An outstanding observation by The Bechtloff.
Nazis make for better super-villains because at least they aim to be super or superior. Communists (and by "communist" I also mean American democrats) are so unmentionable and unimpressive as individuals they by their own nature are not unique and thusly need to define themselves through others. They aren't Lex Luther or The Joker hatching brilliant schemes as much as they are boring, common, petty thieves rationalizing their parasitism.
Ergo, evil aside, think about what villain you'd rather hang out with:
The Borg or Professor Moriarty
Your average women's studies professor or Bernie Madoff
Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin
Now that's telling. Which comic book series would have better success?
One where the villain is Obama
or
One where Vladimir Putin is the arch-nemesis?
10 comments:
Cap,
We're LIVING the one where Obama is the villain...
I'd much rather hang out with my Slavic brother Vladimir Putin. In fact, I'd sooner take a bullet for him than for Obama. Putin's sense of hierarchy and focus should be emulated by all of us as we seek to improve our microenvironment.
From what I've read recently, fascists have healthier psychological boundaries, and communists have a pathological lack of them, or at least seek to inculcate this lack in their minions.
Obama would be a perfect basis for a villain in near-future pop-culture. Someone who managed to perfectly convince America that he was something he wasn't, a complacent media bent over backwards to accomodate him, he wins a peace prize despite sending military forces into Libya and trying to get troops into Syria while increasing drone strikes... He's basically Ozymandias from Watchmen.
Putin's not exactly a good guy, but who would you rather have running your country? A guy determined to carve it up and set the people against one another, so you can move in and sweep those pesky knuckledraggers aside, finally bringing the Rainbow Utopia? Or a guy who is fighting to keep his people and his country, with their collective history alive when the rest of the West is commiting hari kari?
As an aside, my Dad and I enjoyed the pictures from your recent trip. Some good times in that region. Good call going before it gets hot.
Or as our spiritual forebear PJ O'Rourke said
"no woman ever fantasises about being tied up and ravished by a liberal"
Both are totalitarian, though, and Vlad ain't no nice guy - but ya gotta run a country with the guys ya got.
Point of interest, the whole Superhero/Supervillian thing started off with Siegel and Shuster, and so naturally a superpowered nemesis is the foe. As opposed to the now eclipsed British heroes like Bulldog Drummond or Biggles, ordinary good chaps fighting hordes of dastardly wogs trying to undermine the Empire. The hordes were directed, of course, by a cold oriental intelligence and aided by a threateningly sexual femme fatale, after which encounter cold showers would be in order. Harrumph.
Dr. Doom is the exception that proves the rule in the world of comic books. He most definitely was a standout.
In real life, the men who stood out from the crowd became dictators, or the secret police had them shot.
Putin is at least a MAN - more than can be said for the p*ssy in the White House...
In the end Communists are peasants, wish they were peasants, pretend they are peasants, or speak, act, and think like peasants (regardless of other factors).
Killing peasants isn't heroic even if those same are intent on robbing and enslaving you.
I can think of two legit communist villians...and the last I heard of them was in the 90s:
The Crimson Dynamo: A Russian opponent for Iron Man. This guy was pure military for the state (which may have made him one of the 'elite'), whose motivation was to do his job and make pension, giving him a lifestyle well above the average rabble.
Titanium Man: Another armored Russian who fought Iron Man. This guy actually bought into the state propaganda, and strove to be the ideal commie...so much so that he let his superiors turn him into a monster.
The Nazis had cooler uniforms.
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