What would happen if all of a hero's enemies...

[PatrickG]

What would happen if all of a hero's enemies were people who had been through great adversity or were disabled or social mobilizers?

The discussion of race and gender in this election got me thinking...

What if you had a super-hero whose arch-enemies were people he couldn't fight for one reason or another?

Like an old woman with cancer, a dying child, a hemophiliac midget, a black civil rights leader, a gang of nuns, a doctor who commits petty crimes to save lives...

I'd imagine any super-hero would run into one or two of these...

And I was just imagining what would happen if a super-hero NEVER ran into ANY OTHER KIND of criminals...

Plus... I gotta say, it would be interesting for a villain to be able to go up against Superman by saying, for example, "I'm an extreme hemophiliac with a heart condition and a dozen allergies. You can verify this with X-ray and microscopic vision. Anything you or anyone else does to stop me WILL kill me. You can verify this. So you can either help me commit this crime or let me die knowing you could have prevented my death."

[scout1279]

I have no idea, but I would really like to see Superman fight a gang of nuns.

[juggling man]

Interesting conundrum.

[Corrina]

Wasn't that the plot of "Unbreakable?"

The villain was both disabled and an African-American. I think he was hauled off to prison.

And, hey, doesn't the Brain qualify? He's disabled! He has NO BODY!!

I think, unless that particular villain in the scenario described had super-speed, Superman would just gather him up and dump him in the nearest prison cell.

I don't know. What would be the personality of someone who knew fighting would make them die and yet become a supervillian? That really sounds like suicide by supercop to me.

The answer, I guess, is that Superman would find a non-violent way to capture the person, so long as no one else was in danger. If someone were in danger, their safety would be the first priority.

As for Batman, he'd just laugh at the 'bluff' and beat the guy senseless. But I am assuming unless one is intent on committing suicide, you wouldn't try this with Batman.

[JamesRitcheyIII]

This basic concept could be diabolically fun social satire--have a conservative, super-rich hero who owns an oppressive corporation, who's never had any real problems, going bravely against the disenfranchised 'dregs' of society, geniuses who never had a chance to be respectable and do things all legal-like. A super-powered Dick Cheney vs. Welfare Kids, and rationalized from his point of view. His super-rich pals would live in mortal fear of the mewling masses, and would have a hero to protect them--often preemptively.

[Tobias March]

I thought of Unbreakable when I saw this thread - also one point with that movie was Mr. Glass' theory of comics is an odd one. Both the X-Men and Doom Patrol featured disabled heroes versus superhuman villains. That's the tragicomic nature of Claremont's Magneto - he's the Jewish Racial Supremacist.

But anyhoo....

If you're going to take Superman as an example you could say he already faces a similar dilemma, in that he has to gauge his opponents' relative 'disability', compared to his Kyrptonian superhuman nature. The guy can fly! Compared to him we're all cripples.

It would be a nice psychological comic, say we see him fighting all these muscle-bound thugs and then we are treated to his POV, wherein they all appear feeble and wan.

[Flying Saucers Over Oz]

Another kink to note: You'll note most heroes are handsome and young while a lot of villains, especially Golden Agers, are old, ugly, sometimes even stunted and/or deformed. The old 'Only bad witches are ugly' argument...

[section 8]

race, gender, disabilty, even being abused as a child is no excuse for being a bad person it may cause you to do bad things, but to be an all around bad egg i'd feel more sorry for the res of the people in you race, gender disablity ect. before i would you. you make your own choices in life, these arethe choices that dictate who you are and who you are becomming

as for the super man vs super fragile guy
let me put it like this

villians criminals whatever, they know they took their life into heir own hands by sepping over the line so if mr heart condition hemophilliac commits a crime knowing that super man would kill him, ALSO knowing that supe's is gonna uphold the law, and protect the people. if he dies, who's fault is it really?