Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics Page #11

They pull a heist, they escape the Flash...

- ... and then they go to a bar to have a beer?

- The Suicide Squad is the exception to the rule.

And what makes it interesting

is it's a bunch of villains...

...who are forced by the government to go on

missions that are for the good of the people.

And if they fail, if they decide to try and

escape, they have devices that will kill them.

So they are forced to do it.

I think the fact that they are forced to

be heroes despite their own instincts...

...and that they're constantly trying

to work out ways to undermine missions...

...and to sometimes betray their teammates

and be villains even while they're...

When they're forced to do the right thing

is the reason why that team, that book...

- ... is always around and is always popular.

- None of their motivation is theirs.

They're doing the bidding of

Amanda Waller and the government.

LEE:
Are the people that

are planting these bombs...

...on the backs of the

Suicide Squad members...

...are they the heroes?

You know, purportedly they are.

But the way they're doing it, it

really, you know comes down to...

...it's an extreme form

of water boarding, I think.

They have reason to hate their handlers,

who are supposed to be the good guys...

...but they're not seen

that way in the books.

So it's an interesting study in what

makes a villain and what makes a hero...

...because it's kind of

flip-flopped in that book.

CARLIN:
They're not there to personally

screw the other guy standing next to them.

They are there to just survive.

And they are... They don't want

it to be their suicide mission.

And I do think that that's

of a different and new angle.

Suicide Squad is successful,

because it has a rotating cast.

You could kill some members off.

There's always that question...

...of something happening to the

cast that could change the status quo.

There's always that anticipation

that if a mission goes wrong...

...somebody could actually die.

It's a gut-level survival instinct.

For the reader, you're just like:

"Who's gonna make it through

this mission and how?"

You know, and then, you know, Are

they gonna manage to actually get free...

...so they can take care of

Amanda Waller?" Heh, heh, heh.

Sometimes it's more exciting to

find a villain that's so powerful...

...the combined might of an

entire team can't defeat them.

LEE:
So the superheroes and the

supervillains have to band together...

...put aside their differences.

You always have that classic shot

where they reach out and shake hands...

...and, like, "Let's team up. "

And, to me, that's like

the ultimate odd couple.

The problem is though that there aren't

that many of those kinds of villains.

So it's always a challenge to find one villain

powerful enough to take out all of them.

It's interesting that someone

like Lex Luthor could do it...

...just because he has the

skill to out-think them.

So it isn't always power.

Sometimes it's that X-factor.

But if you can manage to

do the right storyline...

...again, it can be a lot of

fun and a really great challenge.

I'm not here to challenge you,

Darkseid. Quite the contrary.

I've got something you want.

The only thing you want.

People can identify with that...

...because when we're faced

with something that endangers...

...our way of life...

...we can set aside our

differences and work together.

NARRATOR:
A fine line exists

between a hero and villain.

And sometimes the line is crossed.

In essence, the hero

becomes the villain.

But when a hero loses their

way, is salvation possible?

One of the great classic

stories of literature...

...is the drama of

the good man goes bad.

What is it that can happen

to us that puts us through...

...a set of circumstances that drives us

to do something we don't morally believe in?

That's a powerful tale.

Trying to turn a hero, you have to actually

figure out how to affect their moral center.

It's in the face of a planet being

blown up, a city being blown up...

...or a wife or a lover dying.

And the idea that "I wasn't strong enough,

I wasn't powerful enough and perhaps...

...me doing the right thing or

being a hero was the problem.

If I'd been more vicious, if I'd been

more brutal, I could have changed things. "

I think every great turn of a hero

to a villain, it comes from that.

LEE:
In Injustice, the storyline

is that the Joker has killed Lois...

...and it's not just Lois' death that drives

Superman to almost a level of insanity...

...but the fact that Lois

was carrying his child...

...and so it has double

significance and impact on him.

BATMAN:
That's enough.

At that point, he kind of

loses his frame of reference...

...and decides to create

almost a totalitarian state...

...where he's the ultimate

authority. So again in his mind...

...he is trying to prevent what

happened to Lois and his unborn child...

...from happening in

the world by becoming...

...you know, the enlightened dictator.

But, you know, you see sort

of the holes in logic of that.

You know, ultimately, you

are creating a greater evil...

...by trying to do some

small sense of good.

There have been a few stories where

heroes go villainous for some time...

...and I think probably the most famous

one is Hal Jordan when Coast City...

...the city he called

home, was attacked.

And many people were killed and destroyed

and he wanted to bring them back.

And he went to the Guardians and said,

"Give me this power so I can do it. "

And they said no, and he

ultimately killed them...

...and became...

Went crazy, became this big

villain in the DC universe.

You know, they say that power corrupts

and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Usually when a hero falls from grace

it's because they've succumbed...

...to their own power, like

when Hal Jordan became Parallax.

It was Hal Jordan overreaching...

...and trying to use his power as the

Green Lantern to recreate an entire city...

...and he kept wanting

more and more power.

And he basically got

corrupted by his own...

You know, by his own super power.

And I think that is usually the

path down... You know, down darkness.

ROBINSON:
Through

becoming the Spectre...

...and ultimately becoming Green

Lantern again he found redemption.

But it took years and it was a great

hero's journey that we got to witness.

JOHNS:
Hal Jordan was always about

overcoming fear and I thought, "Well...

...if he's all about overcoming fear, there's

gotta be a moment that he gave in to fear.

When was that weakness?" That weak

point was when he was worried...

...something else was gonna happen

once Coast City was destroyed.

And in that moment, he let fear

kind of take hold of his heart.

That's when Sinestro unleashed

Parallax, who was this...

We created this entity of terror that

could possess his soul and corrupt his body.

And essentially turn him into Parallax.

And by having Hal still make

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