Saturday, October 26, 2013
Comic Art
Honestly - can you call a force of nature villainous? Destructive yes, but villainous? That is the first thought that ran through my mind when this site named Galactus the #1 villain of all time and this one the #5. G-guy was the first of the "cosmic" level guys to show up in Marvels never ending search for more power, but not quite omnipotent. In his wake has come The Beyonder, The Collector, Infinity, The Living Tribunal, and on and on and on.
These characters represent comic book companies tying themselves in theological knots. They are more-or-less gods (Odin, Thor et. al. are "puny humans" by comparison.) But of course, we cannot have the comic books actually making a being God. When I started reading that would have been blasphemous and these days it would just be silly - there are no gods after all.But power at this level decides good and evil, it is not judged by it. Now of course, in the Marvel Universe there is always someone or something out there just a bit more powerful and more than willing to impose "justice" on our actor.
But this raises all sorts of interesting questions. It implies that justice is in the "eye" of the most powerful. That leaves little room for concepts like grace, kindness, even love.
This philosophical conundrum is born of the deep Jewishness of many of the early creators and of the simple cultural desire not to offend. But i they end they have come up with a situation that is truly problematic. Under this system, at power levels like Galactus, concepts like good-and-evil just disappear. He is simply a force. How can he be a villain?
But then, this is probably too much thought for comic books. Or is it?
Galactus comic art comic books comics villains
