SUPERMAN was the ur-hero, the first of many. Y'know what? First year he was in publication? He had no super-villains to fight. Who did he fight? Street crooks. Wife-beaters. Slumlords and profiteers. Corrupt politicians. One of Superman's creators? His dad died as a result of an armed robbery. Superman was created by two Jewish teeners out of Cleveland, and they were poor, bullied, and ANGRY, and Superman was born out of the honest desire on these kids' part to power up and punch a deserving bastard in the chops.
Power fantasy? Sure. That's why Superman's still around. Goin' strong since 1938, baby!
CAPTAIN AMERICA's another one. Captain America was created by a Jewish-American guy, BEFORE World War Two, but far enough into Hitler's jolly jamboree for him to be angry about what was happening. Like Superman, Captain America was born from the righteous desire to kick a deserving villain in the pants. Both heroes were a response to the burning desire for a powerful, honest, incorruptible hero, somebody who could grab the world by the nuts and MAKE IT RIGHT by finding the RIGHT BASTARD, and PUNCHING HIS LIGHTS OUT!
Simplistic? Sure. Stupid? Certainly. Power fantasy? Definitely. You can buy a plastic Captain America shield, nowadays.
BATMAN, surprisingly, doesn't make this cut. Batman was the creation of a guy who was told by the suits, "We need a super-detective for our book "Detective Comics." Somebody in tights and a cape with a gimmick, cuz that's popular with the kids these days. Make it happen." So Batman's creator invented a super-detective in a Lone Ranger mask, red tights and black cape who flew around because his cape actually folded up into a GLIDER, and...
...and then his uncredited collaborator, Bill Finger, stepped in and reworked Batman into the grim avenger of the night that you might have seen in the movies. But the first guy got all the credit.
Batman's a great power fantasy. Handsome rich guy who could have any girl he wants, but at night he dresses up like Dracula and goes out and finds irredeemable scum and terrorizes them and beats the living crap out of them and hands 'em over to the cops. And mighod, the toy collection this guy has! But Batman wasn't born out of despair, or rage, or the need for a hero. Batman was created because Bob Kane wanted a paycheck. But it worked; there's still plenty of wish fulfillment in there for any bullied kid. Punchem inna face! Take that! Teach YOU a lesson!
It's been pointed out that superheroes are, in a real world context, kinda fascist. This isn't quite wrong. Superman, in his early days, once went berserk and tore down a whole neighborhood, destroying tenement buildings and leaving hundreds homeless. He did this to force the evil slumlords and their corrupt politician buddies to build better housing for poor people. Sure, he was careful to make sure no one got hurt, and it was all for a good cause, but I dunno that I'd have taken that into account if I was one of those guys who suddenly found himself and his family homeless on the sidewalk because Superman got his cape in a twist.
And of course, Batman has been hunted by the law lots of times. He doesn't want to hear any of this "due process" crap, he wants to go find the Joker and put his foot in the clown's ass. None of this "Legal oversight" and "accountability" nonsense; he's richer than you, he's smarter than you, and he can punch you in the face if you give him a hard time. He's incorruptible, after all, and isn't that enough for anyone?
Captain America didn't have this same issue, being an agent of the U.S. military, but there have been any number of times he disobeyed legitimate orders from real Army officers, because "screw you, I'm doing what's right!" For some reason, he never seemed to come a cropper for any of these incidents. Incorruptible, after all.
Over time, though, the super hero changed. Why not? We changed. The world changed. And by the seventies, we began to see a different sort of comic book character. This brings me to the Punisher.
Funny thing? The Punisher started out as a villain. Bad guy. He was a bad guy with an AGENDA, though; he wanted to kill OTHER bad guys. For the good of society, don'cha know. He KNEW he was a villain, but didn't CARE; end justifies the means. And rather stupidly, he allowed ANOTHER villain to convince him that Spider-Man was a bad guy, and needed killing, hence the cover of the comic above.
But there was never any whitewashing of anything; the Punisher was a self-aware bad guy, fully knowing what he was doing, and very aware that he was doing evil... even if he justified it for the sake of good. Bad guy.
Later, though, we find that the Punisher had a hard life. His family was murdered by gangsters during a picnic after he got back from fighting in Vietnam, and, well, one thing led to another and... the Punisher wasn't exactly a BAD guy. He was just another vet with PTSD, some psychological issues, y'know, who'd have sorted things out on his own, except those bad evil Mafia guys went and slaughtered his wife and kids for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and pushed this finely tuned killing machine over the EDGE, y'know... what did they EXPECT?
(Funny thing? Batman killed some people, back early in his career, third or fourth issue. After he shot down some guys "for their own good," Editorial noticed, and threw a screaming stink, and Batman NEVER killed anyone again. In fact, he hated guns, now. It unhappened. Because heroes don't kill people, ever. Incorruptible!)
In the eighties, two of the most popular super heroes were The Punisher and Wolverine. Interestingly, both of these guys had psychological issues, anger control problems, a tendency to keep their friends at arm's length, and oh my, they iced bad guys left and right. The eighties was a time when, y'know, killin' bad guys was ALL RIGHT, y'know. Because we're the good guys, and they're the bad ones.
Power fantasy? Definitely. Incorruptible? Not so much.
I believe it was in this decade that both Wolverine and the Punisher got their own comic book series. Hell, in the nineties, Wolverine appeared on the cover of durn near every Marvel comic, whether he belonged there or not. He was good for sales. He was in the Avengers at one point, a thing that made me wonder like hell, because Captain America was in the Avengers, and the Captain America that I remembered would NOT have been okay with a short Canadian with a weird haircut who killed the guards while sneaking into the hideout because it was more convenient than knocking them out, you know?
These guys never seemed to face much in the way of consequences for their actions. The X-Men would give Wolverine a stern talking-to from time to time, but it seemed to bother him about as much as halitosis would. The Punisher got arrested and sent to prison a couple of times, but he'd just seethe and try to cooperate and try to contain himself until bad guys and corrupt prison guards finally pushed him too far, and then he'd beat everyone up, kill some with prison silverware and a jelly sandwich he had in his pocket, and then knock down the wall with sheer raging testosterone and run off into the night... to appear the next day with his familiar black and white skull tights festooned with a whole gun shop's worth of armament he no doubt had stashed somewhere, just in case.
The Punisher has no faith in the law, the legal system, the penal system, any of it. He is the authority, judge, jury, executioner. He IS a fascist. I can do this, therefore I will, because I can. I am right, you are wrong, so fuck you.
He was BIG in the eighties, and the nineties, and even into the new century. Made the news when a comic story was published where he meets some cops who not only don't arrest him, they squee over him like fanboys. They're ADMIRERS OF HIS WORK. And they have a Punisher Skull Sticker on their police car. Apparently, this is a real thing. I've seen Punisher Skull stickers on cars and pickups. Never on a police car, but I'm told it happens.
Because I am right. You are wrong. Fuck you. I will act to cure the disease, and I don't care who it hurts. It's for your own good. The end justifies the means.
Found myself thinking about that on January 6, 2021.
Buncha guys in costumes. We Are Right, You Are Wrong, Fuck You. We have guns, and we will set things right. People might get hurt, but fuck them, they were bad people. We Are The Law!
Wonder how many of these people grew up reading comics?
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