Working in his small basement lab, optician Thurston Tidwell solves the secret of invisibility in Strange Adventures 5 (Feb. 1951).
Accidentally discovering that fact, a wanted criminal known as “The Professor” forces Tidwell to use the untested device on him.
Quickly bored with stealing cash and steaks, the Professor decides to hunt other criminals, both for fun and to make up for past misdeeds. But in a shootout between police and robbers, the invisible man accidentally gets in the way of a fatal bullet.
In their story, writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino reversed the myth of the Ring of Gyges recounted in Plato’s Republic.
Like Tolkien’s One Ring, this magical device permitted the wearer to become invisible at will. The point of the myth is that by freeing the wearer from the fear of punishment or disgrace, the ring would necessarily corrupt anyone who wore it. Morality being merely a social construct, superhumans could not be trusted.
But Socrates argued that justice is more than a social construct, and that the wearer who abused such a power would end up a miserable slave to his appetites. A wise person would refuse such a ring and, by remaining rationally in control of himself, be happier, Socrates said.
In other words, with great power comes great danger.
For an entertaining parlor game, ask your friends which super power they would prefer: invisibility or personal flight?
The results will be telling, and generally spark an interesting discussion about expediency, ethics and life goals.
In the This American Life radio program, writer John Hodgman asked people that question. “He finds that how you answer tells a lot about what kind of person you are,” host Ira Glass noted. “And also, no matter which power people choose, they never use it to fight crime.”
By the way, although I concede that invisibility would be more useful in practical terms, I would nevertheless choose the very symbol of freedom — flight.
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, in the movie ‘The Invisible Man’ the main character Dr. Jack Griffin’s (Claude Rains) Invisible Man and in the comic book series ‘The Fantastic Four’ Susan Storm/Richards had very different outcomes with their separate experiences with that particular power, but to be fair their circumstances were so far apart from one another’s that using the two of them might not be the best possible choice for examples.
For one thing, Griffins didn’t have control over his invisibility, he was stuck that way. Susan could turn hers off and on at will. Additionally, Dr. Griffin was pretty much alone in his travail but Sue had a team of three other individuals, one of them her sibling, backing her up, sharing in the "suddenly empowered experience."
But probably the biggest difference is that the very source of Jack’s transformation had the built-in side effect of producing eventual madness. Storm/Richards’ powers nor their source had no apparent adverse effects upon her mental health.
So, ‘he’ was corrupted, but how much was the serum and how much was his own human frailty? She wasn’t corrupted, but how would she have fared with less control over her powers and if she’d had to go it alone? These are questions to which their answers we’ll never know.
Oh, and Griffin had to go naked. Sue’s ‘Reed Richards developed garments’ became invisible with her so there’s that too.
I replied:
I suspect Griffin's "built-in madness" was H.G. Wells' nod to the Ring of Gyges myth, which holds that such power would always turn people evil.
Bob Bailey:
ReplyDeleteExcellent post ,Dan.
Bob Bailey:
ReplyDeleteStrange Adventures and Mystery in Space were the best comics.
Bob Doncaster:
ReplyDeleteI think age could factor in the choice between the two. A teenage boy might choose invisibility (girls' locker room) while an adult choose flight (travel to exotic places, save money on air fares).