Struggling Against Destiny

It's amazing how quickly things can change. As you might have noticed from the tone of yesterday's post, I was a bit aggravated. Just tired, really. Somewhere along the line between last night and now, my typical emotional houseguests (Angry, Annoyed, Aggravated), went on vacation and Upbeat came by for a visit. Curious.

Looking at New Excalibur, I'm left wondering if we're witnessing the Juggernaut's complete fall from grace. It really wouldn't be all that surprising. The signs had been there over the years. Juggernaut tried to help the X-Men during Onslaught (I think?), and I vaguely recall him resisting Cyttorak and trying to help Spider-Man, Thor and Iron Man in some crossover dealy from the post-Clone Saga, pre-JMS days. That also coincided with the beginning of Cain's power decline, which is what's brought him to this point. Still, Cain Marko's switch to the side of good seemed cemented in Uncanny X-Men, during the Chuck Austen run. Even though he faltered during a later Austen arc on X-Men, he tried to redeem himself at the end. However, given that a) Marvel likes resetting things to the quo that was status, and b) this was a change written by none other than Chuck Austen, it certainly would seem like only a matter of time before Marko goes back to generally smashing people and property with no regard for the consequences.

And so I started to think about superheroics and destiny, and how often a character can fight against their long-standing history as hero or villain. Characters often seemed locked in to a path. Spider-Man keeps hanging up the webs, only to inevitably put them back on when trouble's afoot. Batman can say in Identity Crisis that he can stop any day he chooses (he just hasn't chosen to) but we all know that's crap. It seems you frequently get dealt one hand, and you have to just live with it. You can't discard and get new cards, you can't ask for the dealer to reshuffle and deal again. Cain's been a good guy (or helper of good guys) for about five years, but he was one of the greatest threats on the planet the previous 35 years. That's a lot of history.

Spider-Man's had a host of enemies who tried to reform. Prowler, Rocket Racer, Sandman, Puma, Will O' Wisp, Venom, even Harry Osborn tried to redeem the Green Goblin name. With the exception (to my knowledge) of the Prowler, every one of them has since lapsed back into focusing on killing Spider-Man or committing crimes. Obsidian went bad (well, crazy), but if Justice Society #1 is any indication (I skimmed it, but I'm not about to buy another Geoff Johns team book, having just dropped one last week) his return to the *cue triumphant horn* side of Truth and Justice continues.

Obviously there are exceptions. Prowler's one, Hawkeye and the Black Widow were intially criminals, and they've pretty much stayed good since. Jessica Drew started off trying to kill Nick Fury, and she's stayed a hero (I think; Bendis has made things so confusing I'm not sure anymore).

I ultimately think Juggernaut's going to remain good, if for no other reason than that team sure as hell can't handle him if he switches back. Plus, Cyttorak just told him that Xavier was the one he wanted to have the power. I can see Cain beating the challenger, regaining the power and refusing to do Cyttorak's bidding, just to spite the guy. How it would play from there I have no clue. Still, two other thoughts:

One, I'd be interested to see how Cain' character arc compares to also currently leaning evil Emma Frost. She was, I believe, more evil than Cain, but she had less history of it before she started working with the X-Men (took over for Banshee in Generation X, right?).

Two, DC seems to be trying the predestination route with one Cassandra Cain, apparently arguing that because of her parents, and her childhood, she has to be a killer, ignoring the fact that she wasn't a killer when we met her, and thus she's destined to cycle back to good... eventually. DC just needs to suck it up and accept it. Wankers.