Hero Worship: Whatever Happened to Super Villains?

I don’t know if it’s that I’m getting older or what, but I can officially state that I’ve grown incredibly tired of “heroes vs. heroes.” I didn’t fully realize it until yesterday, when the announcement of Injustice: Gods Among Us hit. Don’t get me wrong, visually the game looks pretty stunning, and I enjoyed last year’s Mortal Kombat, so I’m sure the gameplay will be great. But the premise – the “what if the superheroes become our greatest threat” idea – is played out, dull, and I need it to go away. Forever. And yes, I get that it’s a fighting game, so by nature of the genre they have to fight one another.

But Injustice was merely the spark that lit my fuse. I’m ready for the heroes to fight super villains again and make us want to root for them instead of picking sides.

Superheroes fighting one another (before eventually teaming up and tackling a greater threat) is part of the fabric of superhero comics. It just is. It always has been, and it always will be. This same trait carried over into Marvel’s The Avengers, and I imagine it will continue with any new cinematic characters that are introduced. It simply provides an easy dramatic arc for their relationship that culminates in them learning to co-exist as teammates.

But in the last decade or so, superhero comics have become more and more about battling ideologies (and egos) between heroes, resulting in some of the biggest events in years. Marvel’s Civil War was perhaps the most notable, but since then, we’ve also seen variations on the same idea.

Secret Invasion saw the Marvel heroes suspicious of one another, fearing that any one of their teammates might be a Skrull invader. Fear Itself found various Marvel heroes usurped by evil avatars and fighting each other. Avengers vs. X-Men is, well, self-explanatory, and takes its cues from X-Men: Schism, a story that pit the X-Men against one another. And all signs at DC are pointing to a war between the heroes of the Justice League.

There is some good dramatic material in all of these stories that is worth mining to some extent. I even promoted the idea of Marvel adapting Civil War for the big screen. But at the same time, who needs villains when the heroes are so ready and willing to throw down with each other? There is a certain amount of fan service in seeing these characters square off, finding out who is faster, stronger, or smarter. But with each battle between heroes, their status as figures of morality is just a little bit tarnished. Superhero comics are, at their core, the modern incarnation medieval morality plays.

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With each battle between heroes, their status as figures of morality is just a little bit tarnished.

These are characters created to inspire faith in the absolutes of humanity. Of course, all of these characters have evolved since their conception, introducing many shades of gray that have made their intertwining relationships more complex and interesting. Yet at a certain point – the point we’re at now – their constant conflict with one another is growing tiresome.

I’m not saying we don’t need tumultuous relationships between heroes, because we most certainly do. No one wants to read stories where everyone is chummy 100% of the time, gleefully dispatching bad guys and shaking hands afterwards. Internal conflict can be powerful and interesting. But when both major superhero companies are structuring their entire universes around hero infighting, it becomes a struggle to remain invested in the characters as superheroes instead of just being amused watching them slap fight with their egos.

In a time when the real world is looking more and more desperate for a hero with each passing day, we should be able to turn to these fictional heroes for inspiration and hope. Just like people did in the midst of World War II, the Golden Age of superheroes. Superman and Captain America were there as something to aspire to; even moral support, in a way.

But when we look to our comic book heroes now, they’re usually too busy fighting each other to care about the rest of the world.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/01/hero-worship-whatever-happened-to-super-villains