Saturday, March 25, 2006
Comic Art
There are people in this world that are fans of bad guys. I never have quite understood that - why would you like someone who is a villain? But it happens. When Star Wars first came out there was this whole cult that grew up around Boba Fett, not to mention Darth Vader.Comic baddies are no exception, they have legions of fans and sometimes have had their own titles. As was the case with Darth Vader, the more popular they become, the more effort has to be made to make them somehow redeemable, and yet allow them to remain bad guys. Which can take the fun out of things as far s I am concerned.
But regardless, in the world of comics villains are an absolute necessity. There are only so many times you want to see Spider-man web up a bank robber and Batman beat another mugger. Let's face it, villains are what make the heroes look good. Otherwise they would just be a bunch of weird poeple with a costume fetish.And thus we begin a series looking at comic book villains. I wish I could say they were my "favorites," but I don't approach the bad guys that way. These will be ones that I think are effective, or that have great look, or have had a huge impact.
Frankly, some heroes are something of a blank -- they are a canvas on which the villain can work his or her magic. This is often the case with solo heroes. Let's face it, the hero is the same for every book of a title. There is only so much you can write for it. It's the villains that change with each book or story.In some cases today, the villain is losing his appeal as the "anti-hero" arises. Characters like The Punisher are so close to the edge they could almost be bad guys in their own right. This is, in some ways the same phenomena as making the villain redeemable, just coming from the opposite end of the spectrum.
I am no big fan of the trend either, I like my bad guys bad and my good guys good - it is in large part the appeal of the genre as far as I am concerned - it's a place where life is not gray.I also think villains should look like villains. As always, in comics appearances matter pretty much more than anything else. In fact, I think that is where much of the fandom for villains comes from -- if they look good, you just sort of want to root for them. Evil should look evil.
It'll be fun to see what the next few weeks have to offer.
Related Tags: comics, comic books, villains, heroes, art, comic art
