Many of us aren’t newbies when it comes to comic books. We’ve been reading them for years- some of us decades- so we’re accustomed to a certain way our heroes should conduct themselves within the realms of their respective universes. Publishes such as Marvel and DC will throw wrenches into the mix by rebooting a title, or in DC’s case their entire comic line, and out the window goes our preconceptions of our heroes. The change happens in printed form and in the cinema. Captain America is a member of HYDRA. Batman kills. The change wrecks the character design we grew up with and creates confusion as to why these popular characters don’t act the way we want them to.
The first character, Captain America, was a do-gooder. He was pro-American, anti-Nazi, the perfect soldier. The Super-Soldier. In many ways Marvel’s counterpart to DC’s Superman. A boy scout, doing what it takes to do the right thing for his country and for
us. This is The Cap I grew up with. The writers shake things up by revealing that he’s been a HYDRA agent and now all those ideals we held him to are shattered. We were betrayed and we mildly rebel. But it’s just a change, a temporary change, to make for interesting reading. The character is continuing his genesis into whatever he will ultimately become. The character needs to grow to remain interesting. He’ll be back in our good graces soon enough, we just need to be patient and faithful that he’ll return to form in short order. And he will, because this part of his story will get old and readership will die down. They need this to keep the character fresh, at least until their next shake-up with another character.
Let’s move on to the Batman. The world’s greatest detective with one rule, and that was that he would not kill. That’s the one line that he would not cross because if he did, he would become the thing that he’s fought against for almost a century. Then the biggest superhero clash comes in the form of Batman v Superman. Batman is older, nastier, a vicious bastard. He’s grown tired of fighting the same criminals doing the same ol’, same ol’. He finally crosses that line and the body count starts. We all cried foul at that as we did when Cap was revealed to be part of HYDRA. Batman doesn’t kill. He doesn’t stoop to the level of the common thug he strikes fear into at night. But this is part of his genesis. The character lost his way due to the constant, un-ending, fight with the criminal swine that he’s getting tired of it. He can’t stop being who he is, but he’s gotten bitter about it. He’s pissed that the bad guys he helps put away make it back out onto the streets and start right back up again at their own game. The Batman’s lost his way, but his story isn’t over. He’ll find his way back and be the character we grew up with, beholden to the standards we have for him.
It’s an odd feeling seeing our beloved characters change or behave in such a manner that’s contradictory to what we believe them to be. There are other characters with their own arcs that can be spoken about like Captain America and Batman, but I’m not interested in click-baiting. I’m not trying to mull over a subject that’s been talked about to death. It’s just that sometimes we as human beings need to vent, or express ourselves, to get those thoughts and ideas out there. We all know that the comics publishers aren’t out to create character assassination to their properties. That’d be insane. What we hold near and dear to our hearts is their bread and butter. It’s that change that throws us. The change that makes a character not what we’re used to, what we grew up with. But it’s a necessary evil to keep stories interesting, to sell books.
A hero can’t wear his underwear over his suit forever.