After witnessing a routine speeding ticket/stop turn rightfully ugly the moment the officer decided to basically be the biggest jerk. Worse thing about this situation, it was unsolicited. The woman was nice, offered her drivers license, stated simply that she knew she was speeding and offered no excuse.

The officer decided that he wanted to be evil by stating that he’d stopped her because she was, and I quote, “a typical female driver”. Now the lady decided that she not only didn’t like the smug look on this officer, but didn’t like his comment nor tone. She quickly responded with “you’re an asshole…” and next thing you know, the man had stated more inappropriate verbiage and the situation escalated.

And somehow, this made me think about superheroes and super-villains.

I’ll be brief… everybody remembers Batman, right? He was this regular human that as a child saw his parents robbed at gunpoint by a criminal. Mind you, a common criminal that had to use a gun to intimidate his prey. Not a mega-death ray, not laughing gas smoke bombs with smiles painted on them, not some airborne psychological agent that made them hallucinate like they were in the depths of Hades.

A common criminal with a gun.

So he decides to train extra hard as a youth well into his manhood to become the best crime-fighter ever, Batman. With his appearance into Gotham City, he brings along a brief period of peace, and all things are great. Brief being the keyword here. Soon after his apperarance, it seems as if the supervillains like the Joker, Two-Face, and what not start showing up.

And this is where I’m leading to. It seems as if the level of evil had to match the level of good. Thus, keeping a balance. Yin and Yang. God and Satan. Heaven and Hell. Anti-matter and Matter.

With that, it just seems as if Batman was indeed the catalyst for supervillainy. WIthout him, the criminals could continue to use a simple gun and plan on taking over a block or a building much unlike the stereotypical supervillain that wants to take over the world, if not more. Thus with simplified logic, it can be argued that with a greater good, there has to be a greater evil.

Thus, the superhero begat the supervillain.