{"id":10937,"date":"2007-05-12T20:28:05","date_gmt":"2007-05-13T03:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/05\/12\/heroic.html"},"modified":"2007-05-12T20:28:05","modified_gmt":"2007-05-13T03:28:05","slug":"heroic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/12\/heroic.html","title":{"rendered":"Heroic"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’m reading this week’s Comics Buyer’s Guide<\/em>, an article on the post-“Civil War” world in the Marvel Universe, and it mentions in passing:<\/p>\n

\n

Pym is working with various talented marvel scientists, including Baron Von Blitzschlag (whose surname translates as “thunderbolt”), who used to be a Nazi super-villain in World War II …<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which cause me to read it twice.  A “Nazi super-villain<\/em>“?  All right, traditionally, metahumans working for the government of Nazi Germany have been referred to as “super-villains.”  But is that a fair labeling?  Villain implies (to me) an outlaw, an evil-doer, a criminal.  All right, then — during the war, as government agents, they wouldn’t be outlaws (any more than Amercian supers would be).  They might be war <\/em>criminals, but not necessarily; by the same token, they might be evil-doers, but only to the extent that they actually do evil, not per se<\/em>.  (Is a police officer in Germany in 1943 a villain?  Is a Wehrmacht <\/em>soldier?)  <\/p>\n

Now, true, most Nazi supers portrayed are, in fact, evil and nasty and moustache-twirling (male and female alike) racist lunatic psychopaths.  One could argue it would difficult to be a prominent German metahuman and not be.  But it’s not something that would necessarily be automatic (the “noble German, struggling as they put patriotism and duty and love of the Fatherland beyond what they personally know is right” is as much an established cliche as the Jew-hating Aryan brute).<\/p>\n

“Nazi super-hero<\/em>,” though, sounds wrong.<\/p>\n

It also raises some interesting “Civil War” issues.  If there was a right <\/em>side or a wrong <\/em>side in the conflict, were the supers that were on the wrong <\/em>side, in fact, “villains?”  Certainly (if they were on the anti-Registration side) they were outlaws and criminals.  But … Captain America, a super-villain?  Mister Fantastic, a super-villain?  Black Pather, a super-villain?  Iron Man, a super-villain? Spider-Man, a super-villain (part of the time)?  (Okay, yeah, J. Jonah Jaimeson would have no problem calling Spidey a super-villain, but that doesn’t count.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps such labels are too simplistic — but that, too, seems to be a simplistic conceit as well (“The world is too complex for heroes”). <\/p>\n

Maybe, though, that’s one of the reasons why it’s only in extreme circumstances that we use the word “hero” in real <\/em>life — in cases of conspicuous, above-and-beyond gallantry and self-sacrifice.  If we really did have metahumans around, I doubt we’d use the word “super-hero” (or “super-villain”) very much as a generic label.<\/p>\n

Just thinking out loud here …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I’m reading this week’s Comics Buyer’s Guide, an article on the post-“Civil War” world in the Marvel Universe, and it mentions in passing: Pym is working with various talented…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134971,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/07\/the-runaways-trailer.html","url_meta":{"origin":10937,"position":0},"title":"The “Runaways” Trailer","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Oct-17 12:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"This has me seriously excited. I loved Runaways the comic. It looks like this adaptation, on Hulu, hits all the right notes. What if you were a teenager who found out their parents are super-villains -- and in a terrible conspiracy with other super-villain couples, who also have teen children\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marvel-Runaways.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marvel-Runaways.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marvel-Runaways.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marvel-Runaways.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marvel-Runaways.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Marvel-Runaways.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":127903,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/08\/when-is-a-superhero-registration-act-not-a-superhero-registration-act.html","url_meta":{"origin":10937,"position":1},"title":"When is a Superhero Registration Act not a Superhero Registration Act?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-Sep-15 9:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"[NOT REALLY SPOILERS]So Captain America: Civil War will not quite follow the same path as the Civil War saga in the pages of Marvel Comics -- though the story doesn't get that quite right. In the comics, the Superhero Registration Act meant that all metahumans needed to (a) register with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50220,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/29\/creators-creations-and-comics.html","url_meta":{"origin":10937,"position":2},"title":"Creators, Creations, and Comics","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Apr-15 5:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I keep understanding more and more why more and more comics creators are working on indie comics, or for more consortium-like publishers like Image. While there's a lot to be admired for the big playground and shared universe of DC or Marvel, the corporate mentality of the vast entertainment conglomerates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15364,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-m-is-for-mystery-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":10937,"position":3},"title":"BT09 – M is for Mystery (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 6:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Madame Xanadu, vol. 1, \"Disenchanted\"\u00a0(Vertigo) [collects #1-10] w. Matt Wagner; a.\u00a0Amy Reeder Hadley, Richard Friend\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? Taking a character who started off as a mysterious tarot card reader and horror book introducer and telling her story to make her a compelling character is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136179,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/29\/my-initial-no-spoiler-review-of-avengers-infinity-war.html","url_meta":{"origin":10937,"position":4},"title":"My Initial No-Spoiler Review of “Avengers: Infinity War”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 29-Apr-18 7:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So no spoilers to anyone who has seen or heard anything about the new Avengers film (e.g., beyond that it involves the Avengers and Infinity Stones and a purple dude named Thanos). I can't speak for the comments, but please exercise a bit of discretion. General Notes 1. Marvel's long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/avengers-infinity-war5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_fantasy_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":10937,"position":5},"title":"BT06 – Fantasy and Science","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Stardust (Vertigo) [5\/5\/5\/5] w. Neil Gaiman; a. Charles Vess Strictly speaking, this...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}