Travis Smith. Superhero Ethics. Conshohocken PA: Templeton P, 2018. Print.
Superhero Ethics is fun. It is also a challenge. Travis Smith presents arguably the ten most popular and typical comic book superheroes and examines them from an ethical perspective. While the book’s trajectory is to present a case for who is the most ethical and worthy of imitation, each character has something the reader can admire and emulate.
Smith pairs similar supermen and makes a case for which of the two is worthier. He then takes the five remaining and compares and contrasts them to come up with a finalist—the one whom we can not only admire (they all are admirable, after all), but who speaks most directly to our needs and our own temperaments.
First off are two beasts, as Smith calls them: The Hulk and Wolverine. Both, Smith says, “represent the need to preserve our humanity despite the animal that resides within us all.” (15) Both do promote the moral good, but, as people say today, they have anger issues. We can certainly appreciate them. There is a reason why they are popular with adolescent boys—young men who are experiencing internal and emotional changes and looking for a way to fit in.
Nowadays, bright young Banner types [Bruce Banner, Hulk’s alter ego] with natural aptitudes for math and science are rewarded for pursuing groundbreaking work while neglecting their education in humanities, where better judgment and greater appreciation for moral complexity might be fostered. (26)
Wolverine’s way of taking responsibility is to accept who and what he is and make the best of it, no matter what nature, misfortune, and other men have done to him. (27)
Clearly there is more, but those insights give us a sense of those superheroes’ characters and, perhaps, why they are appealing.
The next two that Smith compares are Green Lantern and Iron Man. Both Hal Jordan and Tony Stark are flawed men, but they are “beacons of imagination.” Jordan/Green Lantern creates something out of nothing to overcome obstacles and save galaxies. Stark/Iron Man believes that any problem can be overcome by science, and then proceeds to prove it.
Tony Stark’s view of the world, though, is mechanistic rather than ethical. He typifies “the modern conception of the universe”:
It’s not random, but what order it has is mechanical, not moral. Understood that way, the universe does not tell us what we should or should not do, but knowing the rules by which it operates gives us power over it and allows us to manipulate it as we please.(52)
The Green Lanterns of the universe and the Guardians behind them have almost unlimited power. This often is a problem and why Green Lanterns can get demoted. This is the problem with monarchies, oligarchies, and other types of despotism.
The ruler who governs his subjects’ lives totally, even ostensibly for their own good, makes them at worst his slaves and at best something like pets. In attempting to save everybody from all possible harm, he or she ends up harming everyone more deeply by removing from them all responsibility for themselves. Responsibility for oneself is a precondition for living with dignity and sine qua non for obtaining the good qualities of character that are constitutive of happiness. (53)
Can you tell from such language that the author is a college professor?
Often people compare Iron Man and Batman because both men have no explicit superpower (though neither did Hal Jordan till he became a Green Lantern) and both men can create their own specialized gadgets because they are wealthy. Indeed the most popular meme from a recent Justice League film comes when someone asks Batman, “What exactly is your superpower?” and Batman replies, “I’m rich.”
Superhero Ethics, on the other hand, compares Batman and Spiderman side by side. The two are both costumed as unpleasant animals to conceal their identities, and both are far more human than super. Indeed, Batman, other than being athletic, intelligent, and wealthy, has no special power at all. Spiderman was a complete nebbish until he received that radioactive spider bite. More than any of the other superheroes, he has the most personal problems.
Because Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker are the most human, they are the most mistrusted. Can they be relied upon? Are they mere vigilantes? The local newspaper suspects Spiderman of being a criminal.
While both men have their problems and have been tempted to quit their roles many times, Smith sees Batman as far too serious. It is not a coincidence that his true nemesis is someone called Joker. At least Spiderman can swing from his webs shouting, “Woo-hoo!”
Unlike the other superheroes who are wide-ranging, Batman and Spiderman identify with their localities. Batman looks out for Gotham. It may be New York noir, but it is his city, and he often works with the local police commissioner. Spiderman works near where he lives (Queens?) and calls himself, “Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.” It is not even his city that he looks out for, but he does care for his neighborhood.
Both Batman and Spiderman display an admirable sense of responsibility. They come across as the most human of the superheroes, although Smith notes that Bruce Wayne is more of an alter ego of Batman than the other way around. When Wonder Woman catches Batman with her Lasso of Truth, he tells her that his real name is Batman. No one would disagree.
Next Smith compares Mr. Fantastic and Captain America. Both are idealists. Mr. Fantastic is a true intellectual—interested in the life of the mind. Other than family or close friends, he is not a people person. Science makes him tick, but not in the morally suspect way that Hal Jordan and Tony Stark sometimes operate.
Unlike Superman, Captain America still believes in truth, justice, and the American way. Like Mr. Fantastic, he did not start out with superpowers, so he knows what it is like to be an ordinary mortal, yes, even a “90-lb.weakling” to quote the old comic book advertisements.
Finally there are the two who perhaps have most obvious and unassailable superpowers—and red capes—Superman and Thor. Neither are actually human, though “Odin put Thor in the body of crippled physician so he would learn humility.” (122)
One question Smith asks is simply this: “Is Superman too good?” He’s got a whole array of superpowers and always seems to be aware of what is going on. He is good because he understands the big picture. As has been said, “The will of God is exactly what everyone would do if he knew all the facts.” Even when he is not flying faster than a speeding bullet and using all his super senses, his alter ego Clark Kent is gathering more facts as a newspaper reporter.
The final chapter is a synthesis of the other chapters. Here the author makes a case for which superhero is the most admirable, the one we can learn the most from and most worth imitating. Smith believes he speaks to us today the best. All have traits worth imitating, but which ones are the most ethically superior?
No spoilers here. Read it and get persuaded yourself.
One side note about the Fantastic Four is worth mentioning. Smith reminds us that the the Fantastic Four represent the four traditional elements: earth, the Thing; water, Mr. Fantastic; fire, the Human Torch; and air, the Invisible Woman. However, their personalities do not really match the traditional psychological understanding of the elements.
The intellectual Reed Richards is clearly the melancholic temperament of the group—and that is associated with earth, not the fluidity of water and Mr. Fantastic. Ben Grim is the one closest to air, the choleric temperament. Even his name suggests bile. Being invisible is Susan Richards’ skill, which is temperamentally more like the phlegmatic or water-borne temperament. Johnny Storm , the Human Torch, is the most emotional as his name suggests. He is the one member of the Fantastic Four who does carry his sanguine personality alongside his matching element of fire.
In other words, students, if you are analyzing Shakespeare, Aristotle, Hawthorne, Cummings, and many psychologists, do not look to the Fantastic Four as literary matches.