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The Superhero Handbook
A Do-Gooder's Guide to Saving the Planet A Book in Progress by Glenn Campbell Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Production Notes This is a DRAFT document, and everything here is subject to editing. Your feedback is encouraged! FamilyCourtGuy<at>gmail.com |
An intervention is the basic unit of superhero activity. It is an attempt to change the natural course of events by some deliberate action from the outside. Snatching a child from the path of a runaway truck is an intervention. If you don't do anything, the child will probably be killed. If you try to intervene, the child might still be killed, but at least you're changing the odds.
Other examples of intervention:
Obviously, intervention can take a lot of different forms, but in each case a person or organization in a position of relative power is trying to use that power to change the course of future events in someone else's world. Intervention can have either positive or negative intentions: You can intervene to try to save a child or kill a dictator. In either case, there is a "natural" outcome that you perceive as bad and are seeking to mitigate though your own deliberate action.
You may think of "nature" as birds, trees, rocks and other things that man did not create. In this case, however, we define nature as whatever would happen if we hadn't intervened. This kind of nature isn't always acceptable. It could be a serial killer murdering young women who will only be stopped if law enforcement or some other outside force neutralizes him. Instead of letting disasters happen, responsible people want to step in and change things.
Intervention represents both the best and worst of humanity. It is good that we as a species are capable of feeling the suffering of others, and it is noble instinct to want to reduce that suffering. The dark side of intervention is when the things we do have damaging effects because our view of the universe was too naive. For example, modern medicine has always had good intentions—to save lives—but it has also contributed to the global population explosion we know today, where many more people are suffering than ever were in the past.
In the comic books, a caped crusader smashes through a wall, rescues the maiden in distress, grabs the bad guys by the collar and turns them over to police. End of story. In real life, every intervention reverberates throughout future history, and the intervening party is as responsible for the long-term effects as the immediate ones. What sort of message will his actions send to the general public? Is he giving permission to other vigilantes who might not be so accurate in their interventions? And what about the damage to that wall—who is going to pay for it?
The superhero might also be placing himself in jeopardy by intervening. The bad guys probably won't go without a fight, and as powerful as the superhero may be, he always has his vulnerabilities and limitations, and there is a risk that his opponents will find them. There's kryptonite, of course, but even worse, the bad guys might hire a crafty lawyer, the bane of every superhero. The accused hoodlums have to be brought to trial, and the superhero might be subpenaed to testify. A good defense lawyer is going to demand the hero's true identity and all the secrets of his superpowers. Things will get even more complicated if the press becomes involved and starts building a mythology around the superhero. Pretty soon, the public starts expecting big things from the superhero — perhaps things he can't deliver.
Even rescuing a distressed maiden has its complications. "My hero!" she sighs. She looks up at you with those big brown eyes and the fluttering eyelashes, and there's a subtext there that you weren't counting on. "Just doing my job, M'am," you try to say, but it's a lie, and both of you know it.
(Let me jump ahead for a moment to point out that these relationships never work out. It is okay for superhero to get romantically involved with another superhero, but never with the clientele. We'll get into the reasons for this in a later session, but for now please heed my warning: Just save 'em and fly away; that's your best option.)
Every intervention involves a calculation. You are weighing the costs of action against the costs of inaction. Before you intervene, you have to model the situation in your mind and think about what will happen in every plausible scenario. Once you have calculated, in theory, what the most promising option is, you can then attempt to implement it, using whatever powers are at your disposal. If your theories are sound and your judgment of your own abilities is accurate, there is a high probably that the outcome will be as you envisioned. There is always a risk, however, of error and randomness. Every time you intervene, there is a chance that things might go awry and the outcome won't be what you expected.
Every intervention is based on a theory. For example: "If we remove the evil dictator, social conditions in his country will improve." Reality, however, is much more complicated than any theory and often throws you things you weren't expecting. When an intervention fails, you can often look back and see how naive your original theory was. The disaster happened not because your intentions were bad but because your theory of intervention was flawed.
If, at the end of your calculations, the costs of action and inaction are closely matched, then inaction must take precedence. When in doubt, it is usually best to "let nature take its course." Why? Because the needs of the world will always far exceed your ability to intervene. If the world can possibly get by without your help, then you should let it. Then you can save your limited ammunition for the places where it can do the most good.
Whenever you intervene, you become "implicated" in the local environment. In other words, you become morally responsible for what happens there to a much greater degree that if you hadn't got involved. Intervention itself is usually much easier than withdrawal. Certainly, you are responsible for the direct effects of your actions, but you also become a party to the whole crisis even if it wasn't yours to begin with. "Their" problem becomes "your" problem. By intervening, you incur a legal and moral liability to see the crisis through to conclusion.
If a family is starving in a distant part of the world, and you fail to help them, no one can really blame you for it. There are lots of starving families, and you obviously can't help them all. However, if you choose to feed a certain family, you are suddenly implicated in their problems. If you feed the family for a year then withdraw your support, you are going to be seen as cruel. Like it or not, your intervention created an ongoing obligation.
All interventions are costly, risky and potentially entangling. Nonetheless, intervention is what superheroes do. They see a problem and try to fix it.
I propose that intervention is the ultimate meaning of life. It is your reason for being on Earth. On your deathbed, you want to be able to say that you intervened in the world in the best ways you could. As dangerous as it is, intervention is the only way. It's the game. If you find yourself trapped this planet and you have enough resources to serve your own needs, you have to start involving yourself in the problems of others. Nothing else has lasting meaning.
Sometimes, intervention involves extraordinary powers, as when one country invades another or Superman circles the globe to turn back time. Other times, intervention is accomplished with a single word or the tiniest bit of information. The amount of force used is not as important as the actual outcome.
In the traditional view of superheroism, whenever you encounter an obstacle, you simply use your extraordinary powers to smash through it. Superman can smash through walls, and countries with powerful armies can easily invade smaller ones. Brute force, however, is rarely the best solution, because the costs are high and the risks enormous. Lighter interventions, infused with understanding, are usually more effective.
In the long run, all the powers of Superman are usually less effective than intellect. If you have super-intellect, you can plot the subtle and creative course that is most likely to succeed. If you have great power but lack intellect, all you can do is smash things, which may get results in the short term but rarely provides a long-term solution.
Planning the best intervention requires time, discipline and local knowledge. You have to throughly understand the environment in which you are working. This means not just flying through the air but interacting with people on the ground. Good field intelligence is essential. It is one thing to have smart bomb or death ray that can be precisely targeted to any spot on earth; it is much more complicated to know when and where to use it.
Continued in Chapter 6
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©2005-07, Glenn Campbell, PO Box 30303, Las
Vegas, NV 89173.
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