Forget Waiting, Let's Talk About Those Wacky Heroes Now

So a "few days" became "tomorrow". Well, we'll see how it goes.

I said yesterday that the way the heroes are presented feels like commentary.  When the hero's personality is able to assert itself over Nelson or whomever, it seems more interested in fighting evil than protecting people. When Nelson first used the dial and became Boy Chimney, he was in danger, and Boy Chimney defeated his attackers. But he did so in a manner brutal enough Nelson came to himself and objected. As I said, we've never seen any actual civilians in the places these heroes inhabit, only villains and the heroes themselves. To the extent we've seen anything of their adventures in their homes, it's been grand battles. Boy Chimney and his cohorts saving an entire city. Bumper Carla trying to protect the Fair, and he failure leading to the death of many innocent people. Are there any bank robberies, muggings, smaller scale crime, or is it only the big stuff?

If it is only the big threats, that might explain Carla's response. When her powers vanished - because Laodice had unknowingly dialed them for herself - Carla didn't assume it was an accident, or a strange coincidence. She was convinced it was a deliberate, malicious act, and she set out to find the responsible party. And when she did, she killed Laodice without hesitation. She didn't ask any questions, didn't try to determine the method by which her powers were stolen, or why. She simply killed Laodice, because she believed anyone who would do that must have a dark ulterior motive.

It's interesting that Carla remembered enough of it to recognize Laodice as the one who took her powers, without remembering why. Namely, to save her people from death at the hands of a monstrous evil. Laodice used Carla's powers to save thousands of lives. That doesn't change the fact people died in Carla's world, but shouldn't a "hero" have a little more understanding? Further, consider that Carla spent years looking for a way to reach the DCU, then spent more time searching for Laodice. How many innocents died at The Fair because she was preoccupied? What about her friend, another hero who traveled to the DCU to warn them Carla was coming? He could have been saving other lives, but instead found himself busy trying to protect the innocent from his friend

What do we have, with these heroes? There's no sign they have secret identities, or personal lives. As far as we know, all they do is fight evil. The stakes are always high, many lives will be lost if they fail. That being said, we don't see these people, not even a face less crowd. While they should be focused on that, they seem more concerned about defending their turf, or their powers. Thus, there is no such thing as coincidence. Any odd happenings are part of a deliberate attack, and should be met with force. Even if the person behind them meant well, was trying to be heroic in their own way, they're to be killed. Moderate force doesn't seem to be a popular option.

It looks like commentary on the state of thing in superhero comics. The lack of any focus on supporting casts, how even heroes who seem silly in concept can be extremely violent, even murderous. How every battle must be for huge stakes, emphasized by a massive death toll. How the villains rarely have any larger goal than "revenge on the hero" so naturally anything that happens with their powers is an attack. Oh, and the fact it's hard to say whether the heroes take any enjoyment from their powers, outside of hurting bad guys with them (ala Boy Chimney).

It's like Mieville saw a lot of the things I dislike about current superhero books, and decide to highlight how weird they are. Which is why I think I'm projecting, rather than this being deliberate on his part. It fits too neatly. Even so, we have Roxie and Nelson as sort of the stand-ins for us. Outside of dial-related mayhem, their world looks strangely normal. Most of the crimes they've dealt with that aren't connected to the dial are the sorts of things we have: drug violence, guns, robberies. Those are the things we see Nelson putting a stop to whenever he gets to use the dial. Outside of Nihilo and the Human Centipede, he hasn't come across super-villains, and they were connected to the dials in one way or the other. And when he loses control of himself, he winds up scared of what the hero does. Roxie already knows this, which is why she maintains the Manteau identity to keep a hold of herself. I think they're meant to be us, how we think we'd use powers. For fun, and to do good, but we wouldn't go too far. Maybe that makes them Silver Age style.

Like I said, a lot of this is projection, or feels like anyway, but it's something I noticed.