Yes, it’s another journal post about democracy with fiction.
However, I submit to you the idea that democracy does not exist in the world of
superheroes. Since I intend to only use DC Comics (as I’m not that familiar with
Marvel), we will use as our prime examples Batman and the Teen Titans. From
here, we will discuss why these heroes use (or do not use) the typical American
constraint of a democracy and what kind of message this sends to younger
readers/viewers.
Batman is a rugged billionaire philanthropist who spends his
nighttime hours fighting crime in a getup that might be considered questionable
at best. Are his actions regulated by anyone? Does anyone select what he will
do and how we will do it? In Arkham Asylum (video game), the police
commissioner calls him over to Arkham to solve a mystery. It seems people
depend upon Batman, yet no one calls him to task for anything. Batman is the
unquestioned vigilante of the night and the police, as well as any other law officials,
are helpless to rein him in.
In fact, the only people who call Batman to task for
anything are considered the villains. Batman is represented staunchly as the
hero, the one who fights for what’s right without much assistance (barring his
sidekicks) and who may have no one’s help if he fails. A democracy is supposed
to provide a safety net. Batman’s safety net consists of Robin and Batgirl,
assuming the two can get together or are even present depending on where they
are in Batman’s history. If Batman falls…Gotham falls. It’s incredible, and a
little scary, to realize how much depends on one man.
Imagine if the same were applied for American politics.
Heaven forbid something happened to the president. Instead of having a backup
system in place, where someone can step in for him (or battle for him, to
continue the Batman metaphor), society has nothing. All the laws and
regulations put into effect are automatically null and criminals run the
streets. No one can stop them because the police are inadequate and apparently,
Gotham can only depend upon acrobatic children and people with entirely too
much time on their hands. And even then, those heroes fail too.
The United States would be destroyed if the president, by
that metaphor, disappeared or was killed. Children take from this that only one
person can protect them, one person who is superhuman. (Batman, of course,
although being human, is represented as someone with keen intellect and
strength). This person will save them when they need it, but they cannot depend
upon anyone else. All the structures democracy has put into play, all the
backups, mean nothing. When one person falls, they all fall.
At least with teams, this shouldn’t happen, right? The Teen
Titans have a leader, but they make decisions as a group. When one member
suffers, the team does its best to help him or her out. Although the greater
society does not participate within group dynamics, a fault that limits its
ability to be deemed a true democracy, the Titans still act as a whole rather
than a sum of their parts. Multiple episodes have shown that the Titans work
better as a group than individually, because they have put their powers
together for the common good.
This is a good message to send to children. Individually, we
have important traits to bear and specifically, when we bring these special
traits together, we can create a stronger unit. Although Robin is the undisputed
leader of the group, he is not infallible. He can make mistakes and the team
can help him through these. The Titans depend upon each other for support, much
like people within a democracy must depend upon each other when they need it
most.
Ironically, Robin derives from Batman’s Gotham and
originally worked with Batman. Depending on which Robin you mean (Teen Titans
has Dick Grayson), Robin took the principles he learned from Batman and applied
them to teamwork, which is something Batman seldom does. It’s interesting how
the dynamics have shifted depending on where Robin is. It’s also interesting to
consider that Batman seems to have more staying power than Robin and the Teen
Titans, perhaps because, despite the democratic principles within our country,
the lone vigilante is just so much more appealing.
No comments:
Post a Comment