How Many Genocidal Super Villains Are Too Many? (Spoilers)

[WorstThingUS]

Okay, so far we have:

Chesire: detonated a nuclear warhead in a city killing millions of innocent women and children and strangely isn't the most wanted human on earth and never has been.

Deathstroke: orders Chemo dropped on Bludhaven by the Brotherhood of Evil killing over 100,000 people and isn't enemy #1 of the US government.

Black Adam: slaughters an entire nation and is literally allowed to walk away. Currently trapped as living statue.

Prometheus: kills 10,000 people in Star City, gets an arrow in the eye (finally! but looks like his consciousness is in his missing helmet).

And now though it seems oddly late for him, the greatest supervillain in comics just joined their ranks, as Lex Luthor sets a bomb that kills 80,000 Kyrptonians.

Okay, maybe I'm getting old, but this isn't fun for me (though I loved War of the Supermen #1). Yeah, the worse your villain, the greater your hero is for taking them down, but it's also a case of your hero failing to stop near genocide and who wants to read about a genocidal supervillain who just kills more and more people with every appearance? And it ultimately looks bad for the heroes, because they're clearly repeatedly failing to stop the slaughter. One hallmark of Superman post-crisis has been his sense of loneliness. Am I supposed to think this doesn't permanent change one of the oldest rivalries in comics? Basically, Lex is now a WWII Nazi and Superman is Jewish, and yet Luthor's going back to "Kingpin Luthor" of the post-crisis revamp. Can we really go back to the old "Luthor smirks and Superman vows to bring him to justice" relationship now? How is that going to work?

Anyone else get the feeling they reeeally didn't think the permutations of this through? That they never think it through beyond "This is way cool!" because they essentially annihilated Deathstroke's character for a stunt and made it impossible for Black Adam to just be an interesting anti-hero ever again.

Oh, and I didn't forget Mongul and Coast City, but Mongul's an alien invader; they're supposed to do that.

[gwydion]

Yeah, I don't like that about DC Comics either. Once you do that with a villain, there aren't many avenues left for them, other than killing them off.

Wasn't it the Cyborg Superman who set off the Coast City thing? And don't forget Prime, who at the very least has destroyed several planets by hand, and an entire universe to boot.

As a side note, why exactly was Ollie on trial again? Didn't he kill Prometheus in a pocket dimension or something, a little out of Star City's jurisdiction? And what prosecutor in his right mind would do that for killing the guy who just wiped out a substantial portion of the city? He'd be dragged from his court and tarred and feathered if he tried that.

And since when can judges order someone who has been acquitted on all counts banished from the city on pain of immediate arrest? I wasn't aware banishment was a possible punishment, much less when unilaterally imposed by a judge because he doesn't like someone. Wouldn't that be grounds for impeachment? And wouldn't that be immediately overturned and the judge reprimanded?

[Lorendiac]

As long as we're listing genocidal atrocities:

Didn't Mister Mind successfully nuke an American town in the "Power of Shazam" series in the 1990s? I have no idea how many people were supposed to have died, though.

And if you're listing genocide, I think it's silly to just wave away what happened to Coast City on the theory that alien invaders don't count. (Anyway, Hank Henshaw the Cyborg was an accessory in all that, and he isn't an alien invader.)

Didn't I hear that The Spectre once exterminated the population of Vlatava, except for Count Vertigo and one other citizen of that country? How many Vlatavans were there, anyway?

[doctormistermaster]

I think that most people use to ridged a definition of Genocide, however comic fans drop it at every chance. Prometheus, Black Adam and Deathstroke did not commit genocide just mass scale death, not sure about Cheshire.

[WorstThingUS]

As long as we're listing genocidal atrocities:

Didn't Mister Mind successfully nuke an American town in the "Power of Shazam" series in the 1990s? I have no idea how many people were supposed to have died, though.

And if you're listing genocide, I think it's silly to just wave away what happened to Coast City on the theory that alien invaders don't count. (Anyway, Hank Henshaw the Cyborg was an accessory in all that, and he isn't an alien invader.)

Didn't I hear that The Spectre once exterminated the population of Vlatava, except for Count Vertigo and one other citizen of that country? How many Vlatavans were there, anyway?

Well, if the Spectre did it, then God wanted it done.

But I should have included Hank Henshaw. I tend to think of it more as Mongul than him.

I think that most people use to ridged a definition of Genocide, however comic fans drop it at every chance. Prometheus, Black Adam and Deathstroke did not commit genocide just mass scale death, not sure about Cheshire.

No, you're right, but genocide has a more dramatic punch that mass murder and "genocidal" means you're prone to wiping out a people, not that you're actually succeeding.

[gwydion]

Wouldn't murdering everyone in an entire country as Black Adam did count as genocide?

[Lorendiac]

Well, if the Spectre did it, then God wanted it done.

I didn't read the story. I've never been a big Spectre fan. But I thought The Spectre had some degree of free will in how he used his powers, the same as regular mortals get to make their own decisions? So couldn't it be more along the lines of: "If The Spectre chose, on his own initiative, to do it -- then God was at least willing to let him try it and see what happened?" Not quite the same thing as God being 100 percent convinced that it was a wonderful idea . . .

[WorstThingUS]

Wouldn't murdering everyone in an entire country as Black Adam did count as genocide?

Under the defined laws of the United Nations, yes:

"the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group"

[doctormistermaster]

Luthor definitely was attempting genocide based off of racism and I will concede to Black Adam. Most aliens who are working to destroy humanity are definitely genocidal. Darksied and Starro could be argued as trying to commit cultural genocide, by enslaving life. The others still seem as mass murder or terrorism since they were not targeting a specific people just a targeted area.

[doctormistermaster]

Actually now that I think of it Lex Luthor has always been attempting genocide, trying to kill the only Kryptonian(s) left alive.

[WorstThingUS]

Actually now that I think of it Lex Luthor has always been attempting genocide, trying to kill the only Kryptonian(s) left alive.

Good point!

[Karl O'Neill]

@Worstthingus.

YOu might want to check out this week's Batman and Robin in relation to Deathstroke's forecoming commuppence.

[WorstThingUS]

@Worstthingus.

YOu might want to check out this week's Batman and Robin in relation to Deathstroke's forecoming commuppence.

I saw that! That's where I got the bodycount!

[Mat001]

Well, if the Spectre did it, then God wanted it done.

So if God does, He gets a free pass. But if man does, it, kill the bastard? Doesn't anyone find this hypocritical?

But I should have included Hank Henshaw. I tend to think of it more as Mongul than him.

Mongul may have given the order, but he was doing it because Henshaw told him to.

And let's not forget the Anti-Monitor and what he did.

[NuclearNerd]

So if God does, He gets a free pass. But if man does, it, kill the bastard? Doesn't anyone find this hypocritical?

Not really. God has 100% authority over life and death. He sorta created everything.

THAT SAID, that's referring to if the actual Christian God decided to do something like that. I was never comfortable with the Spectre's concept or with writers deciding God's will. (Or really, writers invoking God at all.) Obviously, the comic book God isn't actually God, and these events are fictional. I wouldn't know how to comment on hypocrisy in this case. I'm not even sure if the God in the comics is supposed to represent the Christian God.