Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics Page #12

a mistake and give in to fear...

...it was still on point and

gave him a point of failure.

But at the same time...

...adding Parallax allowed

for an easier redemption.

And so if a hero does cross the line...

...does he just go back to work

the next day? The idea was no.

It was a 10-year problem for him.

Comic books, by, I think, their basic

nature is about wish fulfillment.

Therefore, the concept

of second chances...

...is actually built into the very

concept of the type of material we do.

So the idea that a hero or

a villain could be redeemed...

...is exactly what

comics have to be about.

We can take bad and turn it good.

And we can make good even better.

And that's what comics and

fantasy storytelling is all about.

ROBINSON:
Cry for Justice began with a bunch

of heroes trying to track down Prometheus.

Prometheus has actually taken

the identity of one of the heroes.

So he actually is amongst

them the entire time.

At the end of it...

...Prometheus has worked out a

way to destroy most of Star City...

...which is Green Arrow's home.

He also maims Arsenal...

...and then ultimately

Arsenal's daughter is killed.

What happens at the very end

is the one moderate person...

...Green Arrow, then tracks down

Prometheus on his own and executes him.

And that then led to a long arc for Green

Arrow where he had to redeem himself.

CARLIN:
Green Arrow crossed the

line and took the life of a villain.

He did not just come back

from that adventure...

...and say, "Oh, well, I'm

never gonna kill people again. "

He had a mental breakdown,

and we did a year...

...a year and a half long

story where he lost it.

And it was to show that there's

consequences for this kind of stuff.

I do think that in modern comics,

it's okay for the heroes to fail.

You just got to have it mean something.

And not just teach them something...

...but have them suffer because

they did something wrong.

Taking someone's life, you take away

all they're gonna have and ever will be.

And it stays with you even if you

do it for the right and proper thing.

So, you know, killing in comics is...

When the hero pulls the trigger...

...I think it's not done a lot,

but I think when it's done...

...it has to be done

in a real big way...

...that has an emotional punch

to the hero's psyche and soul.

NARRATOR:
After we've

witnessed such heinous crimes...

...after we've experienced firsthand...

...pure evil in the face of villainy,

can the evildoer be redeemed?

In this comic book world where

heroes often get second chances...

...can the villain ever be forgiven?

It's a lot harder to figure out

how somebody who spent years...

...taking what they

wanted, killing people...

...whatever set of misdeeds

will suddenly turn around...

...and find God and become

moral the rest of their lives.

Does it happen?

Probably does in reality, but

it's a real tough story to tell.

Black Adam is an interesting character.

He was chosen by the wizard Shazam...

...given powers back in

the ancient Egyptian days.

He was a slave in Kahndaq.

He took these powers, became Black

Adam, the champion, and he was a hero.

And over time, he was

corrupted by that power.

He went back to Kahndaq and he said,

I'm leading Kahndaq now, you are free.

I'm here. " And then he found someone

he fell in love with. Isis was born...

...and then Isis' brother Osiris. Like,

we kind of created a Black Adam family.

And then that family was torn

apart and they were killed.

And Isis, who had been such a great

presence for Adam, who had preached peace.

As she's dying in his arms, the

last words she says is, "Avenge us. "

And that sends Black Adam off.

And he kills an entire

country out of rage.

And, obviously, hard to

redeem somebody after that.

He believes in doing the right thing.

He just goes about it in

such a barbaric and awful way.

Pete Tomasi wrote a fantastic story wrapped

around a character everybody should hate.

And made him... You

know, made him a hero...

...in a very... You know,

from a very villainous past.

It's a weird spot to be in when

you're a writer, when you have to say:

"I committed genocide, but I have

to make this character relatable...

...and in a weird way have people understand

where he was coming from at that point. "

So it's a tough line to walk when

you're a writer writing a character...

...who's as three-dimensional

as Black Adam...

...because he really is one of those

great three-dimensional characters...

...that you could horribly

understand why he does something.

With villains, though, when you

try and turn them into heroes...

...they can lose their...

What makes them special.

So it's a very rare case where

a villain is better as a hero.

Most of the time most readers just can't

wait for them to be villainous again.

ROMANO:
When we worked

on Dark Knight Returns...

...where we have Doctor Wolper...

...trying to bring the Joker back

and trying to work with him...

...and now Doctor Wolper

also has an enormous ego.

And so you've got

Joker's ego, Wolper's ego.

It doesn't work out well. It

doesn't work out well for Wolper.

But the Joker absolutely was all about:

"I am rehabilitated. I'm here.

I've seen the error of my ways. "

And he really just used that as a

matter to get himself out of Arkham...

...so he could commit tremendous crimes.

I think some of them can be redeemed,

but I think what you gotta do...

...is you gotta dangle the sense of

redemption in front of them then rip it away.

Ultimately, you show why they

were a villain in the first place.

NARRATOR:
As society continues

to evolve, so too do our villains.

In September of 2011...

...DC relaunched its

entire line of comics...

...dubbed The New 52.

Two years ago, relaunched

the DC universe.

We called that The New 52 and it was

basically a soft reset of the universe...

...where we basically fixed the

things that we felt weren't working...

...and kept going with

the things that were.

We sat down and thought about: "What

do we need more of in the DC universe?"

And one of the things that we

wanted to address was the villains.

What is villainy to us in

2013? What is real evil in 2013?

It's horrendous, right? And sometimes if

you get too close to the reality of it...

...it takes you out of the comic book.

So using super villains as

metaphors for whatever that is...

...and for the brutal attacks that they do, it's

gotten darker. It's darker. And it's scarier.

And the attacks come without notice

sometimes and they're personal.

I think that's because we live

in a very, sort of, fearful time.

Ever since 9/11, the

world's been on edge...

...and no one knows when

the next shoe is gonna drop.

Is it gonna be a tsunami? Is

it gonna be economic collapse?

Villains that sort of embody

that sense of unpredictability...

...that sense of, you know, doom

can come in any form and at any time.

I think that speaks to

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