A Benefit or A Disadvantage To Society

Posts : 9 Join date : 2013-08-06

A Benefit or A Disadvantage to Society
The Case of Super Heroes and the Role They Play

Hello again, it’s me Neil Gallagher. Lately my talks with Mr. J. Jonah Jameson have called in to question the way I feel about something. There has been a question around for as long as I can remember, since growing up when I did at least. That question is if super heroes, by their nature, attract super villains and thereby create more problems for society than benefits. Strong question huh? I thought and thought about this before I decided to take my stance on the position. Rather than tell you that outright, however, I’m going to show you examples on both end of the spectrum. This will allow you to form your own position on the issue and form your own opinions.

For starters, let me fill you in on super villains that were around long before their heroes decided to show up. We’ve all heard of Lex Luthor, haven’t we? The greedy business man in Metropolis who pretty much owns the whole damn city. Well it turns out, through my research, I’ve found out that the Luthor’s have always been like that. Long before Superman rolled into town, Lionel Luthor was harming the little guy to try and make the Luthor dynasty something to be proud of. That instilled the same work ethic into Lex Luthor and he’s been that way ever since. Superman had nothing to do with how he would react at first, Superman just simply became a reason Lex had to justify the crazy things he built. And what about Superboy, huh? The young man was brand spanking new to the hero game and Luthor’s associates have targeted him for death. There was no reason for the things that he had done. Let’s move on to Flytrap now. His main opposition seems to be that of Sebastian Shaw. For those of you who don’t know, Shaw is a mutant. He has the ability to absorb energy and turn it into raw strength. He’s powerful and has been terrorizing the world since I was younger, at least. If the rumors that I’ve overheard are true, Flytrap and Thunderbolt are the sons of the mutant Shaw. They were DEFINITELY not around before their villain. Their villain, if rumors are correct, is their father and they did nothing to bring about the sort of problems that Shaw was already brining around. My final example in this case is that of John Constantine. For those of you who are not aware, John Constantine is a detective who works cases of the occult. My friend Zatanna has worked with John once or twice and claims that he’s one of the best in the world at what he does. Keep that in mind while I tell you who his main villain is and why he has not brought the “problems” upon us that the question implies. His main enemies are demons and the devil himself. Are you really going to suggest that a guy who works to combat the ultimate source of evil creates more problems for society than he takes care of?

I did say I would present you with both sides to this argument and I was not lying. One of the prime examples of a hero bringing in a villain and maybe creating a problem for society that he cannot fix is the case of Nocturn and the villainess Penumbra. Penumbra, for those of you who don’t know where she came from, is a shadow creation of Nocturn’s. No one, including Nocturn himself, knows why this one creature took on her own life force but she did and now the world has to work with that. Another case is that of Captain America and the Winter Soldier. My buddy Phil would be disappointed if I didn’t add this one in there. Captain America, we all know him right? He’s the guy who had the super soldier serum injected into his veins and became this bad ass soldier. Well, it turns out America isn’t the only nation that knows about the super soldier serum because Russia was able to do the same thing in creating the Winter Soldier. Now…I’m not sure if I should divulge the secret behind who he is because my buddy Phil may have his nice people come snatch me up and then I wouldn’t be able to write anymore…but it’s juicy. I promise you, Captain America may as well have created his own problem there.

I told you I would share my stance on the whole problem. I believe that though villains are always there, evil is innate and there will always be evil in this world. Heroes may sometimes create their own villains but there are several who were around before hand. Heroes in the long run are an investment that I would rather see protect this world than go away forever.
-Neil Gallagher