The Allure of the Dark |

By Natasha Hayden
July 3, 2015

Our library is having a superhero-themed summer of reading, where even the adults get to participate a little. For an entry into the grand prize drawing, I had to write a tiny paragraph about who my favorite superhero is and why I like him/her. I will also get to do the same with my favorite villain. I found it hard to pick my favorite superhero and explain in 20 or so words why. I ultimately picked Batman and Green Arrow, similar characters who thrive on their thirst for justice, their ingenuity, and their own human skills and strength. Characters who must hide their goodness behind the masks of rich, shallow, uncaring men, when they are really anything but. I admit, my understanding of these characters is based almost solely on Christian Bale’s movies and Stephen Amell’s TV portrayals, but their interpretations have impressed me. Daredevil from the dark, gritty Netflix show is growing on my list of favorites now, too, though he’s a bit of a different sort of character (not rich, and possessing super-senses my other fav’s don’t).

Oliver Queen aka Arrow. (Not Jaysynn) From arrow.wikia.com

Though Daredevil is possibly the darkest of the superheroes (his show is, anyway), Green Arrow and Batman go to dark places, as well. While Superman is all light and Wonder Woman is truth, these others are creatures of the night and shadows, vigilantes in cities that are more corrupt than not, administering justice according to their own rules and laws. Is it right? Is it moral? What I like about these characters, especially Arrow and Daredevil, is that they struggle with these questions but are always guided by an internal moral compass that points straight and true. You know that whichever way they choose, they will always save lives and the bad guys will pay.

But the question the library posed got me thinking, what is it about the dark that is so appealing? Why do I like Batman more than Superman? And why are the villains in stories some of the most interesting, compelling characters? What’s so fascinating about Lex Luthor in TV’s Smallville? Why is Regina, the Evil Queen, my favorite character in Once Upon a Time? Why is Loki, a villain, one of the most fun characters in the first Avengers movie?

Is there something wrong with me, or with all of us as a culture, that the dark overshadows the light? I think the answer is both “yes” and “no.” Our culture does gravitate toward darkness and evil, and it is not a healthy fascination. Witches and vampires and other mythological creatures, once purely evil, are now sympathetic, beautiful beings. I do find it interesting that to make them more palatable, we create goodness in them, but the allure of their power is what really attracts us, and power can be a dangerous, corrupting force. There’s a danger, too, in thinking that all dark heroes are above corruption, that somehow they are inhumanly able to shut out the darkness while living in the midst of it…because when we begin to emulate them, we will find we are not so incorruptible.

But is all shadow evil and irredeemable? Perhaps not. Though the show doesn’t share my Christian worldview, my favorite example of this is Regina in Once Upon a Time. She has become the show’s moral center, and she began as the most evil one of all. Love changed her, and though she’s still tempted by the dark side and still rough around the edges, she’s the voice of reason when the show’s supposed heroes are making very unheroic choices. Basically, she’s a balanced human being. She feels the pull of evil, knows its destructiveness, has learned from her mistakes, and chooses to live in the light, even though she would be more powerful in the dark. And isn’t that the choice we have before us every day? To rise above our mistakes and choose light, even when we live in dark times. To be light, even though our souls might be smudged by dark.

I think we gravitate toward the dark because it’s familiar. We more fully understand a heart torn in two directions than one guided purely by light and goodness. Superman is above all of us, but there’s a little Batman in each of us.

Anyway, that’s one simplistic way to explain my own fascination with the dark. I believe we should be aware of what we are absorbing in our entertainment and aware of how it affects our moral compass, and so, as you absorb our own stories on Children of the Wells, where we have our own brand of superhero, I implore you to think. In all that you read or watch, I implore you to do just that: think. Don’t go mindlessly into the dark.