In reading your bit on the upcoming, highly anticipated Watchmen movie I’ve been given a revelation that we are not so far from knowing what our world would be like with superheroes who go over the edge and how the public responds.
Just think of any of the many celebrity, actors or popular public figures that we watch day in and day out and how, every now and again, one of them lets slip, showing the humanity and sometimes the insanity behind that mask.
Think Mel Gibson and his tirade about Jews. Here’s a guy whose work I enjoy immensely, acting and directing. Don’t get me wrong; he spewed forth some wicked venom that fateful day, but I’m already ready to forgive him whenever the rest of the world decides to. In the end, they were just words and he’s an actor/director, not the head of a super secret organization like the KKK.
Or think Wesley Snipes and his tax evasion adventure. Consider Eddie Murphy’s indiscretion with a hooker/tranny. George Michael, Russell Crowe, Isaiah Washington. I still want to believe that Joaquin Phoenix is just putting us on when he parades himself around in shades and an unkempt shaggy beard. I still want to believe that Christian Bale, who has portrayed my all time favorite comic character in the truest, most exciting and closest matching of continuity I have ever witnessed, will one day be able to distance himself from the most viral, crazy, non-stop temper tantrum one has ever witnessed.
Granted, these people aren’t throwing cars around or vaporizing a crowd of happy stalkers just because they can. But it’s not hard to imagine a more extreme offense being handled with a more extreme punishment, like serving some real hard-time or even death row.
Or what if a kryptonite horse crippled Superman? If art imitates life, his life would still end and his legacy would remain heroic.
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