5. Why Do Supervillains Keep Trying?
DC ComicsAn old saying goes "if at once you don't succeed, try and try again." But also,
Harvey Danger told us that "you can bash your head against the wall for years, the wall will never change", which pretty much dismisses that first guy's proverb and gives us some neat harmonies to be getting on with. It's clear that the super-criminals who turn up to ruin our costumed heroes' fun are suffering under the delusion that the first of these truisms is actually, well, true, since no matter how many times they get their illegal exploits foiled by some dude in spandex, they inevitably try it again. And you know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. True, some of these villains - and a worrying proportion of them Batman's - actually are criminally insane, and so you can't really blame them for thinking that the next time they tangle with their foe of choice, they'll finally get the upper hand, despite the dozens of times where that hasn't happened. For the rest of them, why do they bother? Any time they break the law, it's a foregone conclusion they're gonna be beaten up by their usual enemy, and see themselves slung back in jail. Even real life criminals aren't that stupid. And most of them are actually pretty stupid, whilst there's scores of supervillains who count genius-level intellects amongst their abilities. They should probably be finding another line of work, going straight, or else actually trying something different for a change. Maybe then things would change. As Harvey Danger add to the head/wall thing "But if you start to like the bloody bruises, the wall cannot be blamed."