Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The Anti-Heroes

I am an old-time comic collector. I admire the superheroes and the noble things that they do. I love the fact that most of them are able to do it without killing their opponents.

When I was collecting the X-men in the 1980s, I enjoyed the storylines and the characters. I liked Cyclops and his leadership abilities. I loved Nightcrawler with his humor and his faith. I loved the gentlenss and serenity of Storm, the solid caring of Colossus, and the dedication of Banshee. I related well to Kitty Pride (Shadowcat) because when she was introduced, I was feeling that same teenage angst. My least favorite character was Wolverine.

Wolverine never appealed to me. He was rude, crude, and he killed. He was the burr that got into everyone’s skin. He was always angry and had few redeeming qualities, it seemed to me. I admit I was baffled as he gained in popularity and more and more stories focused in on him. They did expand him to include a Samurai sort of honor, which I approved of. Still, he is one of my least favorite X-men. His popularity continued to increase. Now, it’s almost impossible to buy a Marvel comic without seeing him. He’s now in more comics than Spidey is. For a long while, I had safe haven away from him in the Avengers, but he’s there, too, now.

He is really a wonderful example of an Anti-Hero. He does what needs to be done, no matter what the cost, and if he kills, he has limited remorse for that. I think it’s that remorse that makes the difference. We have several characters who do kill, but they feel bad about it. Not Wolverine. Not the anti-hero.

There are several characters that I’ll lump into this ‘anti-hero’ category of ‘why-are-they-liked?’ The Punisher is at the top of the list. I do find it amusing that he was originally put in as an over-the-top joke in Spider-man, and that the comic creators were just as surprised as anyone at his popularity.

Others who have been villains – and still are – such as Deathstroke the Terminator, and Venom. Lobo is another one whose popularity baffles me. I do get great joy when Superman cleans his clock.

The most recent anti-hero who has started to appear everywhere is Deadpool. I've fought against liking him, but he's just plain nuts. I do enjoy him. I got the chance to play Marvel vs. Capcom III recently, and he is hilarious in that. Still, he's appearing in places where he doesn't make any sense to appear.

I have to admit, I’ve never understood that the attraction to the ‘bad boy.’ There are many times in real life when some women or girl in my life has been mistreated by a ‘bad boy’ through cheating, my initial internal reaction is, ‘well, duh, what did you expect.'

I do manage not to say it out loud.

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