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Tweak says, "buttered toast"

starwolf_oakley (starwolf_oakley) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-23 23:27:00

Entry tags:

publisher: wildstorm, title: the authority

runespoor7's post of Jason Todd talking to Mia Dearden led to a thread discussion about billionaire vigilantes beating up poor criminals.

A panel from THE AUTHORITY: TRANSFER OF POWER shows that at least a few comic creators are aware of this.

"The Authority" was always pretty "out there" for superheroes. But that's Warren Ellis and Mark Millar for you.

For more than a few superheroes, actually being a superhero can be seen as a case of Noblesse Oblige. Noblesse Oblige can be seen as "With great power comes great responsibility... and a really smug sense of superiority."

It came back to Batman, as these things do. After all, we never really go into detail about how "well-off" the Kents were from farming, or how much Clark Kent's Daily Planet take-home pay is. Some seem to think it ties into "Lonely Place of Dying," that since Tim Drake's family is wealthy, Tim isn't as "street" as Jason Todd.

Quotes from users via http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/987439.html?thread=27947311#t27947311:

runespoor7 said: "The fact is, 'Oh, Jason was lower class and her turned out badly, and then he was replaced by Tim, who came from a good family the same side of the streets as Bruce and who did very well as Robin' leaves a strange impression."

lynxara said: "In particular, confronting the class issues at work in the Batman stuff is impossible without coming to the conclusion that most of the characters involved are selfish monsters so steeped in white privilege that they've lost all grasp of reality."

icon_uk said: "Dick was suddenly an ethnic Romany with angst about the likelihood of him ending up in jail like so many of his kin."

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kagome654
2009-09-24 02:00 pm UTC (link)

I don't think that's the only way of viewing it. I think the argument is based on the idea that superheros fill a similar role as police officers, preserving a status quo that contains a certain amount of institutionalized racism and classism. A poor individual can (and occasionally does) become a police officer, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a field that is typically reactionary. My dad was a police officer for 25+ years, and he was always quick to acknowledge that the career tended to attract conservative minded individuals. It doesn't necessarily say anything about the inherent morals of the marginalized and/or poor at all, but rather reflects the reality that police (and perhaps superheroes?) typically hack off the diseased limbs rather than attack the roots of social problems (and to be fair, that is what they're there for, it's the their job), and that those social problems are generally more likely to negatively impact the poor.

Now obviously superheroes are not police officers, they have the capacity to go after bigger fish without having to deal with the bureaucracy that slows down and hinders even the most idealistic police investigation. Superheroes are meant to be viewed as individuals, with their own anti-social or counterculture connotations, they are not instruments of a larger institution. The reason the status quo persists in superhero titles is different than in life, but it persists nonetheless, and I can see why people compare the two.

I don't think it's fair to boil it down 'Batman is a rich guy beating up poor people,' especially as I agree it was mostly written that way for characterization and story convenience, but I also don't think anyone implied that poor people have no morals...?

I dunno if this makes any sense, my cold meds are making me fuzzy.

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	kagome654 2009-09-24 02:05 pm UTC (link)
	Also, I can't spell. I wish we could edit comments here. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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