echo by Kit Yin, Nicole
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON:
SUPERHEROES OR VILLAINS?
The concept behind this article is about “Superheroes and Villains”, but despite the fact of reading old superhero comic books and watching comic book adaptation movies, how well do we know about superheroes and villains. If you ask anyone around you what do they think about the word, “Superhero”, stands for. They would probably reply that a superhero is defined as a person possessing extraordinary powers with the intention to save the world from harms away while the term “Villain” is meant for a person, usually mentally ill, with the intention to destroy everything in his or her way until it is finally the world they deem worthy of staying. Not that I am claiming the definitions above are wrong, but are we stating the fact that all superheroes are Saints and villains are the devils? Do the superheroes only do good and only the villains do bad things? These questions cannot seem to get out of my head, but I have made some observations, which only seems to branch out into more and more questions; questions possibly you have an answer to.
First of all, superheroes are not all Saints. I am not stating the fact that whatever crime-fighting and world-saving routine by the Avengers and Justice League is not a good thing, but does it really solve the problem. Most of us think that it is people like them that can only end the source of evil and protect the innocents from the guilty, but no one has ever questioned: Is it because of the superheroes that villains were created or is it because of the villains that superheroes were created? I am afraid this question remains a debatable mystery for now.
As for the villains, everyone thinks that they were born bad and that every bad thing they have done were simply because they are greedy or just simply because they are insane. All that I have noticed is that everyone has been judging them, instead of stopping them; cutting them off from society instead of reaching out to help; creating incentives for them to spread evil instead of finding the very root to it. The other problem I have was that why did no one ever asked: what would cause them to do such terrible and unspeakable crimes or things? Nothing happens for no reason. One thing I have learned is that not everyone is born a bad person. They were just simply put into a bad situation surrounded by bad people and continue to be stuck in that same bad place. And just when they needed a simple reaching hand, we shun them and label them as freaks or the rotten apples the society just does not have a place for. With that being said, if we were to find the source of evil, we need only to look into a mirror. Look around us, we create the villains that are walking free on the same streets as you and we can only pray that heroes might come along.
To end this article, I would like to ask some few questions in hopes maybe you would have an answer to. Where will the light be if not for the darkest moments? How will the courage find us if not for the sense of fear? Where will our superheroes be if not for the villains? So which side are you on: the Superheroes or Villains?
