Avengers and Philosophy: Earth's Mightiest Thinkers, The

by White, Mark

  Hotheadedness and a need for approval are regional character traits, lying somewhere between the global traits described by Aristotle and the local traits defended by Doris. None of Hawkeye’s regional character traits changed significantly when he went from criminal to hero. Although his experiences have tempered him somewhat, he remains the stereotypical costumed archer with a chip on his shoulder and a bad temper. Hawkeye’s rehabilitation from a criminal to a hero did not eradicate those traits; instead, he used them for better purposes. His need for approval often leads him to try to prove his worth to his fellow heroes by taking the lead on risky missions, and because of his temper he is usually the Avenger who is most upset about perceived injustice and unfairness.

  Avengers Annual #16 (1987) features one of Hawkeye’s most memorable and notorious feats of heroism.5 The Grandmaster has challenged the Avengers to stop his “lifebombs” from exploding and destroying the universe. The Avengers succeed, but the Grandmaster insists they replay that challenge, which they must do until the Grandmaster wins. At that point, Hawkeye challenges him to “draw straws” for the fate of the universe. In this case, the “straws” are Hawkeye’s last two arrows, one of which has a trick attachment, and the one who chooses this arrow is the winner. The Grandmaster can’t resist this gamble and is shocked when he draws the shaft without an attachment, leaving him vulnerable just long enough to bring an end to his scheme. As we soon see, the Grandmaster actually chose the arrow with the attachment, but Hawkeye snapped the attachment off the arrow as the Grandmaster grabbed it. Cap criticizes Hawkeye for cheating, and later, at a baseball game, he tells Thor to watch Hawkeye closely because “he cheats!” Cap buys into the idea of cheating as a global character trait. As we know, though, Hawkeye is not someone who always cheats for his own gain. Rather, he has a regional character trait—say, being a rule bender for the sake of the greater good—that motivates his actions in a dire situation.

  Maybe it Really Is in the Blood

  The other members of the Kooky Quartet have not been as successful in staying on the side of the angels. Not many are fast enough to act more hastily than Hawkeye, but Quicksilver has no trouble outpacing our favorite archer’s rash and hotheaded nature. He abruptly quits the Avengers after his sister Wanda is accidentally injured, and briefly joins up again with Magneto and even fights the X-Men.6 Later he becomes an outright enemy of the West Coast Avengers. Throughout his career, Quicksilver ends up being as unpredictable as his name suggests. The Scarlet Witch is a more regular fixture on the Avengers roster until she becomes one of their greatest threats during the “Avengers Disassembled” story line, when she kills several Avengers, including her old friend Hawkeye and her former love the Vision.7 After that, under her brother’s influence, she uses her reality-altering powers to transform the world into the “House of M,” where Magneto rules a mutant aristocracy that oppresses humans.8

  Wanda and Pietro are the twin children of Magneto. Is there an unstable or evil gene that they inherited from their father? While that might be tempting to conclude, there is a simpler answer.9 We already saw that Hawkeye’s success depended on redirecting his existing character traits, but none of them were real obstacles to reform. If we look at Pietro and Wanda, we find that their experiences left them with some habits that were an impediment to becoming law-abiding members of the community.

  As happens to many mutants in the Marvel Universe, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were persecuted from an early age. This led them to join Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which seemed to be less concerned with fighting prejudice than with scheming for world domination. Because the Brotherhood only made things worse, the twins left and wrote a letter asking to join the Avengers. As Quicksilver explains, “The Avengers might accept us without caring that we are different—without always reminding us—we’re mutants!!”10 Wanda only reluctantly goes along with his plan; she would much rather that they stop using their powers and live in obscurity. Here we can see the differences between the two reflected in their regional character traits. Pietro is arrogant and takes the “scientific” name for mutants in the Marvel Universe—Homo superior—to heart. He wants to join the Avengers so that he can use his superspeed without being persecuted. Wanda, on the other hand, wants to live a normal life; she is more than happy to ignore her mutant nature.

  Quicksilver’s arrogance causes friction with Hawkeye and Cap, but he develops a grudging respect for them over time. It is not enough, however, to quell his distaste for humanity in general. At one point he tells his sister that it is humans, “with their constant mistrust of everything associated with the word mutant . . . who should try and please us!”11 This is not the attitude of a hero, and it’s no surprise that Quicksilver’s sense of superiority is responsible for his backsliding into the role of villain. He feels that he deserves a certain level of respect, but the public at large remains fearful of him. After being wrongly blamed for an explosion, he says, “The time draws near when I will bear their insults and suspicions no longer . . . but will lash back!”12 Aside from his arrogance, Pietro’s defining characteristic is his love for his twin sister. When Wanda is injured in battle (which had secretly been caused by Magneto), Pietro’s immediate response is to carry her off and quit the Avengers. When he finally returns to the Avengers, it’s because his sister is in danger and he needs help.13

  From that point forward, Pietro has a tumultuous association with the Avengers. Not only does he join and quit several times, but he also clashes with them as he tries to carry out villainous plots. Most of Wanda’s tenure with the Avengers is a lot calmer, but she eventually uses her powers to destroy the Avengers as an organization and then reshape the world into a mutant paradise. Wanda’s most defining characteristic is her simple desire to live a normal life—which she found with the Avengers—and unlike her brother she is more than willing to suppress her past experiences so that she can focus on the now.

  When Aristotle talks about character, he distinguishes a virtuous person from a continent one. A virtuous person is someone who always does the right thing because it pleases them. For instance, a courageous person takes pleasure in doing the courageous thing. A continent person is someone who does the courageous thing but doesn’t enjoy doing it. They probably do it because it is the “right thing to do,” but they find doing the right thing to be burdensome. A virtuous person will not fall away from virtue, but a continent person could stumble under certain conditions. Both Quicksilver and Wanda seem to be continent as opposed to virtuous. Their experiences make it very hard for them to take true pleasure in behaving heroically. Hawkeye, by contrast, enjoys being a hero. It’s not surprising then that the children of Magneto (especially Pietro) have a tendency to return to a life of villainy (what legal scholars call recidivism).

  Old Dogs and New Tricks

  When the Avengers were thought to be have been killed by Onslaught (and were really in the “Heroes Reborn” universe), the Masters of Evil pretended to be a group of superheroes known as the Thunderbolts.14 Before long, however, some of the team realized they liked being superheroes and turned against their leader, Baron Zemo. When Hawkeye first read about the remaining Thunderbolts’ claim that they had truly reformed, he was livid. In his usual hotheaded manner, he set out to confront them.15 Why was he so skeptical about the Thunderbolts’ rehabilitation when he had been in a similar situation upon joining the Avengers?

  To begin with, he had not been a criminal long before reforming, whereas the Thunderbolts were mostly longtime villains before pretending (and later deciding) to be heroes. Akin to the distinction between virtue and continence is that between vice and incontinence. Vice is due to a negative trait, like cruelty, and incontinence is more like a lack of self-control with regard to exercising good traits (like kindness) when temptation to do otherwise strikes. A cruel person hurts people and takes pleasure in it, while an impulsive person may hurt people but feel remorse or regret about it. Since he or she is not truly vicious, the inconti
nent person is someone whose disposition is still open to change. The incontinent person could learn to overcome bad habits and embrace good ones. For example, Hawkeye never took pleasure in his criminal actions and felt bad about what he was doing when he was working with the Black Widow. So he was primed for rehabilitation.

  The longer someone engages in a life of crime, though, the more likely it is that they will become twisted into a vicious person. We can see this if we look at the original Thunderbolts. Moonstone had spent her entire life learning how to manipulate people to get what she wanted. So when Hawkeye offers to lead the Thunderbolts so that they can earn their chance at redemption, she supports it because she thinks she can manipulate Hawkeye. She even tries to seduce him, though it seems that she actually ends up developing feelings for him—feelings that appear to go against her tendency to manipulate, suggesting the possibility that she will be truly reformed. However, their relationship falls apart and she embraces her old ways. Her manipulative nature is just who she is, an element of her viciousness.

  In contrast to this, several other Thunderbolts were driven to the Masters of Evil originally by circumstances that would probably have made anyone engage in antisocial behavior. Songbird (who started her career as the villain Screaming Mimi) was abused by her father and later her partner in crime. Her resulting villainous behavior was simply a way to protect herself. As she began to feel more secure, she found it easier to embrace the heroic lifestyle, and eventually she became the warden of the Raft, a prison for supervillains, under the command of Luke Cage.16 Part of her sense of security came from the relationship she formed with Abner Jenkins, originally the Beetle and then MACH-1, a mechanic who built his own super suit to commit crimes. By his own admission, he was really just looking for some respect, which he found with the Thunderbolts. He was then able to put his villainous persona behind him and become a hero. Unlike Moonstone, Songbird and the Beetle do not have negative character traits that are too solidified to reform, so they can successfully be rehabilitated and serve the world as heroes.

  Avenging or Saving?

  When Hawkeye took over the Thunderbolts, he lied to them, saying that the Commission on Superhuman Activities had agreed to pardon them if they started operating as heroes. Actually, when Hawkeye approached the commission about amnesty, he was told that it was impossible because they were longtime criminals and deadly threats. One commission member summed up the objection with a simple question: “If they act nice from now on, they don’t have to pay for their crimes?”17 This is the heart of most people’s objection to rehabilitation as an alternative to punishment: it seems like an inappropriate, if not blatantly wrong, response to criminal behavior.

  Most philosophical justifications of punishment fall into one of two general types: deterrence and retributivism. Deterrence focuses on preventing crime, punishing criminals both to prevent those criminals from committing new crimes (specific deterrence) and also to provide incentives for other people not to commit them (general deterrence). An advocate of deterrence would worry that rehabilitation programs could lead to higher crime rates if they are seen as “softer” or providing a way out of traditional punishment. On the other hand, proponents of retributivism maintain that criminals deserve punishment as a matter of justice, not because of any beneficial consequences from it. Before taking over the Thunderbolts, Hawkeye demands that any murderers on the team be prosecuted, saying murder is “one crime that I can’t overlook. That can’t be glossed over no matter how heroic you are afterward.”18 Retributivists give different reasons why crimes deserve punishment: some argue that punishment restores the balance of right and wrong after a crime is committed, while others stress the importance of expressing condemnation or disapproval of the wrongdoing.19

  The reluctance to forgo punishing a hardened criminal is understandable, but our intuitions often change when it comes to young offenders. In these cases, it is difficult to balance the desire to give young people a chance to redeem themselves with the fear of suggesting to them that their crimes are not serious wrongs against society. After bringing an end to Norman Osborn’s “Dark Reign,” the Avengers had to decide what to do with the children that Osborn had detained and tortured in order to jump-start their superpowers. The Avengers feared that the kids’ experiences being tortured by Osborn, coupled with the deadly side effects of their powers, would make them much more likely to become supervillains in the future.

  To prevent this, Hank Pym had the idea that the teenagers should be enrolled in an Avengers Academy and trained to be heroes. Before long, though, the students crack Pym’s files and discover that the Academy isn’t about training those with the greatest potential for heroism, but instead about trying to intervene with those who have greatest potential for villainy.20 The Academy is put to the test when several of the students sneak off to torment the Hood, a villain who had led an assault against their teacher Tigra.21 When Tigra discovers what the kids did, her immediate response is to expel everyone involved. Pym thinks this is too harsh, though, and convenes a meeting to discuss their punishment. Another Academy teacher, Speedball, who was involved in the Stamford incident that killed six hundred people (and led to the Civil War), argues against expulsion because “these kids haven’t done anything that they can’t come back from.”22 The students are put on probation and told that the next mistake they make will get them kicked out of the Academy. They may have had tragic lives before coming to the Academy, but these kids are not hardened criminals. Rehabilitation seems (even more) justified in their case because they have their entire lives to try to be good, virtuous people.

  Hope for the Future?

  Kang, one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies, seems an odd candidate for rehabilitation, but let’s give our favorite time-hopping tyrant a chance. At one point, Kang traveled back in time to spare his younger self a savage beating by bullies, and then proceeded to show young Kang all the “great” things he would accomplish later in life. Older Kang didn’t count on his younger self being appalled by what he would become, however. Instead of accepting his future, the young Kang stole his older self’s time-travel technology and went even farther into the past. Masquerading as Iron Lad, he formed the Young Avengers to fight Kang.23 To protect his friends, Iron Lad killed Kang—which is to say, he killed himself, albeit a different version of himself. By killing himself, Kang creates a new reality in which the Avengers died early in their careers and many of the Young Avengers were never born. Iron Lad then comes to realize that he has to go back to his own time and become Kang in order to undo his own death at his own hand.24

  The story of Iron Lad illustrates several themes of this chapter. The only way that an unrepentant villain like Kang could become a hero would be if he were caught at a young age before his villainous nature had solidified. In fact, it is revealed that the severe beating that Kang rescued his younger self from was the catalyst for his transformation into a villain. Without that experience, his intellect and sense of adventure led him in a different direction. We also have evidence of Iron Lad’s good character because he makes the ultimate sacrifice for the common good: he gives up his existence as a hero in order to save his friends. As even more evidence indicating a fundamental change in Kang’s character, Iron Lad’s brain patterns become the model for the revived Vision, who has since rejoined the Avengers as a trusted hero.

  The Young Avengers—at least a generation away from Cap’s Kooky Quartet—also give us a great example of when rehabilitation should trump punishment. Patriot is the grandson of Isaiah Bradley, the “Black Captain America” from Captain America: Truth (2009). He wants to be a hero like his grandfather, but he did not inherit his grandfather’s super-soldier physiology. So in order to join the Young Avengers, Patriot claims that he got his grandfather’s powers after a blood transfusion. To maintain this ruse, he began using the drug MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone) to give himself enhanced strength and durability. Since the drug is illegal, he obtains his supply by busting MGH dealers a
nd seizing some of their product.25

  When an attempt to get some MGH from a supervillain’s lab goes awry, Patriot’s lies are exposed. Although he has committed a crime by possessing MGH, no one demands he be punished, presumably because his intentions were good and he had not been engaging in this behavior for very long. Most important, he recognizes that he should give up being a Young Avenger because he lied to his teammates. Patriot’s regional character traits (his desire to help people, loyalty to his teammates, and ability to inspire them) are the seeds of a real hero. The rest of the Young Avengers recognize this and invite him to rejoin the team, reaffirming the value of rehabilitation over punishment in his case.

  Avengers Rehabilitate!

  Rehabilitation can be a justifiable alternative under certain conditions. It works best if it is done early in someone’s character development, before they develop truly vicious character traits. Rehabilitation can be appropriate if it is in response to crimes that are not deemed inexcusable. And finally, there needs to be a clear indication that the person to be rehabilitated is already trying to resist the negative effects of their regional character traits. Patriot’s willingness to give up his spot on the Young Avengers suggests the kind of remorse that deserves a second chance, but Hawkeye always seemed to be an odd case. To try to impress the Avengers he broke into their mansion, tied up Jarvis, and then freed him with an impossibly difficult trick shot—which hardly seems to be a sincere and effective way to announce that you’ve given up a life of crime in hopes of becoming one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!26 To merit rehabilitation, it is important that our former criminal display the underlying heroic traits, such as concern for others and lack of interest in being rewarded for one’s heroic actions. Out of the three “problematic” members of Cap’s Kooky Quartet, only Hawkeye shows clear evidence of rehabilitation, because only he has the right kind of regional traits that show promise of future heroism.