That said, Victoria Hand
is a pretty good example of an ideologically-motivated villain who becomes a
hero even because her environment (and not she changes). I suppose that The
Punisher would also count as someone whose morality wouldn’t change, though the
context of their actions might mark them as a villain, but I’m hard-pressed to
think of any other characters who would qualify for this. I mean, The Crime
Syndicate of America (from Grant Morrison’s “Earth 2” Justice League of
America) sort of counts, because (or so I hear it) in their universe, the
paradigm supports evil, selfishness, and corruption, while on the DC main
universe, it supports good, selflessness, and integrity. The bad guys can’t win in the DCU and they can’t lose on Earth 2. They’re still criminals and jerks, but their
effectiveness is, in fact, determined by just what universe they’re in (I don’t
know if this is a subtle nod to the ‘uber if their name is on the cover’
principle of comic book battles or not, but it’s Grant Morrison, so there
really is no telling).
For the all-too-short
season where Norman Osborn was basically running S.H.I.E.L.D., the heroes were
on the run, and Loki, Dr. Doom, Namor, Emma Frost, and The Hood sat down with
Norman Osborn to hammer out the future of the world, Victoria Hand was number
two to Osborn himself. She passionately
backed him up, she fought him to get him to back down and take his meds, went
toe-to-toe with Moonstone/Ms. Marvel, and managed to save the Dark Avengers
after Molecule Man had nearly killed them all. No big deal.
Any top-shelf S.H.I.E.L.D. agent would do the same. The deal with Victoria Hand is that she saw the status quo of the world before the Skrulls and before the Civil War and realized that it just wouldn’t work. She lost her job trying to get Nick Fury to approach the world’s problems in a new way. When she saw someone who would do what it takes to become take an effective approach to organizations like HYDRA and AIM, she backed him up one hundred percent. She didn’t judge Norman by his past. She acknowledged it, yes, and like Osborn realized it was a handicap that had to be accommodated, but she didn’t have the luxury, like so many Marvel heroes, of knowing that Spider-Man’s archnemesis will never change and could never save the world from itself. She wanted a new direction with someone who would do what had to be done. It didn’t work out, and once she realized how far Norman had gone past what needed to be done, she relented and turned herself in to the authorities without apology for her actions or complaint about the consequences.
Any top-shelf S.H.I.E.L.D. agent would do the same. The deal with Victoria Hand is that she saw the status quo of the world before the Skrulls and before the Civil War and realized that it just wouldn’t work. She lost her job trying to get Nick Fury to approach the world’s problems in a new way. When she saw someone who would do what it takes to become take an effective approach to organizations like HYDRA and AIM, she backed him up one hundred percent. She didn’t judge Norman by his past. She acknowledged it, yes, and like Osborn realized it was a handicap that had to be accommodated, but she didn’t have the luxury, like so many Marvel heroes, of knowing that Spider-Man’s archnemesis will never change and could never save the world from itself. She wanted a new direction with someone who would do what had to be done. It didn’t work out, and once she realized how far Norman had gone past what needed to be done, she relented and turned herself in to the authorities without apology for her actions or complaint about the consequences.
So while she doesn’t wear
any sort of costume (unless you count geek-chic glasses and pink
stripes in her hair), she ran the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. for a year. While
she worked for Norman Osborn and backed him up completely, she now works for
the real (well, New Avengers) by request of Steve Rogers himself. Victoria Hand
doesn’t get the same kind of handwave that Kal-El gets for maybe doing things
that aren’t so harmless. She’s a trained soldier who isn’t just trained to
kill, but to kill all manner of scientific and super-villainous things that
superheroes can’t/won’t handle. Her world is more pragmatic, and while that
means that she has no genre savvyness, it also means that she comes across as
not just a real person, but a real person with enough integrity and
self-confidence to stop a whole team of super-heroes. She’s no Batman (not
even close) but she does have heroic qualities, integrity chief amongst them.
Lack of pettiness is something that defines her as it does many heroes. When things finally go south
for Norman’s adventurism into Asgard, she doesn’t blame the heroes or the army
who show up to stop her and her people. She realizes that Norman went too far
and stops backing him up. Not because he was captured or because it helped her
out (she would’ve stopped defending him and his actions prior to that point if
that was the case). No, it was because she knew she was in the wrong. She was
humble enough to accept her part in what happened and admit to her mistakes.
She chose to save the lives of the men and women under her instead of wasting
them trying to save herself or fight a hopeless battle against the United
States military. I don’t know what to call this non-myopic morality other than
common sense. I mean, common sense isn’t really a special quality that shows how great a
character is, but she has it when a lot of people on the wrong side of the
capes don’t.
Sure, she backed Norman, unapologetically. Sure, a classic protagonist might’ve given
Osborn tepid support, then sabotaged his armor and brought him down the first
time he stepped out of line, but Victoria Hand showed herself to be someone who
commits herself to what she believes in. No half-measures. No doubt. She does
her job and does so enthusiastically. Does her instant willingness to obey
authority work against her? Of course! Because being a roguish derring-do pays
off in the Marvel universe, obedience doesn’t do anything for her. Not her
fault, it’s just that most people in the Marvel universe aren’t smart enough to
realize that or aren’t smart enough to do it while fighting crime. Part of the
lesson of Civil War/Dark Reign (and even to some extent, Secret Invasion) was
that institutional authority is antithetical to super-heroes. Politics and
rigid structures of people appointed by governments don’t and can’t always have
the best interests of the people at heart. The greatest thing about superheroes
is their ability to operate autonomously, directed only by their abilities and
the greatness and generosity born within each person.
Victoria Hand as Norman
Osborn’s greatest fan provides a strong voice that reminds the reader that
people do believe in Norman Osborn and explains why they aren’t morons for doing so.
Yeah, most of his foot soldiers are jerks, (I’d like to believe that this is
consistent with the characterization of S.H.I.E.L.D. troops as people who’ve
always been jerks but now have a reason, rather than the deliberate insult to
my intelligence that someone expects me to believe that everyone who used to
work for S.H.I.E.L.D. suddenly became a jerk when Norman Osborn came to power
and arbitrarily renamed it H.A.M.M.E.R.. I mean, these are the people who shot
at Captain America because turbo-[REDACTED] Maria Hill told them to.) but it’s the
average American citizen who wanted Osborn in office, not jerkwad shield agents
or shadowy cabals of super-villains (full disclosure: even the shadowy cabals
of super-villains had betting pools on how long it would take Osborn to fuck it
up). Given that every other comic featured either heroes who knew Osborn could
never be rehabilitated or plots where Osborn pettily acts out to destroy the
life of the main characters, it was good to have one character that could show
that the entire world hadn’t gone mad/stupid for backing Osborn. It was also
nice to have a series that while showing Osborn’s faults as a leader, showed
them as part of a human being who was trying to better the world, instead of
featuring a two-dimensional caricature of George W. Bush with a hijacked suit
of Iron Man armor.
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