Comic Book Logic
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:00 am
For those of you who've read comic books on more than one occasion, you might be familiar with something I refer to as "comic book logic." In short, CBL is the reasoning comic book superheroes use that motivate them to do whatever it is they do.
Most of the time CBL shows that superheroes are either complete idiots or lack any sense of impulse control. The most common resolution to any problem? Fight! That's right -- fight it out. It doesn't matter if your fight takes place in an abandoned warehouse or a crowded shopping mall.
These situations often play out like this: the superhero (usually the title character) is waiting in line at a coffee shop. Suddenly, a villain or another superhero barges into the shop.
If it's a villain, he'll do something utterly moronic, like demand and probably steal a year's supply of coffee beans. Naturally, a fight will occur, possibly destroying the entire coffee shop. Concern for innocent bystanders is unnecessary; after all, the villain can't be allowed to steal those coffee beans!
If it's another superhero, he or she will demand that the title character explain something to them or simply yell at them (whether or not the content of this conversation is private or top secret doesn't matter).
If the title character refuses to explain themselves or tells the other hero to bug off, a fight will then ensue. This fight will probably end up destroying the coffee shop, causing untold damage to its surroundings (including other shops, cars, etc) and endanger the lives of everyone around or in it.
The fight will then break off after:
1. The two heroes realize it was all a misunderstanding.
2. A separate hero forces them to stop.
3. One of them leaves out of disgust for whatever reason.
4. A villain appears and the two heroes must put aside their differences in order to catch him.
My point here is that none of the above scenarios (or just about any scenario in comic books) makes sense when put into the real world. I know people can't really fly or shoot laser beams out of their eyes, but that doesn't matter. Any piece of fiction must have some grounding in real life, even if it's only minor. If a fictional story is completely beyond what the reader may understand (and this has nothing to do with intelligence or education level), the entire story is rendered worthless.
What really makes me laugh is that the above scenarios HAVE happened before; I wasn't just pulling those examples out of my ass. The best part is that although superheroes claim to "protect the innocent" or some variant thereof, these actions do nothing more than put these same innocents at risk, often unnecessarily.
Can anyone else come up with any other examples?
Most of the time CBL shows that superheroes are either complete idiots or lack any sense of impulse control. The most common resolution to any problem? Fight! That's right -- fight it out. It doesn't matter if your fight takes place in an abandoned warehouse or a crowded shopping mall.
These situations often play out like this: the superhero (usually the title character) is waiting in line at a coffee shop. Suddenly, a villain or another superhero barges into the shop.
If it's a villain, he'll do something utterly moronic, like demand and probably steal a year's supply of coffee beans. Naturally, a fight will occur, possibly destroying the entire coffee shop. Concern for innocent bystanders is unnecessary; after all, the villain can't be allowed to steal those coffee beans!
If it's another superhero, he or she will demand that the title character explain something to them or simply yell at them (whether or not the content of this conversation is private or top secret doesn't matter).
If the title character refuses to explain themselves or tells the other hero to bug off, a fight will then ensue. This fight will probably end up destroying the coffee shop, causing untold damage to its surroundings (including other shops, cars, etc) and endanger the lives of everyone around or in it.
The fight will then break off after:
1. The two heroes realize it was all a misunderstanding.
2. A separate hero forces them to stop.
3. One of them leaves out of disgust for whatever reason.
4. A villain appears and the two heroes must put aside their differences in order to catch him.
My point here is that none of the above scenarios (or just about any scenario in comic books) makes sense when put into the real world. I know people can't really fly or shoot laser beams out of their eyes, but that doesn't matter. Any piece of fiction must have some grounding in real life, even if it's only minor. If a fictional story is completely beyond what the reader may understand (and this has nothing to do with intelligence or education level), the entire story is rendered worthless.
What really makes me laugh is that the above scenarios HAVE happened before; I wasn't just pulling those examples out of my ass. The best part is that although superheroes claim to "protect the innocent" or some variant thereof, these actions do nothing more than put these same innocents at risk, often unnecessarily.
Can anyone else come up with any other examples?
