Avengers and Philosophy: Earth's Mightiest Thinkers, The

by White, Mark

  I truly believe that together we are so much better than we are apart . . . I don’t get lost in my own head like I used to. This world is a scary place. You being an Avenger—it’s so . . . scary. Every day there’s some idiot in our face trying to ruin it. And ever since we got together, I just haven’t cared.38

  This is an incredible statement from the (formerly) self-loathing Jessica Jones, the one who looks down on the superhero lifestyle. Being part of the Avenger community—best friends with the leader, marrying another, and a former Avenger herself—she finds philia. In her wedding photo, Jessica beams in the midst of the New Avengers, clearly among her own and, most important, having found her eudaimonia.39 In fact, when Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is captured, and Luke is still recovering, Jessica joins Spider-Woman, Mockingbird, and Ms. Marvel to do battle as an Avenger again.40

  The Original Irredeemable Ant-Man

  I . . . stopped trying to figure out the Pyms a long time ago. I’m pretty sure they . . . drove me to drink in the first place.

  —Tony Stark41

  Over the last five decades, Henry (Hank) Pym has become one of Marvel’s most flawed, and repulsive, heroes. When he first appeared in Tales to Astonish, volume 1, #27, in January 1962, he decided that his serums were “far too dangerous to ever be used by any human again!”42 Nonetheless he returned eight issues later because “so great a discovery must not melt into nothingness!”43 And indeed, Pym has been a character conflicted between doing the right thing and pursuing his science even when it consistently leads to disastrous results, such as physically abusing his wife, Janet van Dyne, or endangering the team in his poorly concocted efforts to get himself invited back into the Avengers after he was expelled.44

  After one such screwup, Tigra calls him a “rat” and tells Jarvis that she is happy to see him gone. Ever the voice of wisdom, Jarvis cautions Tigra—and the reader—about being too judgmental. Although, in the words of Captain America, Pym is guilty of “misconduct before the enemy,” Jarvis says, “He is a hero! Men are fallible—even heroes.”45 When Pym tries to apologize to Jan, she tells him, “I pity you. . . . You’re a deeply troubled man! You need help!”46 Eventually, he is reinstated, first as an adviser and then as a member of the West Coast Avengers.47 In that capacity, he dates Tigra—yes, the same Tigra—contemplates suicide, and eventually gets back together with Jan (for the umpteenth time). Though she is beautiful, heroic, and an Avenger, Tigra is not Jan, the love of his life and the woman with whom he cofounded the Avengers. As with Carol and Jessica, Hank’s eudaimonia is accomplished by being an Avenger and being with the Avengers, especially Jan.

  Hank’s latest reconciliation with the Avengers comes when Hercules and Amadeus Cho want to reconvene a new team of Avengers after Norman Osborn forms his own Avengers team (known to comics fans as the Dark Avengers).48 They find Jarvis and he tells them, “There’s only one man I can think of . . . to lead a team of new Avengers”: Hank Pym.49 Pym, at this point, is not Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, or Yellowjacket, but the Wasp (an identity he takes in honor of his now deceased former wife). When Jarvis tells him, “There has come a day, sir, unlike any other, where earth’s mightiest heroes must unite against a common threat,” Pym interrupts him with, “Stop. The Avengers’ oath, Jarvis. That won’t work on me. Who do you think wrote it into the charter?”50 Unfortunately, he is still Hank Pym, arrogant and self-centered. Previously he concocted all sorts of schemes (which backfired) to get back into the Avengers. Now, when they call him, he says, “I’m flattered. But I’m in the middle of something. And really? Me? There has to be someone else out there. Some other superhero.”51

  But as much as Hank is shirking his responsibility to save the world, he remains a sympathetic character. He tells the others that he is and has always been afraid of leading the Avengers. At first he felt that he could not “measure up” to Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man, until he came up with the plan that stopped Loki during their first adventure together. “That’s when I realized what I brought to the table . . . I, Henry Pym, was the smartest man in the room. And whether the others realized it or not, I was their leader.”52 But he could not control the Giant Man serum, and one day he realized Tony Stark was Iron Man. “Next to him . . . I was less than nothing. And far from the smartest man in the room.”53

  Appropriately enough, in the next issue Iron Man humiliates Pym and tells him that he is taking over, to which Pym replies, “You can take over from here? You? Tony Stark? Mister fought-against-Cap-in-the-Civil-War. Shot-Hulk-into-space-and-caused-World-War-Hulk. Gave-the-Skrulls-everything-they-needed-to invade-Earth. You’re taking over? Give me one good reason why.” Stark responds, simply, “Three words . . . You’re Hank Pym.”54 Pym stands down, but when he hears about some of Stark’s recklessness while he was away (kidnapped by Skrulls), he begins to reconsider. When Pym takes on Chthon, the latter says, “It appears the only thing greater than how much the people of this world believe in me is how little they believe in you?” Pym says, “Well, y’know what? Screw all you! I don’t care if any of you believe in me. I’m Hank Pym and I believe in myself. I’ll fix this.”55

  Pym ultimately prevails in battle, helped by the Vision and the other Avengers. But the battle also shakes him from his arrogance and victimization. When Hercules says he owes him an apology, Pym says, “No, you did what you thought was right. I could ask no more of any Avenger. As for Iron Man . . . The Tony I knew was better than this. Something’s up with him. He seemed . . . off his game.” Despite having the opportunity to critique the man who humiliated him, Pym defends him, showing the sort of arête that we would not have thought possible of him, while also being a pillar of virtue for his fellow, Iron Man, as Aristotle would have hoped. When Pym flies after Tony, Tony says, “So. You’re calling yourself the Wasp? And you’re going to lead a new team? Those are big shoes to fill, Hank. Three words of advice. Don’t screw up.”56 Not exactly heartwarming stuff, but Tony recognizes Pym’s arête and accepts him as a fellow Avenger and a leader of a new Avengers group.

  Neither Gods nor Beasts But Political Animals

  “Superheroes . . . do not fit into the societies that they protect,” which is why their personal lives are both important and incomplete.57 In this chapter, we analyzed the way in which three Avengers’ search for fulfillment (eudaimonia) involved their fellowship (philia) and practice of excellence (arête) within the community of the Avengers. Importantly, Ms. Marvel, Jessica Jones, and Hank Pym all languished in terms of morale, and at times morality, outside the Avengers. Finding their eudaimonia required the philia and the opportunities for arête made possible by lives intertwined with Avengerness, even if they periodically leave or get thrown out of the Avengers. It is noteworthy that the most self-loathing superhero, Jessica Jones, and the most repulsive superhero, Hank Pym, often return to the center of Avenger life and never leave its periphery. So, to update Aristotle, the Avengers have both gods and beasts, but even they are not self-sufficient; they need the polis in order to attain eudaimonia.58

  NOTES

  1. Avengers, vol. 4, #1 (July 2010), reprinted in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1 (2011).

  2. Ibid.

  3. Although philia is generally translated as “friendship,” today that word suggests a voluntary relationship that Aristotle would not have understood. Also, philia is not purely friendship but also a sense of a common ethical and social identity, which is why Aristotle can speak of a form of civic philia among citizens in a polis.

  4. Avengers, vol. 1, #1 (September 1963), reprinted in Essential Avengers Vol. 1 (1998).

  5. See Aristotle, Politics, 1252b29–1252b30 (any reputable translation will include this standard pagination), and also Christopher Shields, Aristotle (New York: Routledge, 2007), 352.

  6. See C. C. W. Taylor, “Politics,” in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 233–258, esp. at 239.

  7. Aristotle, Politics, 1253, and Nicomachean Ethics,
1097b6–1097b16. When I quote from the Nicomachean Ethics, I use H. Rackham’s translation available in Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934).

  8. Taylor, “Politics,” 235.

  9. Jonathan Lear, Aristotle: The Desire to Understand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 155.

  10. Ibid., 153. The idea of virtue being something within the soul is associated with the influence of Christian ethics.

  11. Nicomachean Ethics, 1097b16–1097b20.

  12. Ibid., 1169b16–1169b22.

  13. Ibid., 1168b11–1169a7.

  14. John M. Cooper, “Aristotle on Friendship,” in Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics, ed. Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 301–339.

  15. Nicomachean Ethics, 1170b14–1170b19.

  16. Ms. Marvel, vol. 2, #1 (May 2006), reprinted in Ms. Marvel: Best of the Best (2006).

  17. Ms. Marvel, vol. 2, #13 (May 2007), reprinted in Ms. Marvel: Operation Lightning Storm (2007).

  18. Ms. Marvel, vol. 2, #1.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ms. Marvel, vol. 2, #13.

  21. Mighty Avengers #1 (March 2007), reprinted in Mighty Avengers: The Ultron Initiative (2008).

  22. Ms. Marvel, vol. 2, #13.

  23. In terms of her love life, Carol had just one date, with a “normal” guy, which was (of course) interrupted by superheroing (Ms. Marvel, vol. 2, #11, March 2007, reprinted in Ms. Marvel: Operation Lightning Storm). Carol is more appropriately matched with Simon Williams (Wonder Man), whom she and Iron Man recruited for the Mighty Avengers, and who shows her true philia through his devotion to arête as a hero. (See their exchange in Mighty Avengers: The Ultron Initiative, 2008.)

  24. The Pulse #14 (May 2006), reprinted in The Pulse Vol. 3: Fear (2006).

  25. Alias #22 (July 2003), reprinted in Alias Ultimate Collection Book 2 (2010).

  26. Ibid.

  27. Alias #23 (August 2003), reprinted in Alias Ultimate Collection Book 2.

  28. The Pulse #14.

  29. Alias #24 (September 2003), reprinted in Alias Ultimate Collection Book 2.

  30. See Alias Ultimate Collection Book 1 (2009).

  31. The Pulse #11 (November 2005), reprinted in The Pulse Vol. 3: Fear.

  32. Ibid.

  33. The Pulse #12 (January 2006), reprinted in The Pulse Vol. 3: Fear.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. New Avengers Annual #1 (June 2006), reprinted in The Pulse Vol. 3: Fear.

  39. Ibid.

  40. New Avengers Annual #3 (February 2010), reprinted in New Avengers Vol. 13: Siege (2010).

  41. Mighty Avengers #1 (March 2007).

  42. Reprinted in Essential Ant-Man Vol. 1 (2002).

  43. Tales to Astonish, vol. 1, #35 (September 1962), reprinted in Essential Ant-Man Vol. 1.

  44. See Avengers, vol. 1, #212–214 (October–December 1981).

  45. Avengers, vol. 1, #214 (December 1981).

  46. Ibid.

  47. West Coast Avengers, vol. 2, #21 (June 1987), reprinted in Avengers: West Coast Avengers—Lost in Space and Time (2012).

  48. For more on the Dark Avenger, see the chapter titled “The Self-Corruption of Norman Osborn: A Cautionary Tale” by Robert Powell and the chapter titled “Shining the Light on the Dark Avengers” by Sarah Donovan and Nick Richardson in this volume.

  49. Mighty Avengers #21 (March 2009), reprinted in Mighty Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest (2009).

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Mighty Avengers #22 (April 2009), reprinted in Mighty Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Vincent M. Gaine, “Genre and Super-Heroism: Batman in the New Millennium,” in The 21st Century Superhero: Essays on Gender, Genre, and Globalization in Film, ed. Richard J. Gray II and Betty Kaklamanidou (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011), 111–128, esp. at 127.

  58. I am grateful to Mark White, Photini Spanakos, and William Batman Batkay for their comments.

  Chapter 9

  CAP’S KOOKY QUARTET: IS REHABILITATION POSSIBLE?

  Andrew Terjesen

  In Avengers, volume 1, #16 (May 1965), the group went through its first major lineup change. All of the founding members of the Avengers quit, leaving only the “new kid,” Captain America. The three new recruits were Hawkeye, who had fought Iron Man several times, and mutant twins Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who were originally members of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Quickly dubbed “Cap’s Kooky Quartet,” the Avengers became known for giving people second chances at leading heroic, virtuous lives. But is such rehabilitation possible?

  Can an Archer Change His Trick Arrows?

  Although his relationships with his fellow Avengers have been rocky due to his cocky nature and his need to prove himself (especially to Cap), Hawkeye is the most successful rehabilitation in Avengers history. He has been a part of the Avengers in some capacity for most of its existence, and he founded and led the West Coast Avengers. If we can pinpoint the source of Hawkeye’s success, we could go a long way to understanding the nature of rehabilitation.

  The word “rehabilitation” shares a Latin root with the word “habit.” That Latin root means “to have, hold, or keep,” which is fitting since rehabilitating someone involves breaking them of bad habits and making sure good habits take hold. The idea that a good person has a fixed and habitual character has a long history in moral philosophy and was best expressed by Aristotle (384–322 BCE) in the Nicomachean Ethics. According to Aristotle, a virtue is a fixed disposition that leads someone to choose the right way to act in a given situation. A virtuous person is not someone who is merely honest or courageous most of the time, or by accident or inclination. Rather, a virtuous person is always honest and courageous because that is who he or she is.

  Being an honest person, however, does not mean always telling the truth or never being deceptive. Aristotle recognized that the right way to act was often dependent upon the circumstances of a specific situation, which is why a fixed character was needed. If honesty or courage could be summed up in terms of a rule, we would merely tell people to follow that rule. A virtuous person has the experience and fine-tuned moral sense to know what a situation demands. For example, no one would dispute that Captain America is courageous, but his courage is not defined by a particular set of rules. Sometimes his courage demands that he fight Thanos even if it seems likely that he is going to die, whereas other times courage demands that he make a strategic retreat or even surrender (as he did at the end of the Civil War).

  If you’re bothered by the idea that a virtuous person always does the virtuous thing, you’re not alone. Contemporary philosopher and psychologist John M. Doris has challenged Aristotle’s notion of character as being unrealistic, using psychological studies to show that it is impossible to develop the kind of fixed character that Aristotle seems to require.1 These studies suggest that situational factors loom much larger than individual character in determining behavior. For example, in an infamous study conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram, subjects were led to believe that they were part of an experiment testing the effects of negative reinforcement on learning. Subjects were told to give shocks to the learners if they got their answers wrong (though unbeknownst to the subjects, the learners were actually a part of the experiment and the shocks were faked). Milgram found that about two-thirds of all participants were willing to go “all the way” to 450 volts of shock (which would supposedly cause tremendous pain to the learner). Even people who reported leading virtuous lives outside this experiment went all the way.2 Doris argues that the experiment created a situation where most people felt compelled to follow through with the shocks even if they thought it was the wrong thing to do. They weren’t acting on virtues or vices, like courage or cruelty, but instead were reacting to the particular s
ituation at hand.

  Finding a Balance with Hawkeye

  Doris argues that we don’t really have global character traits like honesty, courage, or compassion that apply to a large number of situations regardless of their specific circumstances. Instead, we have local character traits, which apply more narrowly and in particular situations, like “courage under fire,” or the “courage to speak out.” So who is right, Aristotle or Doris? The case of Hawkeye shows us that the answer may lie somewhere in between.

  In Hawkeye’s case, the relevant character trait seems to be a need for validation or attention. Just consider his reason for becoming a costumed adventurer: he was jealous of the attention Iron Man was getting.3 This need for approval is a fixed part of Hawkeye’s character; it is a constant theme in his solo stories as well as his adventures with the Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, and the Thunderbolts. Soon after donning his heroic mantle, though, Hawkeye was diverted into a criminal career. After he was mistaken for a criminal, his hotheadedness led him to decide spitefully that if they were going to think he was a criminal, he would become one.4