Guest Post: “Superhero Ethics” by Myke Cole
I grew up on comic books. By this, I don’t mean that I grew up standing on piles of them (although, now that I think about it, I probably did that a few times); I mean that I grew up reading them. I thrilled to Superman reversing the earth’s rotation in an effort to turn back time to stave off disaster. I loved it when Batman crashed through a window to save a sleeping couple from a would-be marauder. The X-Men kept us safe from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Avengers did that when Hydra and AIM came calling. The Justice League? Always on watch. From space. Seeing all. I was a kid. I never asked why. They did it because they were “good guys” (and by “guys,” I mean some of them weren’t). They were genetically driven to do what was right, which always happened to coincide with my desire to sleep safe and comfy in my bed at night. As I grew up, I began to understand that human interests are sometimes at odds with each other. Two different people can both want the same thing, a
