No matter what side you take, the debate over this villainous turn has been fascinating to watch - and it has raised serious questions about how brands and creators can healthily interact with the fandoms that fund them. Hardly a week goes by without some kind of fight between Spencer and his critics, usually in the highly flammable environment of Twitter. Indeed, the still-ongoing story line in which Cap turns into a baddie has become the single most radioactive topic for the comic-book commentariat.
That said, they couldn’t have anticipated the degree to which that story would tear apart the discourse about American superhero comics for more than a year. Surely, writer Nick Spencer and his bosses at Marvel Comics anticipated some degree of that kind of dissatisfaction last spring when they went to the good-gone-bad well and made Captain America a supervillain. However, that moral restoration isn’t always instantaneous, and during the period when the Manichean balance is off-kilter, comics readers have a tendency to get testy about their favorite characters being tinkered with. These are valuable pieces of intellectual property, after all, and you can’t sell tickets to a franchise about, like, Iron Man killing innocents in cold blood. Of course, sooner or later, the virtuous status quo is restored. Watch as Batman threatens to kill Robin and Superboy! Tremble as Green Lantern transforms into a mass-murdering jerk! Duck and cover, everybody - Spider-Man’s trying to take over the world! Over and over again, we’ve seen our spandex-clad saviors become menaces to society due to mind control, body swapping, alternate realities, or what have you. 2 came out, some reader had already started wondering, Yeah, but what if that good guy turned into a bad guy? That narrative question has fueled a dizzying array of stories since Supes kicked off the era of the superhero eight decades ago.
1 in 1938, and I’m willing to bet that before No. This week, Vulture examines villainous entertainment in all its forms.
HAIL HYDRA TV
In an age of superhero movies and TV anti-heroes, fictional villains are more complex than ever before. This article originally ran in June 2017.
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