Holding Out for a Hero: Difference between revisions

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[[The Government]] is taking away people's rights; should people rise up against it? ...that's iffy, [[La Résistance]] is often either ineffective or scary terrorists, assuming they're [[Fighting for Survival|effective]]. Let's just have the hero take care of it.

[[Holding Out for a Hero]] is the deconstruction to the notion of a [[Superhero]] and a subversion of [[Big Damn Heroes]]. They've stopped becoming inspirations; and instead [[Somebody Else's Problem|enable helplessness]] and [[Going for the Big Scoop|recklessness]]. [[Muggles]] should stay out of things and let the special people do it. In fact, whenever the little people ''do'' try and change their own world, then they're either [[Redshirt Army|cannon fodder]] or else [[Super Registration Act|engaging in fascism]] [[What Measure Is a Non Super|out of fear]]. The [[Masquerade]] is often used by the ''good guys'' to prevent humanity from learning about the forces of the ''bad guys'' (even ones that are constantly killing them), because there's nothing they can do but [[Dying Like Animals|get in the way]] anyways.

'''Holding Out for a Hero''' is the deconstruction to the notion of a [[Superhero]] and a subversion of [[Big Damn Heroes]]. They've stopped becoming inspirations; and instead [[Somebody Else's Problem|enable helplessness]] and [[Going for the Big Scoop|recklessness]]. [[Muggles]] should stay out of things and let the special people do it. In fact, whenever the little people ''do'' try and change their own world, then they're either [[Redshirt Army|cannon fodder]] or else [[Super Registration Act|engaging in fascism]] [[What Measure Is a Non Super|out of fear]]. The [[Masquerade]] is often used by the ''good guys'' to prevent humanity from learning about the forces of the ''bad guys'' (even ones that are constantly killing them), because there's nothing they can do but [[Dying Like Animals|get in the way]] anyways.

If someone is [[The Chosen One]], that means everyone else ''isn't'' and [[Never Be a Hero|shouldn't bother]], unless they're [[Hero Secret Service|taking a bullet for the hero]]. In any case, [[All Up to You|it's all up to the hero]]. If the main characters are common people, they may discover that he has [[Feet of Clay]], and have to manage without him. If combined with [[All of the Other Reindeer]], the people may start to look not only lazy, but ungrateful ''and'' hypocritical at that.

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* ''[[Superman]]'' has explored this on many an occasion, Supes himself seems particularly worried that the world will grow overreliant on him and become unable to function if anything happens to him. As a result, he holds off on stopping most crimes and natural disasters; his general philosophy is that if humanity can handle it on their own, he's going to let them try. This is arguably Lex Luthor's beef with Superman... but only because Luthor wants humanity overreliant and unable to function without ''him''.

** In ''[[Superman: Red Son]]'', wherein a communist Superman had no problems with using his abilities to prevent every bad thing possible (from each according to his abilities and all that), people did indeed grow too reliant upon him to solve all their problems. Eventually cars stopped being manufactured with ~~seatbelts -- the~~ citizens expected Superman to save them if they got into a wreck. (Ironically enough, Lex Luthor opposed him on those grounds in that reality, too.)

** In ''[[Superman: Red Son]]'', wherein a communist Superman had no problems with using his abilities to prevent every bad thing possible (from each according to his abilities and all that), people did indeed grow too reliant upon him to solve all their problems. Eventually cars stopped being manufactured with seatbelts—the citizens expected Superman to save them if they got into a wreck. (Ironically enough, Lex Luthor opposed him on those grounds in that reality, too.)

** Superman's ultimate retort to Lex Luthor comes in ''[[All-Star Superman]]'' at the end:

{{quote|'''Luthor''': ''I could have saved the world!''

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** Similar is to be expected in the [[Ultimate Marvel]] Universe in the face of Ultimatum as a good deal of the superheroes are dead, the Fantastic Four and Avengeres are disbanded, Captain America is a fugitive, increased public persecution of mutants, and Gregory Stark's superhuman task force does not strike the readers as trustworthy.

* Somewhat averted in the ''Ultimate Secret'' mini-series, where the Ultimate Universe counterpart of Captain Marvel lends his scientific knowledge to NASA to help humanity save themselves by being able to flee from Galactus' destruction. Captain Marvel's efforts are cut short when the Kree sabotage the experimental spacecraft.

* Averted in [[Garth Ennis]]' ''[[The Boys]]'', where a team of superheroes known as the Seven, try to prevent the comics version of September ~~11th~~. The Seven fail miserably, with the moral of the story being that the military and trained rescue personnel are the true heroes.

* Averted in [[Garth Ennis]]' ''[[The Boys]]'', where a team of superheroes known as the Seven, try to prevent the comics version of September 11. The Seven fail miserably, with the moral of the story being that the military and trained rescue personnel are the true heroes.

* Averted in ''[[District X]]'' where the New York City police department handles various superhuman threats throughout Mutant Town without help from the superheroes (although the X-Men member Bishop was a member of the police force).

* On various occasions, the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit has handled superhuman threats such as Metallo, and Parasite without help from Superman.

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* The MMORPG ''[[City of Heroes]]'' plays this to multiple ends:

** On one hand, the presence of superpowered beings in Primal Earth doesn't stop the world's militaries and police forces from trying their best to handle things on their own. Until the [[Alien Invasion|Rikti War]], for example, [[City of Adventure|Paragon City]]'s police department was confident in its ability to "serve and protect" without relying on heroes to do all the work. Even when the war's aftermath left the PPD barely able to function, Chief Conrad Bochco vowed to protect the city without seeking alliances or help from the numerous hero ~~organizations--but~~ the PPD is not above letting superpowered beings join the police force, as Blue Steel shows. (This is why the PPD's Awakened Division, comprised of officers who [[Fusion Dance|fused]] with [[Energy Beings|Kheldians]], is so controversial within the police force; some argue it's a form of relying on outside help.)

** On one hand, the presence of superpowered beings in Primal Earth doesn't stop the world's militaries and police forces from trying their best to handle things on their own. Until the [[Alien Invasion|Rikti War]], for example, [[City of Adventure|Paragon City]]'s police department was confident in its ability to "serve and protect" without relying on heroes to do all the work. Even when the war's aftermath left the PPD barely able to function, Chief Conrad Bochco vowed to protect the city without seeking alliances or help from the numerous hero organizations—but the PPD is not above letting superpowered beings join the police force, as Blue Steel shows. (This is why the PPD's Awakened Division, comprised of officers who [[Fusion Dance|fused]] with [[Energy Beings|Kheldians]], is so controversial within the police force; some argue it's a form of relying on outside help.)

** On the other, the citizens of Paragon City often hold out for a hero when criminals and villains confront them (some of the purse-snatching gang members will even accuse their victims of this), knowing full well that a hero will (hopefully) step in and save them. Many are still ungrateful about it, though ("There you are! There's never a hero around when you need one!").

** And the trope is turned upside-down in the City of Villains expansion. There, the global criminal organization [[Everythings Worse With Spiders|Arachnos]] has somehow legally become the government of what's now known as the Rogue Isles. The police basically exist to minimize the threat to the government rather than serve and protect the common people, and Lord Recluse has reduced the laws to "[[Social Darwinism|Do what you have the power to get away with]]". Crime is so rampant that, for the first 30 or so levels, a villain character ''only fights other villains to come out on top''. The trope comes into play because most citizens have completely given up hope of proper law and order being reinstated, and rather than hold out for a hero usually just live constantly looking over their shoulder and ready to duck for cover.

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* One episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' was devoted to showing how the citizens of Townsville have become so used to the girls taking care of everything from invading monsters to fires to getting cats out trees that every problem is shrugged off with, "Oh, the Powerpuff Girls will take care of it." This causes the girls to go on strike. Subverted somewhat, in that they ''still'' had to help the townsfolk realize that monster+electrical wires+water>soggy toast. They didn't get the "toaster in the bathtub" analogy, and instead took it to mean they had to get the monster's toast soggy. The girls spelled it out for them. Then the townsfolk claimed total credit for it, and started exulting that they didn't need the Powerpuff Girls anymore.

** Reversed in another episode that had an obsessive collector of Powerpuff Girl merchandise capture the Girls themselves to add to his collection. The people of Townsville paid the girls back for helping them by going to the collector's house and ripping up all his merchandise, freeing the Girls in the process. Since he was a [[This Loser Is You|flabby, bald, overweight]] [[Otaku]] with no powers, there wasn't much he could do to stop them.

*** On the other hand, that [[Fridge Logic|begs the question]] on ''how exactly'' he managed to overpower the girls and place them in indestructible action figure ~~packages-- maybe~~ he [[Standard Female Grab Area|got them by the arm]].

*** On the other hand, that [[Fridge Logic|begs the question]] on ''how exactly'' he managed to overpower the girls and place them in indestructible action figure packages—maybe he [[Standard Female Grab Area|got them by the arm]].

** Another episode had the girls replaced by a phony hero called Major Man, a [[Superman]] [[Expy]] with genuine powers who was secretly setting up crimes so he could stop them and get the credit; the citizens of Townsville give him it because he's outwardly a more impressive and traditional hero than three kindergarten girls. When the girls find out what he's been up to (he literally [[Kick the Dog|kicks a dog]] onto the road to save it), they set a friendly monster called Gary on the city and he is completely overpowered, and useless as he never set it up and never fought real crime or monsters. When Gary first attacked, the citizens of Townsville happily ignored him as they thought "Major Man will take care of it"; they only panicked when he didn't.

** And yet another episode had a cop go nuts from the Powerpuff Girls getting all the credit for keeping the city safe and tries to kill them. He is thwarted by his fellow officers, leading the narrator to give the police department partial credit for saving the day at the end of the episode.