NOTE: The following essay contains spoilers to my book The
Midknight. If you have NOT read the story, I suggest you read it first
before reading the following essay.
Part I: To Be or Not to Be ... A Vigilante?
When it came to the creation of The Midknight, I always knew the kind of story I wanted to tell. It's your
basic mythological, hero's journey-type of story that may sound like something
out of a comic book. It's a story of heavy emotions of love and hate; action;
revenge; corruption; redemption; and, ultimately, personal growth. Every
character is pulled to their limit in this story and many life lessons are
strewn throughout the book. For some of the stand-out scenes, I took many
aspects of classic philosophical motifs (from the likes of Stoicism,
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Aristotle, Socrates, Hegel, and Augustine) as well as
classic myths and blended them together to tell a modern-day story. It is
through this technique that The Midknight basically illustrates how much
our emotions can control our lives -- if we let them.
We must first start with Jesse
Sands' main threat of his newfound powers through the serum. Because this is a
story with many mythological and comic book-like qualities, it can be said that
the serum featured in the story (Liquid Nocturnus) is a metaphor for everything
emotional. It is a symbol to represent someone's extremely powerful emotions as
well as their actions that are brought about because of ther serum/emotions.
THE question of Jesse's morality as a result of the serum's effects in The
Midknight is something that every person (whether granted with super-like
powers or not) faces.
"There is even another sort of
fear, less obvious, but perhaps just as important, that many superhero narratives
bring to our attention," comic writer Jeph Loeb once
stated. "Many of us fear what we may have to do to stand up to evil
in the world. Will we have to resort to force and violence in order to contain
or defeat the forces that threaten us and those we love? The superheroes often
do, but they know where to draw the line. Will we?
"Many great philosophers have
understood that we human beings are creatures of habit. Once we resort to
violence to solve a problem, we are a bit more likely to do the same thing
again on a future occasion -- whether that future occasion really requires it
or not. If we are sent to war in a foreign land, will we return as more violent
people? Will it ruin our lives? Will we be forever changed in detrimental ways?
That's a real fear for any good person living in the modern world.
"Good people rightly fear the
effects that a use of force or violence could have on their own souls. If it
comes to resisting evil, will I actually have allowed evil to win after all,
but in different form, in my own soul?"
To explore these questions even
further, we must first identify the situations that Jesse experiences in the
story that may lead him (or any individual) to violence and evil. Friedrich
Nietzsche once wrote, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in
the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss,
the abyss also looks into you." This thought can be seen in many morality
stories -- whether novel, comic book, movie or play -- today.
Jesse does indeed become a vigilante
and finds himself turning into a monster in order to fight the monsters
(whether they are guilty or not). Most vigilantes break some of the laws in
order to pursue the real criminals who are violating more important laws, and
to protect law-abiding citizens from thugs and murderers. To the extent that
any laws on the books protect criminals and impede the pursuit of justice,
Jesse will be a lawbreaker.
Like most vigilantes, Jesse is
overwhelmed by the thought of: Why should well-meaning social structures be
allowed to stand in the way of what is objectively right? Near the end of The
Midknight, Jesse knows that the Russian mobster could not have the same
charges brought against him in a case where Jesse knows he's guilty and
that no court could convict him. He doesn't let this law stand in his way of
bringing justice to the criminal. And vigilantism would make sense IF the
vigilante is in fact doing good, but it would be far more troubling if
vigilantes lack a clear perception of right and wrong. But what happens if the
vigilante's views on guilty and not guilty, right and wrong, begin to blur?
Although Jesse gains a few
superhuman enhancements, this is not a legitimate reason for him to decide to
fight crime. Taking a stand and defending himself, as well as his family and
girlfriend Vanessa Strummer, is understandable because their lives are
threatened by a ruthless gang of killers. However, Jesse choosing to seek out
whatever criminals he can find and punish them with his own brand of vigilante
justice is open to discussion. Why? First, he's clearly not a police officer
and, second, his newfound powers certainly don't issue him a license to punish
anyone, let alone kill them. Is he right or wrong? That question is a major
focus for most vigilante plotlines appearing since the late 1970s. One of the
classic vigilantes is Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey from the Death Wish
movies. Another is Frank Miller's Batman in The Dark Knight Returns (in
which the moral examination greatly influenced The Midknight). It's no
startling fact that characters such as Paul Kersey, Bruce Wayne/Batman, Frank Castle/The Punisher, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Eric Draven/The Crow, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Elektra Natchios/Elektra, William Foster/D-Fens (Michael
Douglas' character in the movie Falling Down), Parker (from Richard
Stark's crime noir novels), and Creasy (from A.J. Quinnell's Man on Fire
novel) are all vigilantes (and they were all an extremely influential
inspiration for my creating The Midknight). However, mostly all of these
vigilantes (with the exception of William Foster) have a sensible reason for
taking justice into their own hands. Kersey's wife and daughter are brutally
attacked; Bruce Wayne's parents are killed in front of him by a mugger; Frank
Castle's family are killed by the Mob; Matt Murdock's father is killed by a
sloppy hitman; Eric Draven and his fiancee are murdered by a street gang; Peter
Parker's father-like Uncle Ben is killed by a thief who Peter could have
earlier stopped; Elektra Natchios' father is killed by an assassin right in
front of her; Parker is betrayed by his wife and the criminal outfit he works
for, and left for dead; and Creasy's friend, the little girl he was hired to
protect and the only person who showed him unconditional love, is murdered by
kidnappers.
So, what is Jesse's ultimate
motivation to "take the law into his own hands?" The paramount answer
is that he is fed up -- fed up of being bullied around, living in a world where
the criminals, bad guys and bullies get away without any consequences. Plus,
being a cop's son, Jesse knows how the justice system works and doesn't trust
it. This is where Jesse's views of right and wrong begin to blur. The effects
of the serum, as well as the haunting memories of his constant abuse from past
bullies, begin to overtake Jesse's logical thinking. His emotions soon overtake
his ability to logically think through a situation and soon they drive his
"eye for an eye" belief into overdrive.
This is showcased for the first time
in the story when Jesse seeks out and punishes the three young men who have yet
to stand trial for allegedly killing a young mother and her two children. After
Jesse's attack on the bus that is to escort them to their next prison, the last
young man standing pleads for his life and says, "I was just along for the
ride! I didn't do anything! I promise! I didn't know," Jesse coldly
replies with, "No. You just didn't care." Therefore, Jesse had
already made up in his mind whether this young man was guilty or not and kills him.
His emotions from seeing the innocent family's picture and relating it to his
own family are what drove him to seek out and murder the suspects.
Is this a good enough reason to be a
vigilante and take the law into your own hands? Is it enough to keep fighting
crime? Well, certainly it is for all of the other characters I've previously
mentioned. Even though most of their perpetrators were caught or killed, these
vigilantes (if still alive) continue their crime-fighting ways. Yet they all
continue to struggle with their inner demons and justly uphold the law, only
targeting those who do break the law. Although their sanity may be in question,
their morals are not. These are people who have the means of upholding justice
and do so risking their own lives. All of these vigilantes, including Jesse,
all receive some feeling of great accomplishment when saving a life or
delivering a bad guy to justice. This is called utilitarianism, which is a
philosophical view that the right action in any circumstance is the one that
produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people. And if beating
one villain will save several potential innocents, these vigilantes can still
be seen as somewhat virtuous. It is only when they begin thinking and/or
feeling for themselves and placing other innocents in danger that their
morality can become twisted and wrong.
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