Abstract
While antiheroes and antivillains can be modeled just as
parts of a linear scale of qualities, they can also fit into cyclic models
showing character growth or decay. One cycle is a developmental progression
with an abrupt transition from hero to villain. Another cycle fits a seasonal
progression with more gradual transitions. These cycles have similarities to
structures of classical hero stories. Section 1 introduces the idea that comic
book characters can go through realistic life changes as they develop in
character continuity over the years. Section 2 presents a model of the
classical hero cycle fitting a life cycle pattern of growth and decay. The
growth stage is exemplified by Joseph Campbell's hero formula, while the
declining stage is represented by the classical Greek tragic hero stages of
hubris, nemesis and collapse. Section 3 uses antiheroes and anti-villains to
make a developmental cycle of character growth and decay. Section 4 uses a
rearrangement of the positions of antiheroes and anti-villains to make a
seasonal cycle with a pattern resembling the gradual changes of spring and
fall. The character Ambush Bug is described as fitting this cycle over the
course of his appearances, beginning in 1982. Section 5 presents the tools of
mythic algebra used to model stories. The algebra consists of sets with six
elements, four state functions and three operations. Section 6 uses the algebra
to model the life cycle of the character Magneto. His life cycle is portrayed
as a variation on the developmental cycle, only using anti-villain stages
without antihero stages. Section 7 combines all of the life cycle models into
an ultimate model resembling a HeroClix game. This reveals that the antihero
and anti-villains stages resemble Campbell's separation stage and the tragic
stage of return to normal. The appeal of cyclical stories is discussed and
considered independent of any structural determinism.
Introduction
It may seem strange to use comic book
superheroes as exemplars of structural storytelling, since their
characters can go through arbitrary changes merely to suit the needs
of novelty. Each next villain and next crisis has to be sufficiently
different from the previous ones to keep the readers buying more
comic books, even if most readers outgrow the genre after a few
years. Frustrated adolescents indulge in escapist power fantasies,
then grow older and really do escape home, no longer needing to
daydream, instead pursuing work, romance, and college. So the
characters of their daydreams only need to have a few years’ worth
of novel situations to adventure in, then stories may recycle for the
next generation of readers.
Recycling can take place on a grand
scale as well as on the personal scale of a particular story
character. Writers may consciously pursue cyclical patterns in
storytelling based upon ideas like an alternating 11 year sunspot
cycle (Morrison 2012: 332). Reversing polarities of our sun have
been matched to reversing attitudes in the pop culture of youth,
allegedly accounting for a shift from angry extroversion to more
introspection. Or in a more obvious bid to improve sales, superhero
comics undergo extensive recycling when their universes are restarted
in what is termed a continuity reboot (TV Tropes 2014). Stories begin
all over, updated with the most modern trappings.
Nonetheless, writers and companies try
to keep some kind of consistent continuity over a character's life,
which pleases readers who hang on indefinitely. The changes a
character goes through may derive from the need for novelty, but they
still reflect on life that the reader can relate to. The most famous
example is Spiderman, originally a troubled teen with a smart-aleck
attitude when he was in costume. Everyone has personal problems, and
so does Spiderman. This is a form of realism.
Another realistic characterization is
for superpowered people to go through life changes in the process of
growing up. This is easily shown in their personal lives: they may
get married, settle down and raise kids. However, it can also appear
in the roles they occupy as heroes and villains, or antiheroes and
antivillains. These four basic roles can fit into patterns of growth
and development, reflecting the stages of ordinary life.
Such patterns can be notated with
mythic algebra, possibly revealing real structures that match
storytelling to the real cycles of life. Living things generally
begin, grow, decline, and end. Is this reflected in character roles?
We shall look at two examples – one from DC and one from Marvel –
to see that characters can fit into life cycles even though their
stories span decades and different writers.
Hero Cycles and Life Cycles
The essential roles of comic book
superheroes to focus on are what give them their generic names, being
heroes or villains or variations on those, antiheroes or
antivillains. Of these four roles, the one most clearly portrayed as
a strong societal support is the hero. In classical stories, he saves
people or communities. The hero’s social functions have been
analyzed from different perspectives, ranging from the historical
critique of Lord Raglan (1936) to
the psychoanalysis of Otto Rank to the Jungian-pop psychology of
Joseph Campbell. Unlike mythic heroes, comic book superheroes usually
have limited roles to punish villains instead of changing the world.
Nonetheless, superheroes are spoken of as modern mythic heroes. Their
creators even go so far as giving them origins as orphans, which fit
a classical trope identified by Rank (1909)
.
This trend in
superhero comics is called 'revisionist myth,' to take
old stories
and recast them with superheroes. One popular plot
device is to use
Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero formula of
separation-initiation-return (Campbell 1968). That pattern can be
combined with the tragic Greek hero formula of
hamartia-hubris-
nemesis. The two hero formulas fit together to make a
complete
life cycle of growth and decline back to the origin:
Triumph
Return (p)M/R Hamartia, Hubris
(p)M/R
Initiation Nemesis, Collapse
Separation (p)R/M Return to
Normalcy (p)R/M
Begin, End
In the full hero
cycle above, there is an essential trace of mythic
algebra shown in
the notations (p)M/R and (p)R/M. Characters (p)
are mapping between
different provinces, whether from the
mundane, real world to a mythic
realm, R/M, or from mythic to
real, M/R. The state functions M,R have
been defined by
provenance, or location in spacetime (s,t). Section
five below will
present this algebra, while section six will give an
application of it.
A good superhero comic example fitting
this complete cycle is the graphic novel Wonder Woman: The
Hiketeia (Rucka 2002).
This story and its hero
cycle have been examined using mythic algebra (Griffin 2012). Other
examples to fit this full hero cycle include Oedipus, Jason the
Argonaut (Wood 2005) and Darth Vader from the Star Wars science
fiction movies. As revisionist myth, this life cycle model can be
used to develop stories for comic book superheroes and super villains
or antiheroes and antivillains. Moreover, some comic book characters
exemplify complete life cycles although not intended to as such, but
the logical best possibilities for their character development lead
in the natural directions of a life cycle model. We shall look at two
of these soon.
First we should
delineate the possible cycles that can represent a
realistic life
progression or variations on that. The starting model
would mimic the
real life pattern of birth-growth-decline-death,
but even here two
basic models are possible: a seasonal one of
gradual transitions or
one of abrupt change from good to bad. The
seasonal model of
antihero-hero-antivillain-villain is analogous to
spring-summer-fall-winter. Whereas a progression of
antihero-
hero-villain-antivillain is when the hero becomes a villain
without
a period of gradual corruption. Either of these cycles
requires the
character roles of antiheroes and antivillains, which
need
explanation.
A Developmental Cycle: Antiheroes
and Antivillains
Superhero comic
books have variant characters, antiheroes and
antivillains, who can
fit into a model similar to the hero model.
These anti-characters are
popular (Rorschach, Punisher,
Catwoman), and are usually thought of
as only fitting at one spot
on a linear spectrum, say based on the
concept of good-vs-evil:
Hero______Antihero______Antivillain______Villain
'Anti' does not mean exact opposite as
it does when we speak of antimatter versus matter. Rather, it
connotes a mixture or contamination of qualities, thus more befitting
the meaning of anti as 'against' the usual concept. One could say
that an antihero is a hero who doesn't care if he acts like a
villain, whereas an antivillain is a villain who doesn't care if he
acts like a hero sometimes. And perhaps characters or even real
people can stay all their lives in one place on this spectrum. But
there can be a life cycle, making the transition from hero to
villain, or if a villain becomes a hero. The anti stages are then the
less effective versions of their final forms.
For example, a callow youth full of
antisocial cynicism has not matured enough to become a full hero yet,
so starts out as an antihero. He stays around too long as a hero and
ages into a villain. The older he gets, the more decrepit he becomes,
reduced in power and regaining some humility before the end. Or one
may have a bad start in life and rise to become a full villain, then
at the peak of power realize that society will collapse and all will
be lost unless he changes to heroism. Declining years are comforted
by the return of cynicism and less than sterling behavior.
Considering either path, we get a single character model capable of
two directions:
Peak
Hero Villain
Antihero Antivillain
Start, End
Possible
Permutations: A Seasonal Cycle
What of the other possible orderings of these four types? Starting
with the hero, two
other basic patterns exist when bidirectional
circular, here laid out
linearly:
Hero__________Villain_________Antihero_________Antivillain
Hero__________Antihero_______Villain___________Antivillain
That is, the hero
can be directly across the circle from any of the
other three (the
third spot on the line), and the adjacent spots
would depend on the
character path for their sequence order.
Different life stories would
fit these other plot scenarios, but for
consistency of character
development, a model resembling natural
growth and decay has an
elegance to it. The Antihero–Hero–
Antivillain–Villain pattern
seems to fit this criterion better than
most other cycles, just as a
seasonal cycle would fit a larger time
frame, such as Spring–Summer–
Fall–Winter:
Peak
Hero Antivillain
Antihero Villain
Start, End
The DC Comics
character Ambush Bug exemplifies this cycle,
but going in the reverse
direction. He started out in 1982 as a
villain for only one issue.
Superman and The Doom Patrol
defeated him then. In 1983 he made his
second appearance,
getting increasingly wacky as he fought Superman
and the Legion
of Substitute Heroes. At the start of his third story
in 1984 he
decided he wanted to become a good guy. In trying to be a
superhero, he oppressed the general public. He had instead
become an
ineffective villain, or antivillain, for this one issue.
Supergirl
saved the public from him and the police carried him
away. In his
subsequent appearances he was clearly among the
good guys if only
because he could hang out with them and did no
harm. In fact he
seldom accomplished any good, as he existed to
be a truly funny
character, a crazy perpetual loser. In 2010, he
joined The Doom
Patrol by default since he was now living on
their island. This could
mark the beginning of his true antihero
status because when he was
not helping them he was driving them
to distraction. Seldom useful,
his teleporting abilities were critical
to saving the team a few
times. He now seems permanently
established as a comic relief
character who at any moment could
spout metanarrative in awareness
that he is a comic book
character.
FIG 1, DC Comics Presents #59, July 1983.
Rather than going
around the cycle again, or even reversing
course, Ambush Bug has found his
place as a funny antihero.
Next, we must present the tools of
notation to analyze these
character life cycles.
Mythic Algebra
Now to introduce
our modeling tools for these cycles. Derived
from mythology, mythic
algebra consists of six set elements
representing people and their
acts, things and their actions, space
and time. Mappings of these
elements occur between sets, which
can be applied to storytelling.
For our purposes, the useful parts
of the system can be written in
this short hierarchical list:
(p,q,x,y,s,t), M, R, H, V, +, –, →
The complete list
has separate levels:
Sets (p,q,x,y,s,t)
of elements people p and their actions q, things
x and their actions y, space s and time t.
x and their actions y, space s and time t.
Set status or
state labels such as M for mythic, R for real, H for
heroic and V for
villainous. Labels, if used, indicate the quality of
the elements in
a set. As with the contrast of M and R, the states
H and V are a
bipolar pair of opposites. That is, mythic is not
real, and a hero
H(p) is not a villain V(p).
Operations +, –,
→ of addition, subtraction or just altering
elements or states by
the transformer arrow →.
Other features of mythic algebra can also be illustrated with
antihero and antivillain
cycles. Using subtraction to mean a lack
of some quality instead of
a negative opposite, an antihero can be
written as –H(p) and an
antivillain as –V(p), or in more
abbreviated forms as –H and –V.
In these cycles, a character's
role status changes, thus the
transform arrow → gets used. For
example, to show an antivillain
becoming a regular person, we can
write –V→(p). Going once
around the developmental cycle could
then be notated as:
–H → H → V →
–V
while going once
around the seasonal cycle would be notated as:
–H → H → –V
→ V
Previous
publications have made use of this entire notation, but
we will make
limited use of it here just to describe the character
cycles. To do
this, in section seven we shall put all of the cycles
together by
comparing stages at similar places on each cycle.
Before we do that,
we should note that these cycles in their pure
forms may make the
most logical sense but do not have to match
the life of any
particular character. For example, let us examine
one who could be
considered a variation on the developmental
cycle.
The Magneto
Monopole
The Marvel Comics
character Magneto's life history will show
that hero or villain
states do not have to pair up next to each other
in sequence. Magneto
exemplifies this as an antivillain. Though
he is often labeled a
villain, here we see him doing a good deed:
FIG 2, X-Men #4, March 1964.
The above illustration provides an
example to show how mythic algebra notates dramatic scenes. It shows
an early Magneto saving Wanda, the future Scarlet Witch, from
superstitious villagers. The setting (s,t) is European, presumably in
the 1960s. We can distinguish other elements by numbers, so Wanda can
be p1 and Magneto p2 while the villagers can be a generic p. The
action y in the first scene is that buildings x are burning, so we
have (p1,p,x,y,s,t). In the second scene, Magneto has intervened and
his action, the only one in the scene, can be the only q element, so
the totality is notated as (p2,q,p1,s,t). These two scenes may then
be listed in their narrative sequence:
(p1,p,x,y,s,t), (p2,q,p1,s,t).
The notation is flexible, so another
way to describe the scene is to declare Magneto an antivillain –V
and not bother with provenance (s,t) in the real world. The essential
narrative sequence then becomes:
(p1,p,x,y), (–V(p2,q),p1).
Here we see that parentheses may nest.
The antivillain state –V is a function using the elements (p2,q).
As mentioned, this particular scene is early in Magneto's career, so
he is a rising antivillain yet to join the X-Men or become a hero,
which would be written in short form as –V→H. In fact, this
scene is the first clear example in comics of Magneto acting as an
antivillain and not just a villain, which we can perhaps appreciate
more if we look at his own developmental life cycle.
The main stages of Magneto's life can be notated as:
(p)→ –V→H→ –V
From a start as a regular person, he
became an antivillain, then switched to become a hero, then resumed
his role as antivillain. This is his basic cycle, which has gone full
circle a few times and started over again after he would lose his
powers:
Hero H
Antivillain –V Antivillain –V
start as (p)
Magneto's attitude resulted from his time spent as a youthful inmate of a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two. He was born a normal youth (p), not yet controlling the force of magnetism, but his mutant powers began to emerge during the war. His experience of social persecution continued postwar as he developed his mutant abilities. As an adult, he fully came into his powers, (p)→ –V, by killing a mob of people who let his first daughter die. That event preceded the saving of the Scarlet Witch, later retconned as his second daughter. He joined with Prof. Charles Xavier and so led a brief career as a do-gooder, –V→ H, but he split from Xavier and became the founder of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, H→ –V. His first appearance in comic books was in the X-Men's debut issue in 1963. He was already a villain with grandiose plans to protect mutant humans from persecution, by attacking everyone else. This twisted-yet-noble goal of protection is what makes him an antivillain. Over the course of five decades he has taken on many roles, a complex character who in 1985 became a leader of the X-Men. That is another convenient spot to mark his entering the status of hero, –V→H. By 1989 he had left the X-Men and resumed his grandiose plans to protect mutants, H→ –V.
Forever after he has never been a mere
villain, but always been capable of doing something good while
pursuing his harsh agenda of protecting mutants from the human race.
Even before his 1985 takeover of the X-Men, he was portrayed as their
final leader in the 1981 time-travel storyline 'Days of Future Past'
(now a major motion picture). In that story, the
transformation into a hero, –V→H, is made unambiguous by Magneto
appearing in a wheelchair, as if he were now Professor Xavier:
FIG 3, Uncanny X-Men #141, Jan. 1981.
This 1981 hero cycle is really his
first go-around in print although not the first in his biography. We
should count his earlier time spent as a partner of Professor Xavier
as his first hero cycle. It would be so in his biography, but since
that was a later retcon it would not be the first print appearance
of a cycling into and out of Hero status.
In the next thirty-plus years, Magneto
has gone around the cycle more times, and rejoined the X-men more
times (Lockheed40 2011). As of this writing, Magneto has once again
left the X-Men and resumed mass killing of enemies, H→ –V, in a
limited series that never uses the word antivillain but can imply it,
entitled Magneto: Not a Hero (Young 2012). At story's end,
Magneto tells his fallen twin, Joseph, that he rejects the notion
itself of heroes and villains:
Magneto makes his own attractive field.
It is no surprise that over five decades, writers have given an
important character like Magneto a consistent biography. Given the
need for characters to go through interesting changes, the more
satisfying results would make some kind of life path that resonates
with real people. And real people go through a life cycle of growth
and decay, unavoidably physical if not social too. Story characters
have the advantage of recycling endlessly. Next, we examine these
recombinations.
The Ultimate HeroClix
Combining both the
seasonal and developmental cycles with the
classical hero cycles
makes an ultimate cycle in which a character
can move in either
direction any number of times to suit the
vagaries of storytelling.
This ultimate cycle resembles the base of
a game piece in the
HeroClix game, wherein a throw of the dice
will determine how many
positions the clicker moves. As in the
game, a character's abilities
and a player's personality will make
for boldness or folly of
actions, and consequences will result. If a
player goes too far,
there will be no more clicks left and the
character dies. However, in
the game of storytelling, comic book
characters can usually be reborn
for any number of reasons. Here
is the combined cycle, without its
accompanying mythic algebra:
Peak
Return Hamartia, Hubris
Hero S.Antivillain or D.Villain
Initiation Nemesis, Collapse
Antihero S.Villain or
D.Antivillain
Separation Return to Normalcy
Start, End
As represented here, the combination
makes one large cycle with single steps in linear sequence, so the
cycle events could mix. For example, an antihero could undergo
initiation to become a hero. Or the mixing of cycles could also be
considered as overlapping, similar types of events. It remains to
point out that the Antihero stage is then analogous to the Separation
stage of Campbell's hero model, and the seasonal Villain or
developmental Antivillain stage is analogous to the Return to
Normalcy stage of the Greek tragic hero. It sheds further light on
the functions of these roles if we look at the mythic algebra. Let us
further abbreviate the notation by omitting the status of a person
(p) except to note their travel R/M from real to mythic lands or vice
versa. Where they are will be notated after the element (p):
H ↔ V
(p)M/R (p)M/R
H –V or V
(p) → H H or V → (p)
–H V or –V
(p)R/M (p)R/M
Start, End
A compatibility shows up when the
cycles are compared:
Separation: (p)R/M, normal person
leaves the real world
Antihero also starts as a person in the
real world
Initiation: (p) → H, person becomes a
Hero
Antihero also becomes a Hero
Peak: H ↔ V , Hero becomes Villain,
or vice versa
developmental Hero becomes Villain
seasonal Hero becomes Antivillain
Collapse: H or V → (p), Hero or
Villain loses power
seasonal Antivillain ends as Villain
developmental Villain ends as
Antivillain
There is one more final compatibility
to note. Even though stories of antiheroes and antivillains do not
typically involve travel to and from mythic lands, characters may
leave or return to normal life from those anti states if, like
Magneto, they go full cycle and lose all of their powers. In the
mythic Hero cycles, one leaves or returns to a mundane life in the
real world. At the end of the hero's story, the main character is
lucky if he or she remains alive and well. And this is the end of our
story, but for some cautionary remarks on the nature of structural
analysis.
Of course a story does not have to fit
any traditional structure to be a good story. There can be an
aesthetic satisfaction if a story does have a cyclical nature and
have an ending resembling its beginning. This has been appreciated at
least since Aristotle. He wrote in section 18 of his Poetics,
'In speaking of a tragedy as the
same or different, the best test to take is the Plot. Identity exists
where the complication and unraveling are the same. Many poets tie
the knot well, but unravel it ill. Both parts, however, should always
be mastered' (1956: 24). There is also a logical symmetry to
cyclical stories which is clearly indicated when one resorts to
mythic algebra notation. In spite of the logical and aesthetic appeal
of cyclical stories, they may comprise a small minority of the
endless variety of tales that people tell. Yet they do have their
appeal, and that is the appeal of symmetry, whether in abstract
notation or story.
Mythic algebra at least provides a
shorthand notation system to describe these symmetric, cyclical
stories. No claims of determinism are necessary for such formalism.
Perhaps some of these patterns and characters may come from
instinctive archetypes, but that notion is unnecessary for the use of
mythic algebra, or to enjoy tales of antiheroes and antivillains.
The plot conventions of storytelling are not inviolate, as the rich
variety of superhero comic books attests.
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