I think I am a supervillian. I don’t mean to be. I don’t want world domination or anything. I might actually be a libertarian supervillian, if that is a thing.
I’ve been catching up on my Marvel and DC universe movies. I just finished Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice – having a two-year-old means never seeing anything in theaters – and I found myself rooting for Batman to kill Superman.
Death is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter who you are, death takes you in the end. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, even and most recently Castro, the reign of these evil men ended with their deaths.
The power of people like those comes from their ability to sway minds, but ultimately they are human and must suffer the fate of all humans.
The central question of Batman vs. Superman is: what if Superman decided he was god. He is for all intents and purposes an all powerful immortal. What if he decided to rule the world as a vengeful deity. So Batman tired to stop him.
In the X-Men universe, Storm was a mutant worshiped as a goddess.
Power corrupts. Just look at every wealthy Bloomberg, Zuckerberg, and Clinton type that amasses a huge fortune and then decides that their bank account gives them the devine right of kings to tell the rest of us plebeians how to live.
Personally, I don’t want to wear a mask and cape and fight crime at night.
I would spend all my available time trying to develop weapons to kill superheros. Why? Because I instinctively don’t trust anybody who would be more powerful than any human.
God created all men, Sam Colt made them equal. I don’t care who created Superman or Wonder Woman or Captain America or anybody else, but I’m going to have an adamantium jacketed, Krypton core hollow point for the first superhero that decides since he is more powerful than any human, we should all bend to his will.
Since creating an anti-superhero weapon is the first step towards supervillainy, I guess that’s what I am.
I don’t want to rule the world. I just don’t want to be forced to worship anybody in a cape.
No Capes!
This will actually become a very real issue in the near future. Think about it. With advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology, medical treatments and devices will go from a purpose of improving the quality of life of those who are ill, to improving the quality of life of those who are otherwise fine.
Not keeping up at the gym? OK, just inject this retrovirus which will genetically increase muscle density. Do it enough times and you’re stronger than Halfthor (The Mountain in Game of Thrones) and twice as fast as Usain Bolt.
Stink at marathons? Swap out that old biological heart for a brand-new turbocharged cybernetic model. You’ll be conquering the Miami Marathon in an hour, and still be able to run home.
Supeheroes in the future won’t wear capes (unless they want to) – they’ll just get upgrades from Amazon. It’ll be a cybernetic arms race. The government will try to restrict it, of course, but with most of the science being open source, black markets will open up for the serious upgrades. Or you’ll just go overseas. US hospital won’t do the heart swap? Get on the plane and go to China. One and done.
Everything you said is kinda the point of BvS; Superman is a good guy, but people can’t help project their shortcomings on to him. He’s a boyscout, and people hate him for hit.
“…Because when everyone’s ‘super’, no one will be.”
— Syndrome, The Incredibles
If you’ve not seen it (and if you have small children, I recommend it), Syndrome is a guy without super-powers, who spent his life inventing technology and gadgets to duplicate and mimic super-powers. His “villainous” goal is to replicate most-if-not-all super-abilities via his tech, and sell to the masses, thus nullifying the glory and respect that goes along with being “super”.
Because when any Average Joe can fly and have super-strength, who needs super-heroes?