By Colt Taylor/ campus editor
Superpowers are cool, and they only get cooler with every entry into the Marvel cinematic universe, and with every other entry into the DC cinematic universe.
These big screen heroes wow us with incredible feats and perfectly timed one-liners, more on the side of Marvel than DC. But would this be the case with actual superheroes?
Many of these movies from both Marvel and DC have touched on the issue of responsibility when it comes to heroes and the collateral damage they can cause while battling villains, often with the hero being shouldered with the blame for all of the destruction in the incident.
A prime example is 2013’s Man of Steel from DC in which Metropolis is nearly destroyed during the fight between Superman and General Zod. Many fans argued this wasn’t how Superman would’ve done things and put the blame for most of the city’s destruction on him alone. They seem to forget that Zod was the one who started the destruction of the city and who unleashed the most destruction upon it during the fight. Meanwhile, Superman was doing everything in his power to take Zod out nonlethally until the climax.
While this complaint is briefly touched upon during this year’s Batman vs. Superman, it’s quickly swept under the rug in place of a contrived fight between super-powered adults acting like pre-teens.
Marvel has a similar dilemma at the end of last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron when an entire city is blown apart after being mostly evacuated. In Captain America: Civil War this year, we learn that not everyone in the city or on the ground made it out in time, leaving dozens dead and convincing Tony Stark that the Avengers need to be regulated.
Again in this situation, the deaths were not a fault of the Avenger’s actions. On the contrary, there would have been many more deaths had they done nothing.
So can the blame be put with them when if they had done nothing, the world would have ended. And are they guilty of killing those they had no way to save?
The people of the fictional worlds need to chill and throw the blame at the villain who deserves it.
