Middle of the Road Characters

In this blog entry I want to explore the myriad of characters in comics and sci-f who don’t quite fall in either the hero or villain category. Characters that tend to chart their own course and sometimes fall in one group and sometimes the other. In a medium where there seems to be such clear black and white values, it is surprising how many such characters exist. Why? What is the appeal? Perhaps it is the fact that such characters can be unpredictable which has to be enticing to any writer.

There is a concept of alignment that was first coined by roleplayers. A way of describing their character’s motivations and alignments. The various roles can usually be described as good, neutral, evil, with a descriptor of either chaotic or lawful. Most of these middle of the road characters are neutral with either a chaotic of lawful slant. A chaotic neutral character usually follows his own whims without allying himself to either side in the struggle between good and evil. Lawful neutral characters do not take a side because they do not desire to rock the boat one way or the other. I’m not going to be talking about Lawful Neutral characters. I want to talk about the Chaos.

If I am going to talk about a character that is Chaotic Neutral, the first name that comes to mind is Deadpool. For those who are unfamiliar with the Merc with a Mouth, Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool) is a former cancer who had an artificial version of Wolverine’s healing factor implanted into his system. Now this allows Deadpool to heal from any injury but it also kicks his cancer into high gear, causing it to completely deform his body. Now the healing factor keeps the cancer from killing him, but he is hideously deformed so he wears a full costume from head to toe.  He is also completely insane. Deadpool will be in the middle of a gun fight with multiple assailants and start singing show tunes. And since he is a mercenary, essentially his talents are for sale to whomever can pay. Or to whomever he thinks can provide more fun. He has fought the X-Men and fought along side them multiple times.

There is also Catwoman. Although Selina Kyle originally started out as a villain, over the years she has evolved into a love interest and trusted ally to Batman. The two characters occasionally clash, but for the most part Batman ignores Catwoman’s criminal activities and she tends to prey on the more corrupt wealthy individuals in Gotham when she picks her criminal targets. In the alternate history of Earth-2, Batman and Catwoman have a child together. In one of my favorite JLA storylines, Selina Kyle poses as Lois Lane in order to defeat the villain Prometheus. In the film The Dark Knight Rises, Batman could not have saved the day without the help of Selina Kyle. Yes, she is still a thief, but she is not selfish enough to be her greed over the safety of others. She is more of a thief for the thrill of it.

There seems to be a line between good and evil, and a number of characters in fiction seem to live on this line. They easily can switch their allegiance to whatever side benefits them best. Han Solo, while one of the great heroes of the original Star Wars Trilogy, starts out as the least likely heroic individual. If one is to take into account the stories about him in the Extended Universe and prior to the events of Episode IV, Han Solo was a wanted criminal. While he certainly redeems himself, we should never forget he was a smuggler in that first film.

The most interesting characters are the ones whose true motivations are never completely clear. Audiences enjoy mystery and when the vary nature of a character is left to figure out it keeps our attention riveted. The real world is not black and white so it is hard to identify with characters who have completely clear cut beliefs and morals. We’ve all been noble and we’ve all been tempted and I think we would be drawn to characters who do the same.