2. Viewing Villains Through The Lens of Terrorism
Both the
Dark Knight and
Iron Man trilogies have adapted their villains to fit within modern sensibilities. In post-9/11 culture, it is not hard to imagine a super-villain being perceived as a terrorist. As the most grounded franchises in superhero films, these series explored those things their audience would fear most and allowed their villains to prey on those emotions. Ras al Ghul attacking the worlds greatest city and trying to kill millions of innocent people all in the name of some imagined greater good is something that would commonly be associated with terrorism. The Joker blowing up hospitals and murdering public officials qualifies as well. People like Talia and Bane would certainly be considered terrorists for holding an entire city hostage with a nuclear bomb. Tony Starks path to becoming Iron Man began when a terrorist cell kidnapped him. Ivan Vanko had a personal vendetta with Tony Stark, but it was taken to a much more frightening level when his attacks were staged at very public events like a race and the Stark Expo. The Mandarin, the fake one at least, played right off the imagery most see in their minds when picturing a terrorist. Aside from his aesthetic, he was appearing on television taking credit for bombings and making new threats all in the name of punishing America for its sins. In truth, what these villains were doing in their respective films was not all that different from the crimes theyve all perpetrated in comic books. The Joker has long been a mass murderer and Ras al Ghul has attempted large-scale planet cleansings on a number of occasions. There is just a new label attached to these activities now. It is a valid concern to wonder whether or not the use of terrorist labels will eventually date these films, but it might have been an even bigger missed opportunity for the people making them to ignore what worries their audience. Using terrorism as part of the means to explain or classify the actions of characters like Bane and the Mandarin was a wise choice that grounded the films and made comic book bad guys feel much more authentic and far more threatening than they had ever been. The Joker does not exist, nor does the Mandarin, but the films in which they appear suggest they could, and
that is frightening.