Fandom is an interesting beast. Especially Big 2 fandom. Because of the nature of these characters as superHEROES, there’s often more emphasis on the idea that these characters have to be heroic, as near-flawless as one can make them. There’s a defensiveness that comes out when someone who doesn’t regularly read comics tweets “Batman would do more good if he spent his money on social welfare.” When someone implies that by not actively fighting any and all injustice in the world, Superman is not really a hero. There’s a refusal to allow these characters to have flaws baked into their concept, because, for some people, this ruins the idea of a superhero.
I reject this idea. I believe that any and all superheroes, just by nature of the choices they’re making, are flawed individuals at best and should be allowed to be (for lack of a better term) messy. I don’t want mistakes or moral ambiguities in characters retconned away, I want them to be explored and confronted to deepen the story’s complexity. I’m not interested in characters being pure or perfect.
Tom Taylor does not write for me. [Read more…] about Nightwing Vol 1: Stepping Into The Light Review