Under The Red Hood

Funny how art mirrors life, or something like that. Anyway, here it is Saturday, and what did I spend my Saturday morning doing? What else, watching cartoons! Well, this was actually a cartoon movie (we don't have cable, personally I don't miss it much). The movie was Batman: Under the Red Hood, and looked interesting. One of the things about being a kid at heart is you can still get excited about superheroes and comic books. Anyway, this was very much a comic-book rendition, complete with blood and death. I found it interesting because it dealt with the Red Hood- those of us who are uncool enough to know would remember that the Red Hood was the precursor to the Joker. The story goes like this- the Red Hood gang was a group of successful criminals in Gotham City. They would hijack, blackmail or otherwise coerce someone into acting as the Red Hood- putting on an act of 'leading' the gang, and subsequently making the Red Hood impossible to catch, since he didn't actually exist. So at any rate, the gang snags the future Joker- a struggling stand-up comic. The Red Hood Gang kidnaps his wife and baby daughter, holding them hostage unless he poses as the Red Hood for a raid on the Axis Chemical plant. This was to be ultimately a lot worse than what they had anticipated. Batman shows up, and comes face-to-hood with someone he believes to be a master criminal. The Red Hood then ends up falling from a catwalk into an open tank of chemicals- Batman, to his credit, does reach out, hoping to grab his hand and save him. But no, down he goes, apparently drowning in some unknown chemical. The result is that in fact the Joker does not die, but does suffer severe facial and nervous damage- the chalk-white skin, red lips and green hair are not makeup. The chemical, it turns out, was a potent neurotoxin. The Joker's rictus grin is a direct result of this, though to date he is the only person to have survived its effects. Later to be known as Joker Juice or alternately Joker Venom, it proves fatal to anyone who comes in contact with it, a fact the Joker exploits regularly, having found a way to synthesize the chemical. Though his face is twisted, this is not the final straw- that comes when he learns that his wife and daughter are now dead, killed by the Red Hood Gang. Finally, whatever was left of his mind snaps, and he becomes the Joker. He defines himself, to a large extent, by Batman, considering Batman his worthiest opponent and opposite.
However, the movie deals with a different Red Hood. This Red Hood looks different, and acts different. He's something of a vigilante, though not above tapping into Gotham City's crime and drug trade. He's also not adverse to killing criminals, something Batman never does, for fear of his own psyche. As the story progresses, we learn who the Red Hood is, and how he came to be. The ending was somewhat predictable, but very good.
So what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Coincidentally, I was reading a book on how 'girlhood' is becoming prepackaged and marketed to girls at a younger and younger age- what you should be, and how to be that. (mainly through shopping, you could probably guess). But then I got to thinking about comic books and superheroes. I'm a little less cynical than many sociologists out there, so I'm a firm believer that kids will do what kids do. They play, pretend, make up stories, and generally try to figure out who and what they want to be. Role models, of course, are important, and this is one of the reasons why parenting is such a big job. But there are also the ideas that kids have about themselves. It seems advertisers want kids to feel they are inadequate, and what you add to your life will make you adequate. Interesting- effective, though thoroughly morally reprehensible. And this brings up comic books- true, this is kind of geared towards kids, and weird middle-aged men who live in their parents' basement and collect comic books obsessively, but I found myself considering the elements we see in comics.
Probably one is right and wrong- not necessarily good and evil, but rather actions- either these actions are good, or they are bad. Consider one Wilson Fisk, also called the Kingpin- in the Spider-Man comics, one of New York's premier philanthropists, also the major player in most of the crime syndicates in the city. Does this make him a villain, or a good guy? Most of the villains are usually in it for the money, not any real interest in being evil, though there are exceptions among the more madness-ridden members of the rogues' gallery. But as kids can easily identify a great many superheroes, and also emulate them, what does this mean? I always thought of it as empowering; that is, using one's resources to make a positive change in the world. Spiderman was a dorky high school kid, Batman was orphaned at an early age, as was Superman. Making lemonade out of lemons, so to speak. Many of these superheroes are "self-made men", having taken a somewhat bad situation and carved a niche for themselves in the world. So perhaps when confronted with a vexing problem, a lot of little kids would say, what would [insert superhero here] do?
Then what about girls? All the superheroes I've mentioned, you'll notice, are male. What about girls? Are there girly superheroes? Actually, yes. There's the most old-school, like the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Woman, who are both feminine, caring and capable of kicking serious bad-guy ass. The X-Men was always something of a misnomer, as there were a number of women there, all of whom are portrayed as very human, though finding themselves in somewhat insane circumstances. There were also a number of female counterparts to the male superheroes, though mostly this was in name only- there was a Spider-Woman, though she was the result of genetic experimentation, and was literally evolved from a spider, as well as Batgirl and Supergirl. Supergirl was Superman's cousin, another survivor of the destruction of Krypton, and the 'girl', which some uber-feminists may object to, refers to the fact that she's substantially younger than Superman- quite literally a girl. Same thing with Batgirl, who was originally Commissioner Gordon's teenage daughter. There was also the Black Cat, my personal favorite, who runs around in a black suit with fur-lined boots and gloves, and originated her career as a thief, yet later joined up with Spiderman. The point I'm making here is that these women reflect, to a large extent, their male counterparts- self-reliance, intelligence, bravery and a sense of right. If these aren't good things for kids to emulate, I don't know what is. So I guess to sum it all up, kids will be kids- never discourage them from seeing who they could be, and being comfortable with who they are.