it's tough to figure out why there mission was so secret.

Even more troublesome is the backstory given Reed and Ben: They both fought in World War Two! In 1961, with the war only about 15 years in the past, that was believable--it meant they were each about 40 years old. But WW2 vets are now in their 90s! Reed and Ben's military service must have been in the Gulf War. Even worse is that they fought alongside Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos--whose exploits are definitively set in that war. (The explanation of Fury's longevity and eternal youth is a tale for another time.)

And since virtually every Marvel character can date their origin and age in relation to the Fantastic Four--well, you see the problem.

Basically, Marvel just ignores it all. But I pity anyone trying to build a timeline of the Marvel Universe in the comics.

Un-Caped Crusader

Wednesday, I wondered if Donald Trump could learn a lesson from the origin of Spider-Man ("with great power comes great responsibility") and decided no, such thinking is alien to him. Today I woke up thinking, maybe I picked the wrong hero. Bruce Wayne is a lot more like Donald Trump: rich, inherited wealth, businessman, reputation as a playboy. Maybe Batman should be the role model.

Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down on the street. Traumatized, he vows vengeance...but not just on the person who killed his family. He vows a war on all of crime and evil...and he sets out from a very young age to follow through--with training, with education, with using his wealth to fund his campaign. Further, that wealth not only allows him to design, build and maintain his arsenal of weapons, it allows him to aid the victims of crime. Eventually, when Bruce finds the man who killed his parents, the crusade doesn't end--it turns from one of personal vengeance to societal protection.

What would Donald Trump take away from that story? I fear he would decide, as he would with Spider-Man, that Bruce Wayne is a chump. Why is he wasting his time and money on all these lesser mortals? Don't search for the killer yourself--hire some mercenary organization to do it for you. All those "wonderful toys" (as the Joker puts it in one of the films) shouldn't be used in crime fighting--they should be marketed and sold for a profit. And a foundation that helps others? Well, we know what Trump did with his foundation.

No, to become Batman, Bruce Wayne had to see his personal tragedy reflected in the tragedies of others and act on that realization. The evidence of his life is that Donald Trump is incapable of that.

Fan Art: Caped Crusaders

In January 1966, a new TV series debuted on ABC. Aired two nights a week, it was an instant hit...but the bloom was off by the end of its second season. The third season ran only one night a week...and then the series was not renewed.

The program, of course, was Batman.

Immediate reaction among comics fans was split; some loved it for its sense of fun, others reviled it for the same reason. Batman became the premiere character at DC Comics, outshining his sometimes partner, Superman. They found a way to put Batman on every cover they could think of. He became the permanent star of the team-up book The Brave and the Bold.

But when the show ended, even Batman's hold on the print audience faded. A re-modeling was in order from the camp, humorous style of the show, and he became not the Caped Crusader, but the Dark Knight. By the time of the 1989 movie starring Michael Keaton, the change was complete...and the more recent movies have taken it even farther.

But the influence of the TV series remains, even more than 50 years later. The series revived a number of otherwise forgotten Batman foes, most notably the Riddler and Mister Freeze (who, until the TV show, was known as Mister Zero in the comics). Julie Newmar's version of Catwoman is the model for every depiction since. And those, like me, who have grown tired of the unrelenting pessimism and grim style of the current Batman, point back to the TV series as a way to lighten the mood, to have a Batman who at least smiles some of the time.

So, here's my tribute to the show that helped bring comic books into the public consciousness once more.