Heroes, villains and something in between

Hero. Villain. Right. Wrong. Or maybe not.

The concept of “hero” has long been the antithesis of “villain” and vice versa, and I had always accepted that black and white definition as such.

And as Showtime’s “Dexter,” a show about a serial killer of serial killers, nears the end of its fifth season, I began to re-evaluate what those words mean to me.

The burden of knowing you took someone else’s life is a responsibility that few people would be willing to take. But doesn’t being a hero revolve around the idea of carrying the weight of others on your shoulders?

I remember feeling disgusted with Batman at the end of “The Dark Knight” for letting the Joker slip through his fingers when he had a chance to kill him. I didn’t see it as an act of heroism or humanity; it was an act of cowardice.

The Joker was a raging psychopath who was more than happy to take any number of lives, but Batman chose to save his own soul from being marred by murder.

Dexter might not wear a cape and tights; the only things he wears are black leather gloves and an awkward smile. Yet, he is essentially the same as any superhero we’ve grown up with. He hunts down “the bad guys” and makes the neighborhood a safer place. The only difference is he enjoys his kills.

As unsettling as that is, it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. At the end of the day, his actions are the same as a vintage superhero’s, and he, like a traditional superhero, doesn’t target anyone other than murderers and rapists.

In February 2008, the Parents Television Council battled the CBS decision to air re-runs of “Dexter.” The Parents Television Council complained, stating “they intend to air material that effectively celebrates murder.”

Yet, we live in a country that still performs executions and even provides witness rooms for those who wish to watch.

Opponents of the death penalty argue that no person has the right to take away the life of someone else. And while a part of me agrees with that, I have to wonder if throwing a person in prison and stripping them of their freedom is all that different from physically taking their life.

Still, I hesitate to say that I support capital punishment, mostly because our justice system isn’t perfect, and there is always a chance that the convicted are innocent.
But it is because our justice system isn’t perfect and is often deeply riddled by politics that I feel more empathetic to the idea of a vigilante. After the highly publicized case of O.J. Simpson and now the hastily fabricated rape case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, it’s clear that justice isn’t always served.

This isn’t to say that our justice system should be overridden and bloodthirsty killers should run the streets, but it is important to recognize that our longstanding notions of hero and villain, right and wrong, might be more similar than we care to acknowledge.


E-mail: pkansal@indiana.edu