Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics Page #2

In the superhero we have this exaggeration

of what our hopes and desires are.

At the same time the

villain has aspects of us...

...that challenge the strengths

that we're admiring in the superhero.

I would like to think that most

people identify with the hero, heh.

But in this day and age there might

be some who identify with the villain.

I understand getting a gun that shoots ice

and going into a bank and trying to rob it.

We understand temptation.

The oldest stories ever told

have to do with temptation...

...whether it's Pandora or Adam and Eve.

This very basic quality in human beings

that runs with us throughout our lives.

JOHNS:
Now, there are villains

like the Joker or Black Hand...

...that are so twisted and dark...

...you love seeing them do their

stuff, but you don't relate to them.

At least, you don't admit you do.

Everyone wishes that they could turn

invisible or fly or have x-ray vision.

And I think what's cool about villains is

everyone wishes that they could break bad.

What's the point of having a villain who can't

act out aspects of ourselves that we repress?

I can be evil. I'm gonna give

you my husband's number...

...and you can have a long

chat with him. Heh, heh, heh.

I think there are some people who really

associate themselves with, like, a Superman.

On the other hand, people covet

Lex Luthor's keen intellect.

When I was growing up I loved

the character of Vandal Savage.

DC had relaunched The Flash

with Wally West as the Flash...

...after Crisis on Infinite Earths and his

first villain that he fought was Vandal Savage.

He was immortal. And who

wouldn't want to be immortal?

And who wouldn't want to have

this far reach into history?

He's one of those villains that has nothing

to lose. That's a very dangerous man.

You know, he just knows

he will be resurrected.

How do you defeat that person?

You look good. Been working out?

You could probably use a little sun.

Then again, who am I to talk?

[LAUGHING]

They seem to be happy. Heh.

They seem to enjoy being bad.

Most of the heroes,

especially of late...

...they're all broody and sad. They

never seem to be enjoying anything.

You look at villains and they're

having the time of their lives.

Harley became popular

because, in part, she's funny.

She can stand up to the Joker. She

can tell a joke. She can get a laugh.

When I go to conventions and I see

young ladies cosplaying as her...

...I think they just tap into that feeling of

fun and that she can just be kind of whimsical.

Harley Quinn is one of

those characters you love.

Even if she's smashing somebody

with a hammer, you love her.

There's a handful of those

villains, like Larfleeze...

...the Orange Lantern.

He's deadly but he's fun.

He's overwhelmed with greed and he'll kill

for it. He's still funny because of that.

He comes to Earth and finds out

there's a being called Santa Claus...

...who gives people

things that you list.

When Larfleeze finds out there's

a being called Santa Claus...

...that answers your Christmas

list, he makes a giant list.

When Santa doesn't show up,

he gets pissed off and says:

"I'm gonna kill him. " And he

goes on a hunt for Santa Claus.

There's very few characters that

you can pull that story off with.

Larfleeze is one of those characters.

NARRATOR:
But while villains can

be fun, as well as fascinating...

...they're also a direct

reflection of our own fears.

They force us to examine the

deep and personal terrors...

...that we are unable to

face in our everyday lives.

When writers create supervillains...

...when children imagine monsters...

...they're trying to make

sense of a scary world.

They're trying to feel strong.

They're trying to do so many things.

Villains in some ways, you know, should

reflect our fears and our concerns...

...you know, both as

individuals and as a society.

They change over time.

But the more important thing the villains

present is our more global fear...

...our more human fear,

our fear of loss...

...our fear of death,

our fear of the unknown.

The villain represents basically

everything that we fear...

...or everything that

we need to fight against.

Parallax is interesting because the idea that

it's a world-eater, that scares the hell out of us.

At any moment some

universal malevolence...

...can come and take us over.

That's a pretty scary thing.

By the time they were doing the

Superman show, I was an adult.

But whenever you'd watch those

Darkseid episodes, I'd be like:

"Oh, God, this is gonna

be bad. " You know...

...anybody who can

make Superman bleed...

...is somebody that you

don't wanna be trifled with.

Because what are any of us

really gonna do against him?

JOHNS:
I really made Sinestro and

the Sinestro Corps embody fear.

They're cosmic terrorists.

Their mission when they come

is to destroy Coast City.

"We're gonna make Green

Lantern's town a crater...

...and a symbol of fear, so that

nobody will ever come back here. "

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps says,

"We're not afraid. We're gonna fight your fear. "

Hal flies to his brother's house and his

brother is there with his wife and his kids.

Hal Jordan says to his brother,

"You have to leave right now. "

His brother says, We're not

going anywhere. We believe in you.

We're not afraid. We're

standing our ground. "

And suddenly another Green

Lantern says, "Hal, look outside. "

And someone's put a green

light in their window...

...and another person puts

a green light in their window.

And suddenly there's green

lights all throughout the city...

...as a symbolic gesture to Hal.

And for me, that was a recharge moment

for Hal Jordan overcoming fear...

...but it was also a moment,

emotionally, for me saying, like:

"This is how we deal with

fear. We take a stand. "

They're our personal demons.

Like, they're the fears

we have about ourselves...

...come to life in these

incredibly colorful and bright...

...and sometimes funny,

sometimes terrifying ways.

All of us face those things in our lives,

where you face adversity in some way...

...where you're positive you're

not gonna make it through this one.

And I think we've all been there at some

point where you're just thinking to yourself:

"I am not capable of overcoming this. "

Whether it's a small day-to-day

thing or it's a big thing.

And what villains do is they represent

those fears on this macro way...

...I think, for the hero, who's the

representative of all the things we think...

We hope that humanity is capable

of or we're capable of at our best.

Then when the hero overcomes those

things at the end because they have to...

...it says to us that we can too.

NARRATOR:
Every myth has a creation.

Just like our heroes, every

villain must have an origin.

And what qualities do we see

in the most popular villains?

Instilling a sense of

fear simply isn't enough.

Villains must be layered, nuanced.

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