Pranav Sreejayan #11: The road to hell is paved with good intentions
Pranav Sreejayan
APENG 11
Ms. Benedetti
The road to hell is paved with good intentions
A sad fact that I will never admit to myself except late at night or while on anesthetic (the former being the case right now), is that I’m kind of a nerd. Comics and manga are definitely my go to pieces of literature to read, and I had a dark phase where I would read insane amounts of them per day. One of my favorite comic storylines comes from DC comics and is called “Injustice”(I will admit some inspiration from the activity on Batman killing the joker this week). The concept is simple: what if Superman, America’s golden boy and all around paragon of virtue, were to let go of his morals?
The story starts out with Lois Lane finding out she is pregnant, only to be kidnapped by the Joker. In a truly dastardly plot, the clown prince of crime sets up a nuclear bomb in Metropolis connected to Lois Lane’s heartbeat, and drugs Superman with a psychotic agent, leading to him killing her thinking that she was an enemy. Superman wakes up to find his pregnant wife dead by his hand, and his entire city obliterated to the ground. In a split second of weakness, he makes a vow to never let this happen again and decides to take a…different approach to crime. One that makes sure the criminal doesn’t commit a crime again (or breathe for that matter). The story follows Superman as he continually justifies worse and worse things: the genocide of the Green Lantern corps(nerd stuff), colluding with criminals, and the establishment of a regime that would was under the ever watchful eyes of a god.
Batman watches in horror as Superman kills the Joker
My favorite part is that the comics never make a jump from Superman being a good guy one day to genocidal maniac the next. Each one of his actions have a logical reason and have been weighed out, and we get to see how he paves his way to hell with his good intentions. After all, what is the deprivation of rights of a few million in the face of freedom for billions? Given power, even a moral icon like Superman is reduced to a scrambling fool who justifies things to himself as he simply tries to do what he feels is right. As Robert Ingersoll once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”.
Works Cited:
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-abrahamlincoln-power/fact-check-test-a-mans-character-quote-misattributed-to-abraham-lincoln-idUSL1N2PA1V7
Image:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/541417186423729082/
Hey Pranav! I don’t really read comics, but I was initially shocked to see that DC comics would give Superman such a dark storyline. Nevertheless, Superman’s actions highlight the shortcomings of obtaining too much power. When given so much power, the only boundary people like Superman can set for themselves are their morals and ethics. But, as you said, when these boundaries begin to waver, we’re left with a crazed maniac, like this version of Superman, who begins to lose sight of what is essentially “right” and “wrong”. Several historical and political figures serve as an example to this by resorting and taking extreme measures to ensure all is right in their desired version of society. Adolf Hitler and his misled and destructive notions led him to lead the Jewish genocide. It’s important to understand that our power controls us and not the other way around. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThe quote from Roberts Ingersoll reminds me of the quote that goes “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and I think the principle is very similar. That when a person is given power and an utter lack of consequence, they begin to push the boundaries further and further until they become the evil they had initially detested. I remember this comic, I think these themes were what drew me to the DC universe, I’m still not a very big superhero fan(I find the storylines to be repetitive and lackluster), but the DC universe is fascinating to me. DC had a lot of these ideas, the Joker being a man who was just given too much to hold onto without any help(how far can society push humanity until societal destruction is warranted), and this theme with Superman’s warped sense of justice. This is an interesting idea to explore, thank you for reminding me of this comic. P.S. this interest would make you a geek, although I’m sure you’re a nerd in other ways(me too, nothing to be ashamed of).
ReplyDeleteHi Pranav, sometimes it's really hard to discern whether something is morally good or bad. Oftentimes a singular action can be both, and it depends on what you value for you to make your decision. There are always two sides to a story, and most things in the world are not black and white. Many stories, including Superman's, portray decisions that a character has to make that could be argued as both moral and immoral. The interesting thing is that the character portrayed as the hero often makes immoral decisions that readers find justified because they are portrayed as the hero, and vice versa with the villain.
ReplyDeleteHey Pranav, this story of a dark path of Superman is really a very well-represented analogy of the difficulty of holding power. The story of Superman as he turns away from his morals of never killing truly demonstrates just how blurry the line between serving justice and acting as a power-high tyrant is. Like you described, Superman never had one day where he simply turns evil and kills millions of criminals; he had slowly converged onto that path. Surely, him killing the Joker would have been justified, as the Joker himself was simply uncontainable and could not be stopped other than simply killing him. This however, would lead to the question of just how horrible does a criminal have to be to be killed? As you described, Superman lowered this criteria day by day, soon turning into the tyrant that killed millions.
ReplyDeleteHi Pranav, what an interesting blog to read. I am more of a person who watches the films and tv shows rather than read the comics so this plot is totally new to me. Reading it was shocking because in all the show Superman and Lois Lane are totally in love and nothing ever happens to her because Superman always saves her; however, the fact that he is the one that killed her. Even though Superman does go on a killing spree, he is thinking through whether or not it is morally and ethically okay to kill these people which I think is better than most people we have seen throughout history and in the DC universe. Many people just go on killing sprees when given power. Power is a, not to be repetitive, a powerful thing but what makes it good and bad is how you use it.
ReplyDeleteHi Pranav! While I enjoy watching the occasional movies, I don't really read the comics. It was really shocking to find out that Superman went down such a dark path. His slow path away from his morals is really interesting to think about because it is hard to draw a clear line or define whether what he is doing is "good" or "bad." I like the idea of this storyline because superheroes are usually represented as symbols of justice who never do any wrong. They are able to defeat villains "rightfully" and always restore justice. However, thinking of the implications of a superhero who could potentially be choosing immoral methods (depending on your perspective and how you choose to interpret his actions) is something that should be brought to the forefront more in superhero media.
ReplyDeleteHey Pranav, this storyline for Superman is really interesting! What made Superman so corrupt was he stopped approaching crime with the thought of helping humanity, but rather he started acting based on his own interests more which caused his behavior to become increasingly worse. This also reminds me of Shrinithi’s post from last week, “Psychology and Power,” where she explained how power disconnects people from others and also causes people to engage more in denounced behaviors. In this instance, Superman, with the immense power he holds, no longer cared about the well-being of others as much as he did before and acted way more recklessly. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Pranav, thank you for sharing your knowledge on the comics you enjoy. I thought your blog was very interesting but it was also quite frightening to hear that someone like Superman, who is admired and idolized to a great degree could lose control and cause harm to those he swore to protect. Even though this is non-fiction, I strongly believe that this could happen in reality. Where someone with too much power, it is easy for them to lose track of their morals and purposes, but, hopefully in future movies/comics Superman can find happiness again.
ReplyDeleteHi Pranav! My go-to literature is also comic books. Every time my parents take me to the library, you will find me rushing to the comic books and graphic novels section to pick out something I have not read before. Although I am not super familiar with DC comics, I am eager to try reading them the next time I get a chance. This comic titled “Injustice” that you brought up explores a very interesting topic. I really liked how you told the story of this comic and I found the version of Superman portrayed by this comic to be very interesting. Thank you for sharing!
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