All Might

Been staring at the screen because I don’t know how to tackle this one.  It isn’t because a Hero for Justice is complicated.  It’s just that we all know the type:

Superman . . . Batman . . . Spider-Man . . . Punisher . . . All Might . . . *add your own here*

This is probably because the concept of heroes tended to stem from stories involving righting a wrong.  Whether it be fueled by revenge or to protect society, these characters set out to deliver some method of justice.  They aren’t in this for fun or profit.  It’s their desire to deliver justice or at least protect society.  This is where you find many boy scout heroes, vigilantes, anti-heroes, and the like.  So, Heroes for Justice cover a lot of ground here.

I can already hear some people saying that pushing for vengeance or killing bad guys isn’t justice.  That’s because we tend to say ‘Hero for Justice’ when we speak about the pure good heroes like Superman and Captain America.  I think this adds the belief that these types of heroes have to work within society and act as maintainers of the status quo because they are pushing the accepted method of justice.  Yet, that’s only one version of justice, which isn’t as simply defined.  You have personal senses of justice as well.  This can be expanded when you add codes of honor to the mix, which creates an even broader umbrella for heroes.

The maintaining of the status quo isn’t even a solid factor in heroes who fight for justice.  I mean, the biggest example you can look at are the X-Men.  They are trying to change society by making it a safe place for mutants.  So, they are pushing for social justice instead of legal justice.  This shows that it really comes down to being a hero for the good of society or a specific group.  Attempting to protect the lives and rights of anyone means it isn’t being done for selfish purposes.  Well, it usually means that unless the hero is doing solely for attention and money.  If you haven’t guessed, we’ll be touching on those types on Friday.

We also have ‘Brutal Justice’ and ‘Blind Justice’, which can go hand-in-hand.  Brutal justice is when the hero uses a high amount of violence and even kills enemies.  They become judge, jury, and executioner like Punisher or Judge Dredd.  Blind justice is when the person doling it out doesn’t consider anything other than right/wrong and good/evil, so they can be working in extremes.  This can be seen with Judge Dredd, but not as often with Punisher.  You can also see how these two similar characters get treated and viewed differently.  Punisher is doing this in our real-world society, which means he is seen as a big trouble like his targets.  Meanwhile, Judge Dredd is a hero because his society allows and supports the system that gives him such ‘legal’ powers.  This shows that justice can differ depending on the society, but it still counts as some form of justice.

As authors, we can adjust the definitions and parameters of justice whenever we write our stories.  If it’s in the real world then we do have to stay within the law, but we can alter these things for the heroes in question.  They don’t have to believe that the legal view of justice is 100% correct.  Even Superman has had moments where he questions society’s stance on justice and does things differently.  I think this is an overlooked aspect of Heroes for Justice.  They usually start either wanting to help others, get revenge for a personal slight, or earn redemption for a mistake.  This doesn’t always mean that they adhere to the bigger justice system, but the majority of their personal stance may match up.  This is where an author can bring some nuance and conflict into a hero, who may otherwise be viewed as boring.  For example, they might have a specific crime that they have no problem killing over or are exceptionally brutal towards.  They’re still Heroes for Justice, but you have this one area that they go from Boy Scout to brutal justice.

So, what do you think about Heroes for Justice?