Would There Be Super Villains Without Super Heroes?

Comic Canuck’s View

Would super villains exist in a world without superheroes? I say no they would not. Believe it or not I am going to make my latest View short and to the point. Allow me to point out some of the biggest super villains out there and why they would not exist in a world without superheroes.

Magneto: In his younger days he was best friends with one Charles Xavier. Had Xavier not been there to show Magneto the world for mutants, he would never have become Magneto. Plain and simple. He never would have grown to form the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants because there would be no “good” mutants to fight. Why? because Xavier would not have been there to form the X-Men in the first place. Look at that, I just knocked off a bunch more super villains.

Lex Luthor: Here is the world’s biggest evil genius. The only thing bigger than him is his own ego and need to feel important in the world which he resides. Without the threat of the alien from Krypton known as Superman/Kal-El his crusade of evil against the man of steel may in fact have turned him into the world’s biggest humanitarian and its salvation. Which after all, is what Lex really wants, to be loved by the world and seen as the true beacon of mankind moving forward.

Sinestro: Without the existence of the actual Guardians of OA, who started the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, Sinestro never would have gained the will and determination to turn away from the Guardians and eventually become founder of the Yellow Lanterns.

Venom: If not for Venom hitching a ride with Spidey after Secret Wars, then there would be no Venom to speak of. Add to that list Carnage and his crazy offspring.

There you have it kids, just some of the examples as to why I believe super villains would not exist in a world without superheroes. Have fun and keep reading!

(Not So) Silent Mike’s View

The question itself brings up numerous arguments that need to be first brought to light in order for it to be truly answered. The first of which is “what truly constitutes a super villain?” Is it the garish out fit, the maniacal laugh, possible superpowers, or maybe all in all it is just the fact that they think what they are doing is right. The answer in my mind is very simple, a super villain is not looks, nor a certain personality type, they are what they do, and in saying so if they believe that their evil deeds are in fact the “right thing to do” then we have many super villains in our own backyard in the real world.

So going from there my view this time around is that yes, there would be super villains without superheroes in the world. I can even go as far as saying there are super villains in the world we live in right now, it may not be in what is considered the conventional sense, but villainy is something that is unconventional at best. My counterpart gave a few great examples of characters that very well may not be around without their superhero foils, but contrary to his belief that the heroes made the villains I hold to the thought that there will always be villainous people, and moreso there will always be those villains with more than just bank robbery on their mind.

The examples of these “super villains” are in the everyday news, they are those that make the weak feel weaker, and whether it is in the comic books or the world we live in this evil arises and lets itself be known. It was said to me the other day when I posed this question on my twitter account I received one of the best responses I could have it stated that “Hitler was just the Red Skull minus the mask.” Now to go there you have to just think about every super power that has had an evil leader, every act that has a man or woman behind it leading the way. Realize that evil does not need powers to be super, it needs people to believe that they are a super villain and in this world there are a great deal of those people.

Evil does exist without superheroes my friends, and even within the comic books it would and beyond the pages it probably does. That’s my view anyways.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Beyond Good and Evil

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Welcome to the return of View2View! New, imporved and with one more member we are here to discuss, rant, and argue about the state of comics today, and some of their most controversial topics. Enjoy!

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