It’s not a popular opinion. Certainly, it’s not a “sophisticated” one. But I like black-and-white morality. Not all the time. Not every time. But sometimes, I like good guys who are good, and bad guys that are bad. I like to have someone to root for and someone to see fall. I like that, and I like it a lot. Honestly, I like it more often than not.
This is why I used to like comic books. The Fantastic Four are good guys. Doctor Doom is a bad guy. I know this going in, and I’m cool with it. I might respect Doctor Doom (more than I really should probably), but I also know that no matter how awesome his robot army is and how justified his egotism (the guy does build time machines in his spare time), he’s a jerk and evil and deserves to get his armored butt handed to him.
This is why I hate Watchmen. It’s not because of the writing (which is rock solid) or the character studies (which is masterful). It’s because it ruined what I used to love about comics. Namely: good guys vs. bad guys and thrilling adventure that I can enjoy without having to realize that life is complicated and messy and has an irksome lack of doombots.
Don’t get me wrong here. I do enjoy sympathetic villains. I like bad guys with complex motivations and interesting personalities. And I don’t mind if a good guy has a dark side but in the end, I like it when the good guy, no matter how flawed, is the guy I’m rooting for over the bad guy, no matter how justified.
I know it’s not fashionable. I know even admitting this will label me as naive to some. But this doesn’t come from a denial of the complexity of the world, but rather as a bit of colorful escape from it. Escapism is not a bad thing. Escapism is not automatically dumb. And a villian who deserves to get smashed in the face isn’t always worthy of disdain.
I honestly don’t get it when we decide to ruin perfectly good characters in the name of sophistication. My Batman might have some emotional baggage, but at the end of the day, he’s just a guy trying to make a difference. If that difference means throwing batarangs and driving around in a cool car, well, good for him. My Superman isn’t a dim-witted boyscout. He’s just a man with extraordinary powers who elects to fight the good fight because, when a giant asteroid is hurtling toward Metropolis, somebody’s gotta take care of it.
Of course, I love Lex Luthor. I really do. How can you not? He’s ruthless, charismatic, and he’ll do whatever it takes to win. He isn’t a cartoonish villain who wants to destroy the world because he’s Evil with a capital E, but he’s still a jerk who I love to watch get his comeuppance.
Life is gray, but fiction doesn’t have to play that game. Of course, I’ll never win a Pulitzer with that attitude, but I can live with that.
about the author
Featured Orbit titles by A. Lee Martinez
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Chasing the Moon
Unspeakable horrors threaten the Earth in this hilarious new comic fantasy from the author of Divine Misfortune.
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Monster
Meet Monster. Meet Judy. Two humans who don't like each other much, but together must fight dragons, fire-breathing felines, trolls, Inuit walrus dogs, and a crazy cat lady--for the future of the universe.
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Divine Misfortune
From the author of Monster comes a divine new comedy sparkling with originality and wit.
Divine Misfortune is a story of gods and mortals--in worship, in love, and at parties.
Paul
February 8, 2010
at 10:05 am
Or you can not like Watchmen for the reasons I do. It was a plodding, boring comic with a climax of an alien creature being teleported dead into a city, while during the entire story the underlying threat of nuclear war was a major theme that comes to nothing by the end because Moore uses the alien instead of nuclear war to frighten the populace. Sound very silly actually.
And did I mention a boring comic. Extremely boring.
AL
February 8, 2010
at 10:08 am
I completely agree, but it’s hard to find “good” good-guys anymore. I think the reason so many reboots and adaptations try to make characters morally ambiguous is that the old writers got lazy with their good guys, and the good guys got boring. And then you wind up in a situation where the bad guys are just so much more interesting. Frankly, I’m more curious about what Dr. Doom is up to than whatever pillow fight is happening over at the Fantastic Four Compound.
Austin H. Williams
February 8, 2010
at 2:26 pm
I empathise with this feeling a great deal. I appreciate complexity, but I can also enjoy the sort of mythological, some might even say “primitive” presentation of stories with good guys and bad guys. Of course, it goes one step further with me, because I do actually believe in the existence of Good and Evil, but that’s beside the point.
I enjoy Watchmen for its complex deconstruction, but just as much I enjoy Kingdom Come for its examination of what it does to stories and us – the readers of those stories – when all morals are made relative, and the good guys are only the good guys because the writer told us so.
It’s good to know I’m not alone in this assessment.