Wolverine and Batman: for me, both these characters represent moral ambiguity. Is doing the right thing good if you sometimes have to use questionable means to do so?
Batman fights crime as a form of revenge. Revenge has always been morally ambiguous, and therefore Batman's motivations as a crimefighter are of especial philosophical difficulty.
As for Wolverine, I would argue that he is a loner precisely because he exists in a moral gray area. Most comic heroes (at least the ones prior to the 80's and 90's, I would say) are either all good or all bad, with almost no middle ground. Wolverine IS that middle ground. He tries to do what is right, but is so violent and berserk at the same time...
Superman, on the other hand, seems to me to represent moral absolutism; he's so impossibly good that he exists as the behavioral benchmark by which we are supposed to measure ourselves.
Cyclops: burden of leadership. I suppose this is true of most leader characters. However, I think it's at its purest in Cyclops because you can clearly see the way his job has turned him from a nice-enough, shy and geeky guy to a stressed-out, bossy jerk.
Gender: Male Location: Perfect night for hunting lowlife.
Punisher: judge jury and exicutioner. He knows there is a fine line between right and wrong and if you cross it, no matter who you are or what you have done, he will punish you. "You work for the devil, you better be ready to die for him" Mother Russia and "In his heart, he knew it was wrong. But it was what he wanted. So he went ahead and did it, and hoped everything would work out all right...thats why he deserved to be punished." In the Beginning. Both great quotes that sum up the punisher new school. As for old school, "They laugh at the law. But they don't laugh at me" from return to big nothing seems to sum up old school punisher for me at least.
IMO he's an Alien version of Emmanuel Kant. Like Kant; Supes always strives to do what is right no matter the circumstances or the consequences. He has moral principles that he very rarely questions, hence why he regularly comes into conflict with various others, who believe that they can act immorally, for moral reasons.
IMO i think Clark should change his surname to Kant.
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Mar 18th, 2008 03:40 AM
