So, this was spurred on by "Black Adam".
I didn't put it in the review, because I wanted it to be a quickie, and I struggled over whether to even jot this shit down.
Eh, what the hell? I'll pound it out in notepad, and if it comes out okay, I'll post it.
So, both in the film, and in the bonus materials, they make a big fucking deal over Black Adam being a lethal anti-hero. And there's a lot of breathless wankery over "ohhh, sometimes you need the darkness to save the day".
It almost feels like a fucking NRA commercial. Almost.
Naturally, Black Adam butts up against Hawkman who's all strawman goody-two-shoes with "heroes don't kill!".
Cuz you always need the non-lethal guy to be a strawman for these kind of things.
Heroes don't kill?
Um...well...since when?
Heroism is a social construct that's changed over time, and changes depending on what country you go to.
Humanity has called some pretty horrible people "hero".
Vlad The Impaler is a hero to Romanians.
Matter of fact, Black Adam is a great analog to old Vlad.
And since when are superheroes non-lethal goody-two-shoes in the DC Snyderverse?
Batman kills. Wonder Woman kills. Aquaman kills. Superman kills Zod, and grieves about it, but then he kills Steppenwolf in the JL Snyder Cut with glee.
Well, he sets it up for Wonder Woman to lop his head off, but he may as well have delivered the killing stroke himself. Cyborg won't kill humans, but he takes out Para-demons like paper ducks.
Flash. Flash won't kill. And they don't give him shit for it.
Only when it's Hawkman vs Black Adam does it become a thing.
Gee, it's almost like the crappy writer doesn't understand the non-lethal argument.
Or, God forbid, the pacifist argument.
Or as demonstrated already, the goddamned universe he's writing in.
Top all that off with that the DC and Marvel worlds are based on our world, and we let soldiers and cops be lethal; and well, it gets a bit silly to blurt our something as simplistic as "heroes don't kill".
So!! Let's look at the non-lethal and pacifist arguments.
From "Batman: Under The Red Hood".
Batman : You don't understand. I don't think you've ever understood.
Jason Todd : What? That your moral code just won't allow for that? It's too hard to cross that line?
Batman : No! God Almighty, no. It'd be too damned easy. All I've ever wanted to do is kill him. A day doesn't go by that I don't think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he's dealt out to others, and then... end him.
Joker : Aw, so you *do* think about me.
Batman : But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place... I'll never come back.
It's not about some Pollyanna pure-heart bullshit that Batman (normally) doesn't kill, it's where do you stop? And if it's "never" then after awhile, how are you different from the bad guy?
Then all you're doing is rolling down in the mud with the bad guys, and your only reason to fight them isn't morals, its selfishly protecting your people, and your stuff.
It's the morality of a pirate crew vs all the other pirate crews.
Or, quite frankly, nation states vs each other.
And now you're caught up in that miserable Henry Kissinger bullshit thinking you're a God-man worthy of playing chess with the planet.
And all that's lovely for you, if you think pirates, war, brinksmanship, and Henry Kissinger are awesome.
But ask Captain Phillips, injured/traumatized soldiers, the baby boom generation who lived with "duck and cover", and Cambodia how they feel about it.
Yeah. Then suddenly, it's not all a fun little game of cowboys & Indians.
So, how to break the cycle?
Well, non-Snyder Batman, Daredevil, and Spider-Man do it by letting the judicial system process baddies.
And that means keeping them breathing.
Frankly, it's why the left doesn't use political violence.
Typically. There's rare exceptions, like The Symbionese Liberation Army.
How long ago was that now?
And the right likes to bawl and shriek about Antifa, and The Black Panthers, and tries to make them equivalent to fucking Al-Qaeda, but they use non-lethal force in self defense.
But the right hates it if you even stand up to them. You're supposed to roll over for them.
Fuck them. Let 'em cry.
Anyway, that's the non-lethal argument.
Let's go all the way to pacifism.
Pacifism doesn't mean passivity.
Pacifists during WWII were radio operators, medics, spies, and saboteurs.
Because nothing about pacifism says you can't break inanimate shit.
You gonna say Desmond Doss from "Hacksaw Ridge" was a pussy?
Fuck you as a total knucklehead if you do.
Pacifists aren't naïve Pollyannas either.
They know damned well the world they live in, and the uphill battle they have against it.
Desmond Doss wasn't waving his finger at his fellow soldiers saying "heroes don't kill!".
Wielding a spinning spikey battle club that could only be used to splatter bad guy's brains.
Yes, I'm mocking Hawkman.
I'm mocking the shit out of Hawkman.
And speaking of knowing what world you live in, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Princess Leia, James Bond, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Thor, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, all the Guardians Of The Galaxy, Hawkeye, Hulk, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, Wasp, Wolverine, Deadpool, Punisher, Prince Lir, all the pre-90's Disney princes, Robocop, Terminator, Rambo, Judge Dredd, Long John Silver, and Jaimie Fraser, are all fucking lethal.
SOOO!!! How does Black Adam stand apart, exactly?
Hmmmm?!?!?!
Getting back to pacifism, our culture just doesn't know what to make of it.
Out one side of everyone's mouths, they hold the Hawkmans and Colossuses up for ridicule as sissies, and then we honor and revere Martin Luther King, Mister Rogers, and Ghandi.
And Jesus. Nothing about American Christianity lately screams "turn the other cheek" or "love they enemy" or "let he who has no sin cast the first stone".
It's like, we know deep down we're supposed to ultimately evolve up to their level, but we're not ready for it yet. So we project our shame by mocking it. But we can't mock MLK, Mr. Rogers, Ghandi, and Jesus, so we get these pop-culture strawmen. But then you get this weird contradicting cognitive dissonance from that.
And then you get movies like Black Adam.
Personally, I'm trying really hard to be pacifist, but if I slip, I'll try to keep it non-lethal, and if I slip there, I'll get back up on the horse and try again.
I'll only really need to find out if we have a total fascist Trump-ocalypse, and my confederacy-kissing neighbors try to kill me. Let's hope we don't come to that place.
In the meantime, the Black Adams and Punishers of the world aren't exactly making me quake in shame.
And "Red Dawn" is just a comedy that full on backfires on the right.
It's fun to see them try though.
And fun is all you can or should ask of entertainment, isn't it?
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