Superhero Paradox: Difference between revisions

** In the ''Penguin Triumphant'' graphic novel, a psychologist postulates that Batman is like a lightning rod for supervillains. But he argues that this a good thing, [[Analogy Backfire|pointing out what happens to buildings that don't have lightning rods]]. Essentially he argues that the villains concentrate on Batman rather than doing even worse damage to Gotham.

*** This is directly referenced in Superman's {{spoiler|story of Batman's death}} in [[Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?]]?

** Although Batman is often accused of this, when you start examining his rogues you see that he actually had less involvement in his villain's origins than most other superheroes. Two-Face was a dual personality anyway, and is often associated more with Bruce Wayne than Batman. Also, his disfigurement is due to a mob trial, not Batman. Poison Ivy usually isn't even in Gotham when she's transformed, Harley is made by the Joker, Croc is just insane, the Ventriloquist is another split personality, Solomon Grundy had nothing to do with Batman, the Penguin, Zsasz, Ra's and Red Hood were all criminals beforehand. Really, the only rogues who can really be traced directly to Batman are the Riddler, Bane, Hush, and possibly the Joker, but who really knows about him? And if we accept the original Joker origin story at face value, he, too, was a pre-existing criminal gang leader who ran afoul of Batman (and ''accidentally'' became a supervillain thereby). And even Riddler, Bane, and Hush were already evil long before they fought Batman.

* The [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] aren't far off. When mutants were defenseless, they weren't a big target. Once the X-Men came around and started defending mutants, anti-mutant crime exploded. William Stryker, The Sentinel Project and even some aspects of Weapon X probably wouldn't be nearly so strong in-universe if not for humans (unreasonably) feeling threatened by the X-Men, whom some in-universe view as a private mutant army. Even the Brotherhood has seemingly grown more powerful in backlash against the X-Men. And one could go on for ''ages'' about all the alien threats brought to Earth as a result of the X-Men.

*** Yet he's the one Rorsach goes to for information.

* Specifically cited by the new Secretary of Defense in ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''. In this case, because the Autobots have been killing Decepticons they find on Earth, they don't even have the excuse most such characters do. The Secretary of Defense suggested the Decepticons could only be on Earth to fight the Autobots, and asked whether they would leave if told. This complaint is muted with Optimus' suggesting that there is a risk in assuming that to be the case.

** In the first movie, this is Inverted. The Decepticons are on Earth ''first'', seeking Megatron, who was seeking the AllSpark. The only Autobot on Earth was Bumblebee, who was keeping a low profile. The other Autobots arrive to stop the Decepticons.

** Finally and brutally subverted once and for all in the third movie- the Autobots actually ''are'' forced to leave by the government thanks to threats by the Decepticons...who promptly blow up the Autobots' space ship with a missle as they are leaving the planet, killing them all ([[Like You Would Really Do It|not really, of course]]). The 'Cons then attack the city of Chicago and start to ''massacre'' everyone, and use the city as a base to summon the ruins of Cybertron with the goal of enslaving the human race and using them as slave labour to rebuild it. Though the Autobots being kicked out was partly prompted by one of them tunring out to be a traitor, it is ''also'' revealed that the Decepticons had secretly been on Earth since the 1960's, so Optimus and co. had even less to do with their presence on Earth than they thought before.

 

* In ''[[Killroy And Tina]]'', Tina's budding career as a superhero gets put on hold, and Brandon points out that at least they won't have to deal with the [http://www.graphicsmash.com/comics/killroyandtina.php?name=killroyandtina&view=single&ID=5858 "Metropolis Effect"]:

 

== Western Animation ==