On the trickster

It has been a while since my last post, I know, but I had places to be, and places to be drunk, so without further ado, for which I hope more than nothing comes, some thoughts I had on the trickster in modern comics.

The trickster is commonly thought of, in a simplistic sense, as one who simply plays tricks. This is a misconception. The trickster is more than that. The trickster is a character/persona who is usually at some sort of disadvantage or discomfort by the system of rules/order which they reside, and seeks to escape this by creating their own set of rules or simply forcing those in power to abide by a separate set of rules.

The two most common tricksters I can think of are villains in the DC world -- The Flash villain - the Trickster, and the Batman villain - the Joker. There are others such as Superman's Mr. Mxysptlk and Thor's Loki, and the X-men's Arcade, but I know less about these characters. There are also villains who seem to be superficially goofy or tricksterish, but are not really tricksters at all, such as Batman's Riddler.

The Trickster
-The Flash
-Sees the line (rules) of morality and chooses to cross it in order to attain self and group (rogues) gain. Seeing the line both enables him to choose his own side, as he does reform for a bit of his career to not do evil, and it enables him to see how far he crosses it. He creates devices which force the Flash to rethink how he can stop him, as speed alone cannot usually accomplish the feat.

The Joker
-Batman
-Refuses to acknowledge any rule of law or morals and therefore cannot cross it. Furthermore he commits no wrongdoing by this logic. The anti-absurdist hero in a way. If Sisyphus's boulder always falls back down, there is no reason to keep pushing it back up the hill -- if within order there is always an element of chaos, then why is order pursued? The Joker is revolution in motion, but also without direction.

But why have only villains been tricksters in recent times? Traditionally this role was reserved for folk heroes and creators -- such as Renard the fox and Robin Hood. They represented the struggles of the lower classes. The rule of law heavily favored the upper classes. These characters circumvented or created their own rules in order to create their own sense of justice, not chaos or self-gratification.

America of the last 50 years has been on top of the world, controlling its industries. Even if you are poor in America, you have a better life than most of the rest of the world. So therefore villains have been the tricksters, not the heroes.

As the world is changing slowly, there may soon be a shift.

Candidates for future hero trickster treatment:

Deadpool, Cable, Silver Surfer, Green Arrow, Namor, Magneto (as future hero), the Flash, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, among others.

A shame I couldn't think of more DC, but that shows their general lack of depth. Note I included the Green Arrow, but not Batman. This is because of the manner in which they go about their work. The Green Arrow works independently and distrusts all higher organizations, even the Justice League occasionally. Batman tries to reclaim the system, working alongside commissioner Gordon and, until he became two-face, DA Harvey Dent.
But the main reason I picked those is because their sense of laws and morality differs from those who are in power, not just the villains they fight.

--Knuttel