Strawman Has a Point: Difference between revisions

* From the [[Silver Age]]: [[Action Comics]] #176 ''Muscles For Money'', where [[Superman]] decides to start charging money to save people. While it's certainly true that Superman was doing some reprehensible things (charging insane amounts, forcing people to sign contracts before he'll save their lives, etc) the primary argument seems to be that Superman doesn't deserve ''any'' sort of reward for the good he does. The worst part is when Superman politely requests the $10,000 reward for two criminals he brought in only to have everyone declare him a money-grubber for it, despite the fact that this is a reward the police themselves had offered and which anyone else besides Superman would have been given happily.

* ''[[Batman]]'''s Jason Todd (the second Robin, who was murdered by the Joker), following his revival, goes on a violent crusade on crime and becomes convinced that the only true way to defeat crime is by controlling it and killing any villain instead of simply arresting them. While his methods are definitely brutal, he still raises a good point on the naivety behind the idea that someone like [[Joker Immunity|Joker can continue to walk the earth]] even though he'll continue to kill countless people. While he is a typical strawman in the sense that any hero willing to kill is portrayed as a total psychopath, his comments about the Joker are portrayed fairly. Jason challenges Batman, asking him how he could have any justifiable reason for letting the Joker live. In a significant variation to how most writers approach the issue, Batman tells him that it's not a matter of it being too hard; rather, he won't kill him because it'd be too easy. He really wants to kill Joker, but he's scared that he won't be able to stop with just him. Jason points out the slippery slope nature of that argument, asking why heroes always say "there's no going back". He's not asking him to kill regular criminals, or even any other supervillains. He just wants him to kill the Joker, an unrepentant mass murderer who's far beyond redemption and [[Death Is Cheap|personally killed Jason himself]]. Batman can give no other answer than a solemn apology.

* ''[[Batman]]'' himself in "Tower of Babel" story arc and it's [[Justice League Doom|film counterpart]] with his [[Crazy Prepared|contingency plans]] for rogue League members. He even gives us this comment when the League calls him out on it.

{{quote|'''Batman:''' "My actions don't require any defense. In the same situation, I'd do it again. As individuals, and even more so as a group, the Justice League is far too dangerous to lack a failsafe against any misuse of our power. If you people can't see the potential danger of an out-of-control Justice League, I don't need to hear a vote. I don't belong here."}}

* ''[[Red Sonja]]'' - She-Devil with a sword" #1-7 has the Borat-Na-Fori religion, which practices human sacrifice. The Celestial, the antagonist, and some sort of strawman for organized religion, points out that his religion is the only thing keeping the entire realm from plunging into barbarism, and that Sonja is only going to make things worse by bringing him down. Turns out that he is absolutely right. At best, the moral of the story is that [[Unfortunate Implications|the Mexican Indians had it coming]].

* ''[[Magnus, Robot Fighter]]'' eventually ascended the straw point -- the hero accepted that the robots' reasons for [[Robot Rebellion|rebellion]] were basically sound, and tried to arrange a peace. And then it descended it again (or possibly just applied [[He Who Fights Monsters]]), and Magnus even destroyed robots that weren't rebellious.

 

== Fan Fiction ==