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Batman is the most evil of all superheroes followed by Iron Man. Green Arrow has some redeemable qualities.

At first glance, the title might seem self-contradictory since a superhero is, by definition, good. My argument in this post is simple. There are essentially three categories of “super-heroes” —heroes by choice (Batman, Ironman, …), heroes by freak accident (Spider-man, Flash, …), and non-humans (Superman, Thor, …). It is my thesis here that human laws and judgments apply only to heroes of the first category and we must judge the other two by different standards. In the case of the freak-accident-heroes, we must thank our stars that they serve some social good and likewise with the non-humans. Only the actions of heroes-by-choice heroes may be deemed worthy of a discussion regarding ethics.

My argument is easily illustrated by this handy flowchart:

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I do not discuss the X-Men in this post primarily because they don’t fit neatly into my dichotomy of human/nonhuman. (I can’t solve everything.) I will add that I share the views of Senator Kelly from the first X-Men movie (X-Men 2000). He asks, reasonably, “[w]hat’s to stop [a mutant who can walk through walls] from walking into a bank vault?” and what “of mutants so powerful that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts, taking away our… free will”. Throughout the movie Prof. Xavier does exactly this and it’s inconceivable to me that we should give free reign to creatures who share our foibles but vastly exceed us in their capabilities and could, if they so chose, bring down buildings (which they often do).

Most superheroes

Here’s a quick rundown of some superheroes and how they came to be. In all cases these are ordinary people who have been changed by some event that renders them no longer human thus removing them from the realm of ordinary human ethics. We must hold them to some standards but these would not be what are prescribed in the laws; new standards must be made.

Spider-Man

Peter Parker, upon being bitten by a spider (depending on your source, either an irradiated or a genetically modified) spider gains the traits of that spider including (but not limited to), superior strength, an ability to climb walls, hang upside down for extended periods of time, and even a psychic “spider-sense” which allows him to sense bodily threats from the near future.

Captain America

Steve Rogers was injected with a “super serum” whose composition is still unknown. According to the serum’s inventor, it was expected to have strong psychological effects that were particular to the person into whom it was injected. Johann Schmidt, aka The Red Skull, the first recipient of the “super serum”, like Rogers, gained great physical prowess but also acquired world domineering ambitions, and the eponymous Red Skull.

Hulk

Scientist Bruce Banner, in a tragic accident, walks into a gamma ray blast and becomes the uncontrollable monster named the Hulk. The Hulk does cause much death and destruction everywhere he goes and, if ever on trial, would be treated as someone with limited mental faculties.

Flash

In some strange mix of chemicals and lightning, various men have become the Flash. One only needs to compare them with their arch nemesis, Zoom, who (surprise, surprise), wants to take over the world. Flash, on the other hand, doesn’t take his work too seriously and is pretty chummy even with the villains he fights.

Daredevil

When a boy, Matthew Murdock was blinded by a radioactive ooze spill. The ooze blinded him of his sight but enhanced his hearing and sense of smell — to superhuman capabilities.

The Fantastic Four

These people are the true exemplars of a traumatic event drastically changing their entire being. A freak accident in outer space causes five people to change into a man who can can literally stretch himself to great distances (Mr. Fantastic); a woman who can turn invisible at will (Invisible Woman); a man who’s made of rock (The Thing); a man who can set his body aflame and fly (The Human Torch); and a man who can shoot lightning from his hands (Dr. Doom). Obviously, none of these creatures are human anymore. They were human once but no longer.

I could go through other heroes but these are sufficiently illustrative, I think.

The common thread between these heroes is a freak event which causes large phenotypic changes to them. (A phenotype is a scientific term to describe the entire set of an organism’s characteristics. For instance, all humans share the phenotype of having an opposing thumb and of lacking feathers.) In many cases, the same event affected different people differently, for instance both Steve Rogers and Johann Schmidt were injected with the same “super formula” but one of them became the Nazi-punching Captain America while the other a super villain with world-domineering ambitions, Red Skull; or consider the Fantastic Four for whom the same catastrophe caused significantly different phenotypic changes on each of them (and Victor von Doom). There’s no way to predict the consequences of an event because the phenomena are not sufficiently understood.

(Ideally, these events should be wake up calls to scientists and policy makers to introduce better safety regulations in all experiments. And abolish initial experiments on humans. Ethical committees should be established to enforce norms as were done in the case of cloning and stem-cell research [Bioethics].)

To be clear, I’m arguing only about superheroes that have undergone phenotypic changes. As far as phenotypes go, there’s no difference between “mental” and “physical” traits. Just as the loss of limbs can lead to feelings of “phantom limbs” [Ramachandran]; the loss of a loved one (a “mental” event) can lead to a change in lifestyle (a “physical” change), in David Hume’s memorable words, for instance, “a drunkard, who has seen his companion die of a debauch… dreads a like accident for himself” [Hume].

The changes these superheroes undergo are of a significantly greater degree. A man who gets a scar in a bar fight has not had his phenotype altered. A woman gaining superhuman strength and flight from exposure to radioactive chemicals has had her phenotype changed (Jessica Jones, TV Series 2015–). These phenotypic effects are permanent and have drastically changed the organism under question. When phenotypic changes occur in nature, they always involve a whole swathe of changes. As the philosopher, Jerry Fodor, points out:

To add wings to a pig, you’d also have to tinker with lots of other things. In fact, you’d have to rebuild the pig whole hog: less weight, appropriate musculature, an appropriate metabolism, an apparatus for navigating in three dimensions, a streamlined silhouette and god only knows what else…. The moral is that if you want them to have wings, you will have to redesign pigs radically.” [Fodor]

Now, imagine a man obtaining the traits of a spider but remaining otherwise unchanged. I shall grant that in the comic book world, a radioactive spider’s bite does not change Peter Parker’s appearance but I cannot grant that the spider-bite does not change who he is. This simple truth holds for most superheroes. (And for X-Men mutants too but since they allegedly receive their changes from their parents — who don’t express the mutant phenotypic changes — I don’t know how to address them and thus, in true philosophical spirit, sweep it under the rug to be addressed at a later time.)

It should be clear from this that all originally-human-but-since-irrevocably-altered superheroes, are not, strictly speaking, homo sapiens anymore and cannot and should not be judged as such.

I do not claim that the division into human/non-human will be clean, easy, or simple. There is undoubtedly a spectrum over which some changes still keep a person as human but some do not. While it is obvious that the Fantastic Four are no longer human it might be that Captain America still is. The superheroes (and their corresponding super-villains) formed due to exceptional circumstances will require exceptional handling.

Alien superheroes

In the cases of alien beings like Superman, John “Martian the Manhunter” Jones, Thor etc., all calls to monitor them must be strictly enforced. Their movements tracked, their conversations monitored and so on.

Morality is a strictly human species specific trait. What we consider moral and amoral do not apply across other species, even closely related ones. Examples from nature include sexual cannibalism in praying mantises — often the female mantis eats the male after their mating; — or, in anglerfish the males bite and fuse into females, atrophying their eyes, fins and other organs which take no part in the fulfillment of their biological imperative. We would rightfully deride anyone who suggests imparting (say) praying mantises moral lessons on the sanctity of life and game-theoretic benefits of having a spouse around to help with the kids. It’s no more possible to educate an octopus on art than it is to teach a man to fly by flapping his arms. I see aliens through this exact same framework. (For an idea of just how intelligent octopuses are see the work of philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith.)

To put it more starkly, murder is one human intentionally causing the death of another; a tiger (or, if you please, a chimpanzee or a shark) causing the death of a human is not murder even if the killing was intentional. Our laws apply only to humans and — crucially —humans deemed to be of sound body and mind. Following this through, I see neither how our laws apply to aliens nor why they must.

Continuing with the alien morals, let’s consider the Kryptonians, Superman’s species. They were a technologically advanced species who ran their planet to ruin with their technology. (Superman, 1978) The Kryptonian, General Zod, wanted to rule over our planet (Superman, 1980). Superman’s cousin, Supergirl, perhaps under his tutelage, wishes to protect her city (Supergirl, TV Series 2015–). We do know that Doomsday—the creature that eventually killed Superman — was created by the greatest scientific minds of Krypton [Hopkins]. From the small sample of Kryptonians we have encountered it’s clear that they aren’t a particularly ethical species and what ethics they might have are not human. Always remember: he might look like a man, talk like a man, walk like a man; but don’t let any of that fool you, Superman is no man.

Non-human superheroes

Wonder Woman is a superhero who’s from earth but is not human. She’s a half-human, half-goddess creature, only partially human. Just as we forgive Spock of Star Trek his oddities due to his Vulcan heritage, we must forgive Wonder Woman hers. This applies equally to nonhuman superheroes like Aquaman. None of them are strictly human and the same constraints that apply to non-human species apply to them.

Minor human superheroes

It’s unclear to me how to treat characters such as War Machine, Falcon, Black Widow etc. From the little I know of them, it appears they are not vigilante superheroes but work for the government and are, ostensibly, under some regulatory body. I see them as falling under the same legal umbrella as soldiers (War Machine, Falcon) or spies (Black Widow). Both categories have a legal framework surrounding them — court-martials for soldiers and whatever it is that spies have. Since these characters have neither the scope nor impact of Batman or Iron Man, I discuss them no further.

Human superheroes

Batman

Batman’s origins are often traced to his childhood. As a child, Bruce Wayne, witnesses the murder of his parents at the hands of a petty robber. These childhood events influence him so strongly that he spends his entire adolescence and early adult life learning to fight, eventually becoming Batman, the “caped crusader”.

Those that justify Batman’s actions — performed as an adult — on the basis of his experiences as a child must answer whether they also find Omar Khadr’s actions justifiable. Omar Khadr, at age fifteen, picked up a rifle and shot at American troops who (he believed) had earlier attacked his village in Afghanistan. He served 12 years in prisons at Bagram, Iraq and later Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. At this time he’s in Canada, out on bail. For war-crimes he’s alleged to have committed as a child.

The Batman movies show Bruce Wayne involved with arms manufacturing for the government and other for-profit ventures. Wayne Enterprises is consistently shown as a monopolistic enterprise — it runs the only transit in Gotham, for instance.

Rather than investigating the causes of petty crime in Gotham, Bruce Wayne, dons a costume and fights individual criminals at the lowest level. He fights, not out of a sense of duty or justice but, out of a feeling of vengeance against the people from whose class his parents’ murderer arose. When describing his early life experiences around his desire to fight the “criminal” he says: “when I traveled, I learned the fear before a crime and the thrill of success. But I never became one of them” (Batman Begins, 2005). That Wayne only looks at people who are already criminals describes the crucial error in his thinking. To understand what turns people to crime it’s more important to see the entire society from which these petty criminals arise than to solely look at the criminals.

In another scene in the same movie, Bruce Wayne’s butler describes the billionaire mindset: “[Bruce Wayne’s] father nearly bankrupted Wayne Enterprises combating poverty [because he] believed that his example could inspire the wealthy of Gotham to save their city. [my emphasis]”. The billionaire mindset is one of a savior’s mindset. Notice that the elder Wayne believed he and members of his class had to be the city’s saviors. A democratic process by which the people may opt for programs that better their own lives is never even considered.

The economist Jerry Bowyer’s characterization of Bruce Wayne as a Conservative hero is accurate. In an article in Forbes, Bowyer convincingly argues that the villain, Bane (The Dark Knight Rises, 2012), represents the Occupy Wall Street movement and that the movie’s directors intended for viewers to “hate the revolution you’ve been wishing for” [Bowyer].

Iron Man

Iron Man is much less culpable than Batman. For starters, he reveals his identity early on as the billionaire industrialist, Tony Stark. Presumably, one could bring either civil or criminal charges against him for any damages and crimes he commits in the course of his activities. Another consequence of his true identity being known is that it does not encourage copycat vigilantes — unlike the ones inspired by Batman. Furthermore, when the government proposes a means to regulate these superheroes, Tony Stark acquiesces. He also correctly holds to the view that “if [superheroes] can’t accept limitations, [they]’re no better than the bad guys.” Being regulated by the United Nations is perhaps the best way to go about it. That the government’s implementation of said regulations is poor is by no means Iron Man’s fault — it’s just classic Hollywood plot device (Captain America: Civil War, 2016).

Green Arrow — the least evil

Oliver Queen in many ways is the same as Bruce Wayne. He’s a billionaire who “fight[s] for justice both on the streets [as the Green Arrow] and within the political system” as the Mayor of Star City. Of course, billionaires becoming political leaders isn’t necessarily a good thing and Queen too is “forced to resign from his position as mayor” after a corruption scandal showed he had been “secretly funding” a non-human vigilante organization named The Outsiders. As I said, he’s the least evil; not Good [9].

References

[Bioethics] The bioethics discussions can be found at https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/topics/stemcells_index.html
[Godfrey-Smith] From Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Jun 2013 essay in the Boston Review. Accessed at http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/peter-godfrey-smith-being-octopus
[Hume] David Hume, A Treatise of Human Understanding, Section. XIII. Of Unphilosophical Probability (1738, 2010). Accessed at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4705/4705-h/4705-h.htm#link2H_4_0033
[Hopkins] from the essay “A History of Violence” by David Hopkins in “The Man From Krypton” pg 15 Glen Yeffet, editor (2005).
[Ramachandran] See “Phantoms in the Brain” by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee, (1998).
[Fodor] From Jerry Fodor’s Oct 2007 essay in the London Review of Books, Vol. 29 №18. Accessed at https://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n20/jerry-fodor/why-pigs-dont-have-wings
[Bowyer] Jerry Bowyer, 2012, Forbes. Accessed at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2012/07/26/why-batmans-the-dark-knight-rises-is-an-instant-conservative-classic/#5b675abb2bd0
[9] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Arrow#Judd_Winick.2C_2004.E2.80.932008.

About the image

The cover image is a picture of the flower Scarlet Pimpernel, emblem of its eponymous hero, one of the first vigilante heroes. This image was taken from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flowers_March_2008-19.jpg licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.