Lesson Two
Struggles with Morality
Justice is about more than revenge.
First thing I would like to address in this lesson is the violence of superheroes. Violence definitely should not be the main factor in defining moral nature of a superhero, because their violence depends on the social context. Just because a superhero uses violence to save the day, does not mean that they are immoral as they only use violence to prevent villains causing harm to property or other people. Superheroes, as our defenders, are here to solve serious problems and sometimes, this may make violence necessary, they do try and engage in violence without killing.
However, we
would be foolish not to mention that many times, superheroes' solution to
violence is more violence. They do not really have an official role in their
communities as they act more like unofficial security guards of the city or
part of city they reside in. Superheroes thus face difficult moral dilemmas.
They believe that they have a moral responsibility to use their powers in any
way they can to help ordinary people and thus cannot remain as silent
bystanders. Often there are two forces fighting within them, that some people
call a hero and an avenger. There are a lot of scenarios where the villain tries
to best the superhero by making them choose between two alternatives where they
have to decide whom to save.
Good example of this occurs at the end of the first Spider-Man (2002) movie. The movie's antagonist and long-time villain of Spiderman, Green Goblin, forces Peter Parker to choose between saving Mary Jane Watson, his girlfriend and a cable car of children. Spiderman is faced with an impossible ultimatum, where he is faced with a question of morality; should he save the person he loves, or children's lives. Fortunately, Parker manages to overcome this obstacle and uses his powers to save both.
Jumping to DC, Superman faced this on a larger scale, especially if you consider him a true paragon of justice, which we will talk briefly about in a later paragraph. In an issue titled Superman #171 (1964), two unimaginably powerful aliens, Rokk and Sorban bet whether they can make Superman kill someone and eventually, corrupt him. Rokk shows Superman that he is able to annihilate planets with his mind and gives him an ultimatum, either Superman kills someone or Rokk destroys Earth. He gives Superman 24 hours to decide, during which the superhero reflects on the choice presented to him. After unsuccessfully trying to commit suicide with kryptonite (a boring solution to the aliens), Superman decides to kill them and fulfills the requirements.
Another struggle with morality that is presented to superheroes is that can they can jeopardize other people's lives in trying to capture a villain in a dangerous chase. We can see the fallout and the toll of saving the city or country can have on its inhabitants and infrastructure in The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which culminated in 2016's Captain America: Civil War with Sokovia Accords (Superhuman Registration Act in the comics). But more on that in the next lesson.
DC movies touched on that subject in the Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), where there was a lot of controversy about the massive amounts of destruction caused by Superman fighting Zod. People of Metropolis felt that a lot of destruction could have been prevented and it was also very unclear how many lives were lost in the battle. Not to mention how Zod's death made a great impact on Superman's moral foundation.
Experts on morality and moral justice analyzed its occurrence in superhero culture and discovered that the morality of justice can be separated into two groups, which they call the justice of Batman and the justice of Superman, named after two most famous DC superheroes, both with high moral codes. They both fight for justice, however their methods are vastly different. Superman works strictly within the bounds of law, trusting of rules and regulations, while Batman creates his own law and puts himself into a position of a judge. But before we condemn Batman, we must think about the background they are coming from. Superman lives in Metropolis, which is the society of consensus and rule of law, while Batman resides in Gotham City, a state of conflict and with terrifying corruption amongst police and government alike. Superman is merciful, chivalrous, a true white knight, while Batman created his own moral code and is a dark knight of grim justice in an even darker society.
Speaking of Batman, with him arises another moral question: How far should superheroes go in achieving their goal of justice in society? What if achieving this goal demands a sacrifice too great, becomes unobtainable in reality or creates a horrible counter-reaction of events? In this case, should a hero compromise, change, or simply not react?
Joker,
from The Dark Knight (2008) tested Batman's convictions beautifully. He managed
to make Batman nearly quit by playing on his guilt over all the innocent lives
indirectly lost in the superhero's pursuit of justice, he turned Gotham even
more chaotic than it was before Joker's intervention, corrupted its symbol of
hope, Harvey Dent (who later turns into a supervillain called Two-Face) and
pushed Batman almost into breaking his most sacred code - no killing.
When a superhero pursues a noble goal, especially in such an uncompromising manner, they must be prepared to face an equally powerful counter-reaction and tackle it to the best of their ability. Some also view Batman's case as a cautionary tale. By being so uncompromising in his goals, he got lost in them. He mainly relied on Harvey Dent as an uncorrupt beacon of hope, which made him prioritize a perfect, but unrealistic version (Dent, The White Knight) of his goals over a flawed, though realistic one (Batman, The Dark Knight).
We can see a similar thing in CW show Arrow (2012-), where Oliver Queen decides not to kill anymore when he is pursuing justice as Green Arrow, after doing so for a whole season. Queen realizes that he became something he fights against, a sort of villain. After a significant even in season two, he kills only as a last defensive resort. Queen further shows this change by not only leaving criminals alive, but also changing his name from Vigilante to Arrow.
As we can see, superheroes face many struggles throughout their lives, some harder to overcome than others, but all heroes come out (more or less) better people for it.