If you read many superhero comics today many feature it’s
super-heroes spending 20 pages fighting other superheroes. In this gray area
one hero will spend an entire issue fighting another hero to stand for their
ideologies and personal beliefs. With “good” guys fighting other “good” guys one
has to wonder: What happened to the Super-Villain in American Comics?
Thanks to the gray area, most of today’s superhero comics are
downright confusing. “Good” guys fight each other. “Bad” guys fight for good. “Good”
Guys sometimes go bad. There is no clear sense of right or wrong and no clear
line of demarcation between good and evil. That makes a comic universe like
Marvel or DC’s a pretty confusing place to be in and impossible for the new
reader to access.
From what I’ve seen from many modern creators they spend
almost all of their time focusing on their heroes. They give them a great
costume, amazing powers and a fantastic origin. However, while they focus all
their effort on developing their protagonist, they don’t spend as much time and
energy on developing their antagonist or building a rogues gallery. And because
they don’t take the time to develop their bad guys oftentimes their comic falls
apart before the first word of the first story is written.
Superhero comic creators and writers need to understand that villains
are just as important as the hero in a comic book story paradigm. And if the
villain doesn’t get as much character development as the hero does the entire
story collapses. When the bad guy has no real motivation to take on the good
guy or they have a faulty motivation to challenge the hero the story just
doesn’t work. Because many writers just don’t know how to write a strong
villain, they cover up their lack of craft by having to have two heroes fight
each other.
Why are villains important to the comic book paradigm? Because
villains create conflict. And conflict is what drives a story to its
conclusion. In some cases the villains’ conflict is what creates the inciting
incident, the event that starts the story and introduces the main character and
the obstacles they face in achieving their goal.
From a story perspective villains make the reader ask
questions. What is their master plan? Why do they think it’ll work this time?
Why are they trying to take over the world? Why are they targeting the hero?
Why do they hate the hero? Why do
they want to make them pay? And how will the hero overcome the obstacles the
bad guy throws in front of them?
And most importantly they make the reader ask why should we
CARE? If the antagonist can’t establish a great conflict from the first few
pages then there’s no incentive for the reader to have the motivation to
continue reading the comic or even finish the storyline. The hero may get people
to BUY a comic but it’s the villain who SELLS comics. If they can’t make us EXCITED
about the obstacles they throw in the heroes’ way then there’s no incentive for
the reader to keep buying a comic series.
Villains also create contrast. A well-crafted heel is often
the polar opposite of the hero. They represent a twisted mirror image of the
heroes’ ideologies and approaches to life. They show us what could possibly
happen if the hero made that “wrong” choice instead of that “right” choice to
do the right thing.
Villains also form relationships with the hero. The contrast between
heroes and villains often forms many of the core relationships that drive the
story in a comic series. As they fight to stand for their ideologies and
approaches to life in their struggles for and against Truth and Justice it
often leads to leads to great chemistry being built between the hero and the
villain. This usually creates the “heat” in a feud or series of feuds which
keeps readers coming back to read more of the heroes’ adventures.
It’s this “heat” in these feuds that lead to the formation of
an archenemy or a rogues gallery. As these feuds intensify they build a
characters’ popularity.
One of the biggest mistakes comic creators make is making
their bad guys one-dimensional. They spend so much time focusing on making the
hero great, that the villain is usually seen as a one-dimensional punching bag
they use to showcase how powerful the hero is. But bad guys need character
development and backstory too. While most creators want people to identify with
the hero and their struggles people also need to identify and relate to
villains’ struggle too. People need to like the bad guy just as much as they
like the good guy. It may sound crazy, but some people like bad guys. And they
like them because they can do the things they want to do but can’t. Watching
them break all the rules allow them a form of catharsis.
When I start writing a story these days for the Isis series I
usually start writing my outline with the villain first. Why? Because the bad
guy is the one who drives the conflict. Their motivation to get what they want
usually gives Isis the major obstacle she has to overcome in the story.
Sometimes I use the villains in the Isis series to establish
the story. In stories like Isis: The Ultimate Fight I’ll use a villain like
Nemesis to create the inciting incident and their goal is what creates the
obstacles that’ll get in Isis’ way as she fights to stand for what she believes
in.
In other cases I’ll use the villain’s relationship with Isis
to establish the story in their feud. In Isis: The Beauty Myth, it was Raheema
Sanders an atheist, became jealous of Isis when she learned she was a goddess. Things
got downright personal as the two women fought to stand for their beliefs and
core values. This relationship was further developed in Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess as Raheema sought to use science to prove that she could attain
the same power as a god escalating the feud between the two women. And at the
end of both stories, readers saw what defined Isis as a hero as she overcame
the challenge of the Cybergoddess.
In most cases I do whatever I can to make the bad guys just
as likeable and relatable as Isis herself. The way I see it, readers need to
love the hate the bad guy just as much as they love rooting the good guy. I
make every effort for people to see the humanity in the bad guy and understand
how they’re feeling so the reader can connect with them in the same way they
connect with Isis. I want readers to have the most objective picture of the
story and come to a conclusion why the bad guy lost and why the hero won at the
end of the story.
The way I see it a good rogues gallery is filled with
memorable bad guys with strong personal motivations for disliking or even
hating the hero. It’s these motivations that keep people coming back to buy
more comics and read more stories. The cornerstone to a good comic or fantasy/Sci-fi
story are the bad guys and I urge aspiring writers to focus developing them first.
Because without the bad guy to focus on the heroes’ weaknesses, we’ll never see
how truly strong they are as a character.
Good article but I do have a recurring problem with the CW Flash series. It's not so much that Iris is black considering the casting decisions but because she's made into Barry's foster sister (whom he also kissed, bleh). Despite what some fans (who are into fanfiction shipping) say, reputable sources like the CW Arrow wiki say that Joe West is Barry's adopted father. Not to mention that Barry's other father figure, Harrison Wells, is shortly revealed to have killed his mum. Talk about questionable fathers.
ReplyDeleteIt's disturbing indeed Ad. This is why I'm NOT a fan of Flash Rebirth. Too complicated and too...weird. The Classic Allen/West family structure was a lot more well-defined and easier to follow. Incest...CREEPY
ReplyDeleteBarry's male figures aren't strong like in the Flash comics. Barry's dad was a good man and that made Barry become a good man. Which in turn made him the role model Wally West looked up to. A clear patriarchal line defined from generation to generation.
Reasons why live-action television/film and comic-book superheroes do not mix well together, Number One Hundred and Fifty Nine.
ReplyDelete