Death in Comics: How Events Took Over Stories

If you’re a regular comic book reader you know that when a character dies in the comics it is rarely if ever permanent. Throughout my twenty plus years of being a comic book fan I can count on one hand the number of characters who have been killed off and stayed dead.

Prior to the early nineties, death in comics was a rare occurrence. The few characters that had died prior to then had managed to stay dead for decades. There was a respect to killing off a character. It wasn’t like today when character deaths last as long as celebrity marriages, and usually generate just as much sensationalism. When Captain America died in 2007 it was featured in national media. Even more than when Superman died in 1992.

And it was with the death of Superman that the Pandora’s box of super hero death was opened. Because the issue where Superman died sold huge numbers. DC Comics realized that the easiest way to generate sales was with big event comics. And there is no bigger event than a hero’s death. But in actuality it wasn’t so much the death that ruined it for mortality in comics. It was the Resurrection.

Superman’s death was the type of death a hero should have. An unstoppable foe, Doomsday, comes along and completely defeats all other heroes leaving only Superman standing. After page after page of a drawn out slug fest Superman finally defeats Doomsday with one devastating blow before finally succumbing to his wounds and dying in the arms of Lois Lane. That is the type of glorious death we should expect when a publisher says it is going to kill off a beloved character.  And it was a satisfying death.

But then it came time to bring Superman back. As I said, the Death of Superman was an event and events make money. So if killing a hero is an event then bringing them back must be an event too. And that’s where things get sketchy because the team at DC couldn’t quite decide how they were going to bring Superman back. So rather than getting one resurrected Superman we got four watered down kinds of Supermen. All four meant to be red herrings while the writers held back the real Superman until the last possible moment.

In the wake of the Death and Return of Superman we saw characters being sidelined left and right. Batman was crippled, Iron Man was killed, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) sacrificed himself to save the earth, and many many other heroes have passed through the revolving door of super hero death. In fact Superman’s resurrection had such an impact on comics that characters who had been killed off years, and in some case decades, before were brought back. Both Jason Todd (Robin II) and Bucky Barnes (Captain America’s WWII sidekick) were both brought back from the grave despite the fact that comic book readers had long accepted their passing and saw no need to want them back.

"Put me in coach! I'm ready"

Death in comics have now become just a stop watch for fans asking how long until they bring a character back. So far to my knowledge only one hero since the death of Superman has managed to stay dead and that is Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. Of course the only reason I think that he has stayed dead is because they replaced him with a younger hipper version of the character. Had the new Blue Beetle failed to garner fans, Ted Kord would have been resurrected faster than a Timelord.

Vampires: What the Hell Happened?

When did vampires stop being monsters? Seriously. If you watch TV and movies nowadays, vampires have stopped being the threat they once were. In fact in many stories they have become the hero. And I have to ask, when did this happen? When did our culture decide that it’s okay to drink blood if you save a couple lives every now and then? I remember watching The Lost Boys and Dracula growing up and there was never any confusion. The vampires in those stories needed to be killed.

Now there was always a bit of a sexual nature in the portayals of Dracula, but he was still a monster. He killed innocent people. There was no illusion that the world would not be a better place if Dracula died. Vampires were horrible monsters and need to be killed. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, by Francis Ford Coppola, the character of Dracula even asks to be killed at the end of the movie. He realizes what he is and he tells Nina to chop off his head. He knows he is a monster and accepts it.

Years later we would get the Anne Rice novels. These were vampires a bit more removed from the Lost Boys and Dracula. These vampires were tortured and miserable and only stopped whining long enough to sake their thirst for blood before whining all guilt tripped about living forever. But they were still monsters. Very whiny, effeminate monsters, but still monsters. They were just as deserving of death as their predecessors but sadly no one seemed to have the decency to put them out of their misery in those novels.

Anne Rice’s vampires could have definitely used Buffy Summers, aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The brilliant creation of Joss Whedon, Buffy was the typical high school girl who prior to this would have been the victim of vampires instead was mankind’s best defense against them. As much as I love Buffy, she introduced what was probably the biggest game changer in the vampire mythos. Teen angst. Vampirism and teen hormones seemed to be forever intertwined after miss Summers plunged her first stake and watched her first vamp crumble into dust.

The sexual tension between Buffy and Angel (a vampire who was good because he had a soul) was the beginning of the end for vampires as monsters. Angel was a monster, but he was a monster trying to atone for his monster past. He was determined to be a hero and worked along side his “mortal enemy” for a chance at redemption. And Buffy crushed on Angel hardcore. A vampire could now be someone that you pursued not with the forbidden lust of the past, but with the adolescent crush that everyone has experience at least once in their life.

These vampires scare me for a different reason

And it is because of Buffy that we now have True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and yes, Twilight. Twilight is essentially Buffy without everything that makes Buffy cool. If Buffy had never been a slayer, she probably would have been like Bella in Twilight. Vampires aren’t even monsters that need to stay out of sunlight. They don’t burn, they sparkle. Nothing about the Twilight vampires are threatening. Even the werewolves in those films are cute and fluffy.

There have been brief attempts to return vampires to their monster roots, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn and 30 Days of Night being good examples, but sadly those films did not succeed critically or financially. It seems that the world prefers the defanged and love interest vampires to the blood lusting and scary vampires. I fear the vampire as monster has been staked and burnt away in the sunlight, to never be resurrected.

Batman is The Most Badass Super Hero

Since the Dark Knight Rises is out in theatres, everyone is talking about Batman (despite the horrible tragedy, see my thoughts on that here). But instead of spoiling the plot to the movie, I am instead going to break down why Batman is such an amazing hero. A hero so great that he survived Joel Schumacher.

The most basic reason why Batman is so amazing is that he is normal. He is a normal human living in a world with people who have the powers of gods. And he holds his own against them. Pushing his mind and body to the absolute limits he has turned himself into the ultimate fighting machine through sheer force of will. He has mastered every form of martial arts on the planet and trained under the best fighters in the world.

Not only has Batman trained himself to be the ultimate crime fighter, he has also trained others to join him in his fight. Between four Robins, three Batgirls, two Azraels, one Catwoman, one Batwoman, plus a Huntress, and also the establishment of Batman Incorporated (an International fund that sets up a Batman-like character in every major city around the world), Batman has created a veritable army of vigilante crime stoppers. Plus there is his financial and strategic support of the Justice League, which safeguards the whole world.

It is with the mentioning of the Justice League that the next amazing trait of Batman is revealed. Batman is prepared for everything. As revealed in the Tower of Babel storyline in JLA and the animated movie Justice League: Doom, Batman has contingency plans to take down his own teammates should they ever turn rogue. That may seem paranoid but as explained in a previous entry (see here) the possibility of heroes turning bad is always there and Batman is merely prepared for them.

Now while one amazing part of Batman is his training, another amazing part of him is his gadgets. In the movie Batman Begins it is established that Lucious Fox, an employee at Wayne Enterprises, supplied Batman with most of his gadgets. But in the comics, Bruce Wayne developed all his crimefighting gear himself. He had to. Other than his trusty butler Alfred, no one else knows Batman’s true identity. If you can’t tell people why you need something that means you’re doing a lot of DIY.  Not just inventing but maintaining. Batman has to be his own mechanic, performing regular maintenance on the Batmobile. Even just being a gearhead makes him a bit of a badass.

The final thing that makes Batman a total badass is a time honored tradition that puts him up there with James Bond. Women. Despite the jokes made about Batman hanging out with a little boy, Bruce Wayne has an impressive amount of notches on his belt. Not just quantity but also quality. A brief list of his conquests is Selina Kyle, Vicki Vale, Talia Al Ghul, Zatanna, Wonder Woman, and, in one brief flirtation, Lois Lane. And those are just to name a few.

So in the end, Batman is a badass because of his strength of will, his ability to lead, foresight in planning, inventive ingenuity, and his basic sex appeal. In essence, Batman is a symbol of everything an action star, or any man, should strive to be. 

What Makes The Perfect Super Team?

Recently I was at the movies and saw a trailer for this film called Rise of the Guardians. For those who haven’t seen the trailer it basically supposes that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and Jack Frost, along with performing their traditional holiday rolls also join forces to protect the children of the world. Essentially they form a super team. This got me to thinking about other classic super teams and what exactly makes them so great.

The keys to a great super team are its members. There are certain important archetypes that a team needs in order for it to be triumphant fighting force. You’ll see these same figures in the Justice League, the Avengers, the X-Men and even the Teen Titans. Without these different archetypes the team gets thrown out of balance and doesn’t quite work.

The first of these is something I like to refer to as the Legend. This is the team leader. The man or woman that all the other heroes would follow to hell and back. He inspires the other heroes when things are at their worst. Superman and Captain America are legends. They may not always be the most powerful members of the team, but for some reason when they talk, everyone else listens. And you need someone with that level of encouragement to lead others in battles. Super heroes regularly engage in life or death battles where the possibility of them not surviving is always present (see my death in comics entry). If there was not some clear voice motivating them to plunge once more into the breach they might just pack it in and go home.

Now while the Legend leads the troops, someone needs to come up with the actual battle plan. This is where the Tactician comes in. The Tactician is the brains of the group. They are the one with plans within plans within contingencies and has a back up for everything. A perfect example of the Tactician is Batman. Batman is famously paranoid in the comics. He has a plan not just how to take out every villain he comes up against but also his team mates as well (famously portrayed in JLA: Tower of Babel and the animated movie Justice League: Doom).

Following through on the Tactician’s plans and following the Legends lead is the Powerhouse. This is the big gun that just barrels right into battle punching and swinging wildly at every enemy that crosses their path. Excellent examples of the Powerhouse are Wonder Woman and Thor. Now I talked about Wonder Woman in a previous entry (see here) so I am going to focus on Thor. Thor is the god of thunder. He takes that hammer and smashes anyone in his path. It’s what he’s good at and it comes naturally to him. Just like Wonder Woman, Thor grew up in a warrior culture and was taught to fight at a young age.

Another important ingredient of the super team isn’t exactly an asset from a fighting standpoint but from a storytelling standpoint. This is the Rookie. The rookie is usually someone young and inexperienced, in many ways the opposite of the Legend, but who has the potential to someday be a great hero. The Rookie is the team member who is most like us the audience and helps bring us into the world of the heroes. In the Rise of the Guardians movie that character is Jack Frost. In the Justice League it can be someone like Black Canary or Green Arrow. For the Avengers, especially the movie, it was Black Widow and Bruce Banner (before he became the Hulk, then he shifted into Powerhouse position). Most of the time, the Rookie is out of place in the group, but rises to the occasion and proves they deserve their spot on the team.

Admit it. You'd try the same thing.

A final spot on the team is one I consider optional for most super teams but is fun to have all the same. That is the role of The Comedian (no, not the character from Watchmen). The Comedian is pretty self-explanatory. He or she is the comic relief. They are there to lighten the tension when the more ambitious egos on the team start to bash heads. Famous Comedians have been Flash and Plastic Man for the Justice League while Spider-Man usually tends to fill that roll for the Avengers.

At the same time these roles are important for a great super team, there doesn’t always have to be these exact versions. Some teams will have multiple Powerhouses or Rookies making up the support staff. Sometimes a single character will fulfill multiple roles for a single team. Reed Richards could easily be considered both Legend and Tactician, while Ben Grimm has been both Comedian and Powerhouse. Jonny Storm however is usually always the Comedian but he has been known to be the Rookie sometimes. It all comes down to how well these characters are used together.

A Brief Reflection on Reality

At 1:03 am on Thursday, July 19, a mad man (that is the only description he deserves) opened fire in a sold out showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Twelve innocent people (as of this typing) lost their lives and countless others were injured. This truly horrific scene seems like something that almost belongs in the fictional world of the film that was playing during this tragedy. Sadly it was all too real.

As more and more facts are revealed as the investigation continues, I am sure nothing will be able to make sense of this. It is a senseless event. When people lose their lives in battle, society somehow justifies it as part of some noble pursuit. But innocent civilians being shot for nothing other than sitting to enjoy a highly anticipated film? There is no way to justify that.

The cruelest of ironies is that these people were shot while watching a film about a character that disparages the use of firearms. I know much politicizing will be done on both sides of the aisle of the gun debate, and I will most likely be sickened by both sides. The twelve who died do not care what side of the debate you are on. They can’t anymore. That right has been robbed from them.

Instead of fighting to find someone to blame (beyond the shooter who I was happy to learn is in custody) I think that this tragedy should make us all reflect on the world around us. We must not become the thing that destroys us. This tragedy was the act of a mad man. Let us not become mad men trying to stop another one from occurring. Hug your loved ones on this day of mourning.

Scientists in Comic Books Suck at Their Jobs

Having read comics for more than twenty years and been a fan of science fiction for even longer I have come to a very simple conclusion. Scientists in comic books suck at their jobs. It seems the majority of scientists in comics completely screw up whatever they are working on and end up creating something completely the opposite of their original intentions.

Ben Grimm really did get the short end of the stick.

Our first offender is Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Now most people who read the comics might question my saying Reed Richards sucks as a scientist. He is after all considered the most brilliant mind in the Marvel Universe. But we need to only go back and look at the origins of the Fantastic Four to see Reed Richards's failure. He, his fiancé Sue Storm, her brother Jonny, and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm take off in an experimental rocket ship and are exposed to cosmic rays which alters each of them and grants them amazing abilities. Reed neglected to properly shield his rocket from radiation exposure. Warren Ellis's brilliant Ruins series portrayed the Fantastic Four's flight going much different and the four friends rather than gaining amazing abilities, died horrible and painful deaths. Reed Richards's desire for scientific discovery caused him to overlook basic safety features. And that is why he fails as a scientist.

Since the Amazing Spider-Man is out in theaters right now, my next culprit is Doctor Curt Connors. If you haven’t seen the movie (which I suggest you do because it is good, See my opinion of the film here) be warned, the following paragraph contains spoilers. Curt Connors is a geneticist who lost his right arm in a tragic accident in his youth. Because of that accident he has struggled to find a way to regenerate his missing arm. He studies the regenerative abilities of lizards who have been known to grow back entire limbs once they have been lost. Splicing his own DNA with those same lizards, he does succeed in regrowing his lost arm. But the lizard DNA soon takes over his entire body and he mutates into a lizard himself. The Lizard. So in the end, he failed as a scientist by becoming a monster.

Staying close to the Spider-Man universe, where there seems to be no end of bad scientists, I also want to talk about Otto Octavius, aka Doctor Octopus. Now there have been a couple of different versions of Doc Ock’s origins but the basics are that Otto Octavius developed these mechanical  arms to help him handle hazardous materials in the lab. During a violent lab accident, the arms are fused to Otto’s spine and he gains telepathic control of them, able to control the arms even when they are removed from his body. Now I’m not sure what the goal of that initial experiment was in the comics but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t to fuse mechanical arms to his body. Failure.

Just so it doesn’t seem like I’m picking on Marvel scientists I am going to mention Lex Luthor. While usually portrayed as an evil business man, Lex Luthor also has a keen scientific mind. A mind that he sadly wastes almost solely on schemes to destroy Superman. Schemes that usually involve Kryptonite. Now most people believe that Kryptonite is only harmful to Superman. Not true. Kryptonite is a radioactive mineral. Granted, its particular type of radiation affects Superman more rapidly than it does others, it is still radioactive. And radiation is harmful to everyone if exposed to it long enough. That is why in the mid nineties Lex Luthor ended up losing a hand, and his life, to cancer from years of radiation poisoning. He was able to clone himself and be resurrected later (posing as his own son), but still, I think dying should definitely be considered a scientific fail.

Back to Marvel. Since we’re talking about radiation I cannot ignore the most notorious victim of radiation poisoning in comics, Bruce Banner aka The Incredible Hulk. Now I am going to reference the Ultimate version of the Hulk since that is closely tied in to the Avengers film that came out and more people probably are familiar with that version than the normal comics.  In the regular comics, he gets caught in an explosion from a Gamma bomb and then turns into the Hulk. Not very interesting. But in the Ultimate version and in the Avengers film, Bruce Banner turns himself into the Hulk because he is trying to duplicate the formula that created Captain America. Now if you look at Captain America and you look at the Hulk, there doesn’t seem to be any similarity so once again, scientific failure.

There are more examples, of course, of scientific misadventures performed by comic book characters. Mr. Freeze, Michael Morbius (The Living Vampire), The Flash (Barry Allen), just to name a few,  all three scientists who ended up altered forever by freak lab accidents while they were trying to accomplish some other goal. Apparently receiving a doctorate in the world of comics is not that difficult because everyone who does sucks at it. If they are not the victim of their own experiment they are a victim of some horrible lab accident that was caused due to their own negligence.

The Inconveniences of a Secret Identity

The secret identity is almost synonymous with being a super hero. Protecting the world brings a lot of unwanted attention to the hero in question. That is why heroes adopt the dual identities. The heroic persona is a shield to separate the private life from the hero life and thus protect not just the hero, but the hero’s friends, families and colleagues. But I have to imagine maintaining this double life has to be a huge pain in the ass.

The biggest thing that separates the hero from his civilian identity is the uniform he wears (more commonly referred to as the “costume”). Now some heroes only go out in their persona at certain scheduled times. Batman pretty much works only at night and once he puts that costume on he’s Batman until he decides its time to quit. But other heroes tend to be more opportunistic about their heroic duties. Superman Spider-Man tend to jump into hero mode whenever the need arises.

And this is where problem of having a costume arises. A hero needs to have their costume on them at all times just in case. Now as I write this I am looking at a widget on my Google page that says the high temperature today in New York was 95. Now that type of heat may not bother Superman but Spider-Man is only slightly stronger than your average human. Which means he succumbs to the typical human weaknesses, such as heat exhaustion. Spider-Man has to wear a tight spandex costume PLUS civilian clothes on top of that. If you want to imagine that, try wearing long underwear the next time the thermostat goes above eighty and then wear clothes to hide the fact you’re wearing long underwear.  Even if his costume is the most lightweight material possible, it’s still an extra layer of clothes. And then the reverse is true in the winter. He can’t just add more layers the colder it gets outside.

Now as much of a problem the costume is it causes a brand new problem once the hero dons them. What does the hero do with their civilian clothes? In the case of Spider-Man he bundles them in a web bag and either sticks them to a wall or slings it over his shoulder. The Flash keeps his costume compressed in a ring so it is conceivable he could shove his normal clothes in side the ring as well (though his costume is made of a special material so unless his entire wardrobe is made of the same material, I doubt it). For every other hero it seems like they just discard their clothes and must wait until they get home to change back into civilian clothes. That seems like a waste of money, which most heroes don’t seem to have an abundance of, Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark being the exceptions.

"Extra clothes? On a Teacher's salary?"

Now as far as I know, being a hero does not pay well. Sure there are the Fantastic Four who seem to earn off of being adventurers but that’s mostly because of Reed Richards’s amazing scientific mind. The rest of the hero community needs to hold down a nine to five job to pay the bills. Now I’ve had several nine to five jobs in my life and the one thing that is the same for each is that they really don’t like it if you take a lot of breaks. Now I’m sure if I could say I was taking a break so I could save a woman from a fire they might be cool with it. BUT a hero can’t say that. Why? Because the hero’s identity is meant to be secret. So instead of seeing a noble hero who is saving the day, the boss just sees a guy who is constantly ditching work for something else.

And if a boss feels bad about constantly being ditched just imagine how friends, family and significant others feel. Most heroes have revealed their true identity to their family but there are a few exceptions to this who remain clueless for their own protection. Friends however are always kept in the dark. Significant others usually don’t learn about the secret until marriage and even then sometimes the secret stays secret. And secrets always put a huge strain on any relationship.

Plus there is the obvious question of ego. Super heroes are meant to be altruistic but they are still human (or human-ish) and humans like to have their egos stroked every now and then. But if you have a secret identity, the credit for your amazing deeds is always going to your alter ego instead of to you. How many times have they portrayed in the comics scenes of Lois Lane telling Clark Kent how great Superman is and then referring to Clark as some small town rube?

Granted that this is much of the appeal of the character but there has to be a point where it gets on Clark’s nerves. Especially when Lois reveals she is in love with Superman and Clark is likewise in love with her. There brings up another problem with the secret identity. People are constantly falling in love with super heroes. One issue of Brian Michael Bendis’s Powers did a great job of exploring the idea of super hero groupies. But if you are maintaining a secret identity such indiscretions just further complicate things. And the desire to reveal your identity must be strong. <SPOILER ALERT> In the recent Amazing Spider-Man film, Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker reveals he is Spider-Man to Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy essentially just so he can kiss her. His entire identity is blown because he can’t control his teen hormones. <END SPOILER>

The secret identity is a mainstay of the super hero genre. It has many benefits to the hero who chooses to don one. It protects the hero’s friends and loved ones and allows the hero a chance to engage in normal social activities. To essentially have a normal life free from crime fighting and saving the world. But are the pressures and lengths one has to go to maintain these two separate lives really worth it? Probably not. But then again, I don’t have a secret identity so I don’t really know. Or do I?

When Heroes Go Bad

I’m going to be honest. I LOVE stories where a hero turns evil. I think there might be a sadistic part of my nature, but I love when a noble hero breaks the rules and code he or she has previously lived by. A fall from grace is always interesting.

A while back in the comics, the character of Daredevil was given control of his mortal enemies, the ninja clan The Hand in a storyline that was titled Shadowland. Using this small army at his disposal, Daredevil essentially eliminated crime in the neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen.

But soon his methods got more and more extreme, turning the neighborhood into a police state but without the police (who are too scared to enter the neighborhood). Instead of just fighting crime he and his private army of ninjas would imprison dissidents in the dungeons below Shadowland, the fortress built on the remains of a blown up housing block. The character reaches a true level of darkness though when Daredevil fights and kills his long time enemy Bullseye in the same manner Bullseye killed Matt Murdock's (Daredevil) former flame, Elektra.

That seems to be the true sign a character has taken a dark turn. When they throw away their moral code and resort to killing (See Previous Blog Entry). Usually the victim is an enemy, as in the case of Daredevil, but it is not long before the hero turns on their allies and friends.

Such was the case of Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern, in the Emerald Twilight storyline. In that story, Hal Jordan was driven mad with rage after his entire home city was obliterated. In a quest to gain the power to resurrect his fallen friends and family he attempts to drain the power of the Oan power battery, the source of energy for all Green Lanterns. In his attempt to gain this power he slaughters several of his fellow Lanterns eventually gaining the power to rewrite time and wipe out all existence (as revealed in the mega-crossover Zero Hour).

What’s interesting about both these instances is that it is later revealed that it was not a case of the hero turning dark, but a case of the hero being possessed by some otherworldly entity. Daredevil was possessed by some demon the Hand worshipped called coincidently enough The Beast of the Hand and the entire plot of placing him in charge of The Hand is an attempt to bring this demon into the physical world. Same with Hal Jordan who is possessed by Parallax, the entity of fear who slowly started to possess Hal in an effort to free itself from the Oan power battery.

Neither of these heroes have control of their actions and after an exorcism and a bit of soul searching are able to resume their roles as heroes (Daredevil’s road to redemption was a little shorter than Hal Jordan’s who had to both sacrifice his life, take on a new persona and then be resurrected before he resumed the role of Green Lantern many years later). Essentially both of these heroes get to be reaccepted into the hero community by claiming "the devil made me do it."

But sometimes it isn’t always an outside influence that causes a hero to go bad. Sometimes a hero just snaps. While super heroes are blessed with powers and abilities beyond mortal men, they still have the same personality flaws that ordinary humans have. And from time to time ordinary people just snap. So when one sees the horrific damage a single unhinged individual can inflict on the world around him, just imagine if that person had super powers. Two examples of this can be seen in Marvel’s The Sentry and Mark Waid’s Irredeemable. Both of these characters are excellent examples of a super hero becoming unhinged and ironically both the main characters in these stories are archetypally similar to Superman.

Now in Marvel, The Sentry is a hero who, after retconning, has been in the Marvel Universe since its beginning (in actuality he started out as an April Fool’s day joke in Wizard Magazine about a lost creation of Stan Lee). As the first Mini-series starring the Sentry came to a close it was revealed that the Sentry and his arch nemesis, The Void, were both aspects of the fractured personality of Robert Reynolds. Essentially it was revealed that the world’s greatest hero was a schizophrenic and his dual personality was also the greatest threat to the world.

In Mark Waid’s Irredeemable, the hero is known as the Plutonian, another Superman type character. While the Sentry’s fall from grace can be blamed on psychological issues, in the case of the Plutonian it is merely a case of being unable to deal with the constant pressure of being a hero. Being a super hero can most easily be equated to being a celebrity and we have certainly seen plenty of news stories where a celebrity has lost their mind from living a constantly scrutinized life. Now add being able to fly and super strength to the equation and the pressure must be even worse. Thus what happens in this series. The hero decides to become a villain and kill his allies and those who would oppose him, using his powers for selfish gains.

Another great example of heroes falling from grace is Garth Ennis’s The Boys. Of course in that series, ALL the super heroes have fallen from grace. The Boys are a secret black ops team for the CIA whose sole purpose is to monitor super heroes and to take them out if they get too big for their britches. To essentially prevent situations like what occurred in Irredeemable and The Sentry from occurring in the first place. An excellent case of how truly petty and human heroes can be when they’re not posing for pictures after saving a cat from a tree.

It was said best in Spider-Man, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” But on top of that responsibility comes an added pressure. I can only imagine the pressures a super hero would feel. It has to be the most stressful life time job you can have. Just look at the pictures of Presidents before and after they take office. In just a matter of four to eight years these individuals look like they’ve aged almost twenty years. I feel being a super hero would be similar to that level of pressure.