Villains Don’t Feel Evil
I had a conversation the other day about one of my favorite twists on the superhero formula: organized, professional villainy. The heroes and their archnemeses both have the genre-savviness to realize that they’re dancing, not fighting — leading and following, not winning and losing. So, they each form their own trade association and establish some clear rules of engagement. Since everyone’s got work to do, why not have a little professionalism?
In fiction like that, villainy isn’t a monstrous aberration. It’s just a job. And superheroes aren’t lonely sentinels bending, Atlas-like, under a burden too heavy to bear. They’re cheerful businesspeople. They know that some days, you win, and some days you lose. Why take it too personally either way?
I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that. It reminds me of something my father told me back in middle school: evil exists in the world. But it doesn’t look like Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale asking each other what rotten thing they can do today. Everyone’s motives make sense from their own perspective. If someone does a horrible thing, they subjectively believe themselves to have a good reason. Committing white-collar crime feels like you’re just taking back what you’re owed. Bombing a civilian target feels like you’re fighting a just war against the forces of oppression.