You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

What's most interesting to me about V'han is what she does with the near-absolute power she has achieved' date=' as described in [i']Book Of The Empress[/i]: namely, rule well. She's extraordinarily practical, competent, and dedicated when it comes to administering her vast territory and horde of subjects, and seems genuinely invested in their welfare. Although she can be utterly ruthless to those who oppose her, the great majority of those who have submitted to her rule experience a noticeable increase in peace, prosperity, and quality of life. She has no tolerance for her people being unnecessarily abused or threatened, and her wrath at corrupt officials in her government is legendary.

 

It's actually remarkable that Istvatha did not become more mentally unstable after discovering her ability to move through time and to other dimensions, and whole alternate versions of her own universe; not to mention accidentally erasing her entire family from ever having existed.

 

I disagree. V'han is deeply sinister and evil. She just hasn't confronted herself on the key issue. It's not about dimensional conquests, but rather time travel. She has the power to "make it didn't happen," and she uses it with abandon. Let's leave aside the old saw about living with your mistakes and learning from them. Even though she, herself, is a victim of the worst possible consequences of timeline meddling seen (at least up to this point), she is still using her time travel powers to gratuitously inflict the same fate on others.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

I disagree. V'han is deeply sinister and evil. She just hasn't confronted herself on the key issue. It's not about dimensional conquests' date=' but rather time travel. She has the power to "make it didn't happen," and she uses it with abandon. Let's leave aside the old saw about living with your mistakes and learning from them. Even though she, herself, is a victim of the worst possible consequences of timeline meddling seen (at least up to this point), she is still using her time travel powers to gratuitously inflict the same fate on others.[/quote']

 

Istvatha V'han's description emphasizes that she actively changes the outcome of past events only as a last resort, because of possible unintended consequences such as what happened to her family. Otherwise she would have "replayed" her past failed conquests, such as Champions Earth, to assure success.

 

But I never said she wasn't evil. Her campaigns have killed countless billions of sapient beings, out of her belief that she's the one being best qualified to rule all of Reality. She's just gone about it in a way that displays clinical mental competence and stability.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

Istvatha V'han's description emphasizes that she actively changes the outcome of past events only as a last resort, because of possible unintended consequences such as what happened to her family. Otherwise she would have "replayed" her past failed conquests, such as Champions Earth, to assure success.

 

But I never said she wasn't evil. Her campaigns have killed countless billions of sapient beings, out of her belief that she's the one being best qualified to rule all of Reality. She's just gone about it in a way that displays clinical mental competence and stability.

 

No-one here is claiming to be an expert on the subject of criminal psychology here, but the definition of "crazy" pretty-much describes I.V. even if it's not necessarily on display 24-7. That's what makes crazy people scary to some people. They look just like regular folks.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

Marvel's heroes are not held in the same regard as DC's.

 

That was one of the points highlighted in the Avengers/ Justice League crossover series from years ago. Some Avengers visiting DC Earth were startled by the public examples of near-worship of superheroes they saw all around them. OTOH some Leaguers observing Marvel Earth noted how its heroes seemed to have their whole world stacked against them, not just villains but the public as well.

[Cassandra]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

I remember that Quicksilver was a little envious that Flash had a museum.

[SteveZilla]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

Yes' date=' but when it comes to parents with mutant kids, I would expect them to either advocate on their child's behalf or the very least try to help the kid keep it under wraps so he doesn't get killed by an angry mob unless they're just stupid and have never been exposed to western civilization before. Maybe your parents were that shallow, but not everyone's are. If it's happening to kids (and when you get older everyone else is "kids", especially teenagers) most responsible adults will not advocate for the genocide of all kids with super abilities. In the marvel Universe, parents, with few exceptions treat "Mom, Dad? I'm a mutant." as being functionally equivalent to "Your whole life with me has been a lie. You thought you were raising a child to continue family name and traditions and give you grandchildren. What stands before you is an evil twin of the child you thought you were raising. All those years of love and devotion were wasted on an evil being who should never have existed. Any grandkids that result will be abominations. Stop me before I reproduce."[/quote']

 

You forgot the "Buahaha" at the end.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

Yes' date=' but when it comes to parents with mutant kids, I would expect them to either advocate on their child's behalf or the very least try to help the kid keep it under wraps so he doesn't get killed by an angry mob unless they're just stupid and have never been exposed to western civilization before. Maybe your parents were that shallow, but not everyone's are. If it's happening to kids (and when you get older everyone else is "kids", especially teenagers) most responsible adults will not advocate for the genocide of all kids with super abilities. In the marvel Universe, parents, with few exceptions treat "Mom, Dad? I'm a mutant." as being functionally equivalent to "Your whole life with me has been a lie. You thought you were raising a child to continue family name and traditions and give you grandchildren. What stands before you is an evil twin of the child you thought you were raising. All those years of love and devotion were wasted on an evil being who should never have existed. Any grandkids that result will be abominations. Stop me before I reproduce."[/quote']

 

Having mutants in the family is like having pirates in the family. You're not going to tell anyone about your mulatto Algerian Muslim pirate great-grandfather. But that sure as heck won't stop you from spending the gold he buried out in the back forty. And if anyone should ask you how your family manages to flourish and expand through good times and bad, you'll be sure to throw in some piously Christian and racist comments (which you completely believe insofar as they apply to everybody else) before you go sneaking out to the burial mound and open the chest under the light of the Moon and share a little laugh with great-grandpa.

[esampson]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

Having mutants in the family is like having pirates in the family. You're not going to tell anyone about your mulatto Algerian Muslim pirate great-grandfather. But that sure as heck won't stop you from spending the gold he buried out in the back forty. And if anyone should ask you how your family manages to flourish and expand through good times and bad' date=' you'll be sure to throw in some piously Christian and racist comments (which you completely believe insofar as they apply to everybody else) before you go sneaking out to the burial mound and open the chest under the light of the Moon and share a little laugh with great-grandpa.[/quote']

This probably isn't a bad way of looking at it, with the proviso that the chest may suddenly explode for no reason and destroy your house.

 

Mutant superheros not only have managed to master their tempers to prevent themselves from accidentally lashing out with their awesome mutant powers, they've also mastered their mutant powers. In the case of your 'average mutant' they probably have about the same level of control over their abilities as someone does over various bodily processes. I.E. some of them might have as much control as your average person has over sneezing (pretty good control the majority of the time, though they might lose it) while some of them have as much control over their power as someone has over hiccuping (practically no conscious control over turning it on or off) and still others have about as much control over their power as they have over breathing (they can shut it down for a short while, but that's it) or their heart beating (extremely minimal control).

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

The thing that gets me about Marvel's whole Mutant-Hate angle is that not only can otherwise normal people tell who is a mutant and who is not, but (especially in the X-Books), every single non-mutant in the world is a rabid, torch and pitchfork wielding, fanatical anti-mutant bigot. Of course, it did strike me as funny when, during Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers, there were groups protesting outside of Abengers' Mansion, and the group protesting that they had too many Mutant members was right beside the group protesting that they didn;t have enough minority members, and nobody noticed the irony.

[Clonus]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

The thing that gets me about Marvel's whole Mutant-Hate angle is that not only can otherwise normal people tell who is a mutant and who is not' date='[/quote']

 

No. They can't. El Aguila pretended to be a gadget hero with an electro-sword like that of the Swordsman rather than a mutant with electric powers. People took him at face value. The New Mutants ran into a kid with the power to generate holograms who had the obnoxious habit of telling antimutant jokes to try to stay in the closet. They didn't figure out his deal until after he committed suicide. Porcupine Pete had an origin like that of Spider-Man, only even sillier. USAgent arrested him as an unregistered mutant (during the Mutant Registration fiasco) because he looked freaky. People mistake Juggernaut for a mutant just because he hangs around with mutants. The public at large hadn't even clued in to Xavier being a mutant last I checked. They think he's an expert on mutants. Spider-Girl once just about electrocuted a guy when she tore his costume and said "I thought you were a mutant!". Generally speaking you know someone's a mutant the way you know someone's gay or Jewish. By who they associate with and what they do or because they tell you. Being an X-Man is one of those little giveaways. And most mutants who aren't obviously freaky "pass" for homo sapiens right up until the Sentinels out them.

 

 

but (especially in the X-Books), every single non-mutant in the world is a rabid, torch and pitchfork wielding, fanatical anti-mutant bigot..

 

I remember the time Kitty Pryde was looking out at the crowd of demonstrators and complaining about the mutant-haters, until someone told her that was a pro-mutant demonstration. She couldn't make out the signs because her contacts were out. And the time Magneto was frustrated by the human construction worker who (not knowing who he was) was saying "Well I figure mutants are like anyone else. There's some good and some bad..." And the time Chamber found himself dating a starlet (even though he had no mouth) because mutants had become trendy and she wanted the coverage to boost her career. And the time in Marvels when the reporter hid a (very obviously freaky) mutant little girl in his basement to protect her from rioters.

 

Heres a picture of her

[dmjalund]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

what flames the fires of mutant-hate is that politicians in the marvel universe use it as a path to power

[Greywind]

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

 

The thing that gets me about Marvel's whole Mutant-Hate angle is that not only can otherwise normal people tell who is a mutant and who is not' date=' but (especially in the X-Books), every single non-mutant in the world is a rabid, torch and pitchfork wielding, fanatical anti-mutant bigot. Of course, it did strike me as funny when, during Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers, there were groups protesting outside of Abengers' Mansion, and the group protesting that they had too many Mutant members was right beside the group protesting that they didn;t have enough minority members, and nobody noticed the irony.[/quote']

Captain America would disagree with you.