The Inspiration

In 2007 the Writer’s Guild of America, west, a labor union composed of screen writers and assorted authors, went on strike. Director and author Joss Whedon, “frustrated with the lack of movement… finally decided to do something very ambitious.” With the help of family and friends, Joss put together the first supervillian online musical: “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” The story follows the exploits of Dr. Horrible, a “low-rent superhero” who has all the horribleness of the Velveteen Rabbit. Throughout the forty-five-minute series, Dr. Horrible reports on his failed attempts to both woo fellow laundry person Penny and vanquish his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. Whedon’s choice to use a supervillian as the protagonist shows the growing trend in contemporary society to haze the hero in sordid smog.

Towards the end of the series finale, Captain Hammer enthralls the audience with “Everyone’s a Hero in their own way,” a musical number in which Captain Hammer explains to the homeless that even the alcoholic bums can be heroes, albeit in a “not-that-heroic way." The you’re-all-second-place-winners-to-me message from the series’ heroic antagonist, as well as Whedon’s encouragement to the audience to root for the eponymous, villainous protagonist to receive admission into the Evil League of Evil serve to inverse the definition and characteristics of contemporary heroism.

This delightfully low-budget production served as a springboard into my search for the patterns and trends of heroes and villains throughout the ages. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is simply one example of an outright inversion of the moral system accepted by the audience. From animated blockbusters to award winning television series, we will continue to look at what a hero really is and, more importantly, what our modern heroes are becoming.