| rdfs:comment
| - Superheroes try to make the world safer for innocents, but in the short term, they seem to make the world more dangerous. They fight crime, but their victories never seem to make a real difference. They have a frightening tendency to attract villains (or worse, create new ones). For some reason, the members of this Rogues Gallery never die, no matter how many times they cross paths with the hero -- when apprehended, they're sent to a prison from which they inevitably escape. Elements of this include: Examples of Superhero Paradox include:
|
| abstract
| - Superheroes try to make the world safer for innocents, but in the short term, they seem to make the world more dangerous. They fight crime, but their victories never seem to make a real difference. They have a frightening tendency to attract villains (or worse, create new ones). For some reason, the members of this Rogues Gallery never die, no matter how many times they cross paths with the hero -- when apprehended, they're sent to a prison from which they inevitably escape. Elements of this include:
* Create Your Own Villain -- A direct cause and effect of the hero influencing the villains' Start of Darkness.
* Hero Insurance -- The collateral damage that ensues is nothing to scoff at regarding the average citizen.
* Holding Out for a Hero -- The existence of superheros inspires helplessness and recklessness among the civilians. But underneath the surface, the real cause of this is a cabal of extradimensional intelligences, intent on preventing the hero from hanging up their cape and retiring: the authors and readers. As long as the hero's comic books continue to sell, the parent company will continue to pump them out. And since these comics are driven by the Fight Against Evil, continued production of the comics necessitates the continued existence of Evil to be fought. And as subsequent installments try to outdo their predecessors, the threats grow worse with time: The Cape begins his career by saving the City of Adventure from mobsters and bank robbers; but after a hundred issues' worth of hero-ing, he's regularly saving the city from planet-destroying aliens and would-be world-conquerors and garishly themed psychotic lunatics. And of course, those planet-destroying aliens and would-be conquerors and psychotic lunatics themselves become popular, meaning that they can't be killed off or permanently taken out of the picture without their fans getting annoyed. Pretty much every Long Runner superhero franchise has succumbed to this to some degree or other; consequently a number of series have addressed this issue. Of course, all it takes is one averted planet-devouring menace (whose appearance the hero's actions did not invite, admitted) to obviate the basic logic of the complaint: once the hero's presence has been directly responsible for preventing the local Galactus Expy from eating the planet, then the statement 'We'd have been better off if you'd never showed up!' ceases to be a true fact. Constant superhero battle is bad, yes, but total planetary annihilation is the "worse". In many cases there is a Meta Origin or an implied Magnetic Plot Device working alongside this theory. Examples of Superhero Paradox include:
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)