Chapter 2503: The Battle for the Cape (Part 70)

Many people always can't figure out the relationship between these two, and many people think that ability and talent are actually one thing, but in psychology, their main difference lies in spiritual drive and demand.

You complete a thing with your ability, which is called you have the ability to complete something. You complete a thing very perfectly, or even far beyond the specification, which is called you are very capable in some aspects.

You have passion for some things, can focus for a long time, don't follow the crowd, can innovate, and achieve results that are both different from others and better than others in unit time, and are deeply encouraged by it, which is called you have talent in some aspects.

Your boss asks you to do something, you do it and finish it, then you have the ability to complete this work, you do it better, which shows that your ability is stronger.

But the driving force is the boss's task, and the harvest may be wages or the boss's praise. Whether it is the driving force or the harvest, it is indirect and external.

But if you do something just because you want to do it yourself, and complete this thing after thinking, you feel very satisfied in the process, your spirit is comforted, your mood is relaxed, and you have achieved quite good results, which shows that you have talent in this aspect.

Whether it is the idea that drives you to complete this thing, or the harvest of feeling spiritual pleasure, it is direct and internal.

Ability is more like a tool for social interaction with the outside world, while talent is more like a system that anchors the value of one's own existence.

Ability is usually a one-shot deal. You may have the ability to study and take exams, the ability to do business and politics, and the ability to persuade others. In order to obtain your survival needs, you will constantly use these different abilities to stand in society.

Talent is usually a complete system. Your spiritual drive, cognitive ability, thinking ability, execution ability, and feedback mechanism are highly unified. You can obtain all your material and spiritual needs from this one thing.

And from this, it can be seen that the editorial department only set ability for the Batman Who Laughs character.

He has the ability to defeat powerful enemies, he has the ability to plan a huge conspiracy, and he has the ability to obtain powerful props.

But does he have the spiritual drive to do so? Does he have the cognitive ability to correctly recognize this event from multiple aspects and angles? Does he have the ability to innovate the ways and methods of completing this process? Does he have the execution ability to land his unique ideas? Does he have a feedback mechanism to satisfy his spiritual needs and self-value realization needs from completing this series of events?

Obviously, he doesn't have any of them.

What he wants to do, what he has done, what he has harvested, and what he has felt, these four things have nothing to do with each other.

He wants to destroy the universe, but he didn't adopt the most efficient method. The method he adopted to destroy the universe actually couldn't destroy the universe. He didn't harvest the destruction of the universe, and he didn't feel any happiness from his various actions of destroying or not destroying the universe.

This may be a bit thin, but if you make a slight comparison, you can clearly feel the gap.

The Joker wants Batman to laugh, so he tries his best, constantly directing dramas that might make Batman laugh. He has made Batman laugh several times, and in this process, he is happy from the heart.

Batman wants to take revenge on criminals, so he hones his skills, improves his level, creates the deterrent power of the Dark Knight, and establishes a new order where the law cannot reach. In this process, he also feels satisfied.

So the Joker has talent in making Batman laugh, and Batman has talent in fighting crime.

Even if the editor added such a sentence in the plot of the Batman Who Laughs, "He finally approached his goal with his powerful wisdom, and at this moment he felt happy from the heart", this character would not be so thin.

The character's motivation makes the audience understand his pursuit, the character's method makes the audience understand his ability, and the character's harvest makes the audience resonate. If none of these exist, then what exactly is the audience watching?

Just like the Batman Who Laughs used time skipping to completely hide the transformation process of Spider-Man and Jason, the editorial department used various unreasonable abilities forcibly imposed on the Batman Who Laughs to completely hide the motivation, method, and harvest of the Batman Who Laughs. Then what exactly are comic readers watching?

And Shiler's actions in this play, although not as legendary and inspiring as other Arkham madmen, are more direct to the point, exposing the most essential inner core of the Batman Who Laughs—avoidance and nihilism.

The shaping of characters in the cultural content of a country can actually partially reflect the characteristics of this country, and the transformation of character shaping style can also reflect the transformation of the era of this country.

American comics have had a long period of purely advocating heroism, distinguishing heroes from ordinary people and then opposing them, so as to outline various dramatic conflicts.

But at that time, the hero's values were still relatively normal. They had to be brave, powerful, enterprising, and punish evil and promote good. This also represented the pride and ambition of the world's lighthouse in the glorious era.

And later, some anti-heroes appeared one after another. They were no longer completely correct, but had hidden feelings, both righteous and evil. The story no longer blindly emphasized the correctness of heroes and the mistakes of criminals. They no longer cared whether they were right or not. Compared to the lighthouse, they began to move towards the world police.

And when characters like the Batman Who Laughs appeared, they not only no longer pursued theoretical victory, but even no longer discussed methods of practical victory. Does this sound like spiritual victory?

Even if I have no goals, no plans, don't realize self-value, don't consider my own feelings, anyway, I win.

This is a thorough avoidance thought and nihilism. When they start to think, in a virtual world, I can do whatever I want, this character's strength is all set by me, don't care whether I am reasonable or not, this is a comic, you lose if you take it seriously, it shows that they lack both convincing theories and the ability to make people truly shut up.

Is Superman's setting outrageous? In the era when Superman appeared, this setting was simply outrageous mother opening the door for outrageous, outrageous to home. But the editor can show true heroism through Superman's stories. These plots can reflect the ideology, and the ideology can convince the audience, so Superman is very popular.

Is Batman's setting outrageous? Even if it is placed in this era, his outrageousness is still talked about, but they have enough ways to make Batman's stories spread widely around the world, and it has been popular for decades. When this becomes a childhood memory, how outrageous it is is not so important. Batman is still a star hero.

And the outrageous publications of these two are not less than the Batman Who Laughs, and even in some ancient publications unknown to the public, they are really simple and five-line scores divorcing, outrageous among outrageous.

This shows that the failure of the Batman Who Laughs does not come entirely from his outrageous setting, but from the weakening of the United States' ability to convince readers to pass on values through comics, and the weakening of its control over world pop culture.

More importantly, the editorial department knows this, and they are also guilty, so the Batman Who Laughs must win, because they no longer have the confidence to use superhero stories to explore deeper problems, because they understand that this is no longer an era where values can be reversed. So only winning can prove correctness.

So the editorial department can only take its essence and discard its dross, abandon the exploration of values and the exploration of various social problems in Batman and Superman stories, and only take their final victory, trying to create brilliance again in this way, and the result is naturally pulling a big one.

Many people express incomprehension about this, feeling that this is a cliff-like decline in the creative level of the editorial department, but they don't think about it, this is not just a cliff-like decline in the editorial department, this is clearly the entire country is returning to the mean.

Many people may feel, isn't it just an outrageous character in a comic? How can it be seen from small to large to this extent?

But in fact, history has no coincidences.

In September 2017, the comic "Dark Nights: Metal" was released. The Batman Who Laughs appeared for the first time, and it caused a warm response as soon as it appeared. Later, because the expectation was greater than the disappointment, it became one of the most failed comic characters in American history.

In May 2017, the overseas version of Douyin Tiktok went overseas. As soon as it was launched, it swept the United States. Since then, the collapse of the traditional media of all forces in the United States and the decline of the world's discourse power of the United States began.

At that time, the main content of this software was not to discuss American comics. The decline of the reputation of the Batman Who Laughs might also have nothing to do with this small software.

But looking at the long river of history, a series of historical events that are too close can only prove that this moment must be a certain historical node, and something must have happened a surprising turning point at this time.

And also taking history as a mirror, these small things are not the last straw that crushes the camel. If the timeline is pushed forward a little more, this is precisely the aftermath of another giant wave lifted from the eastern sea area.

Continuing to analyze, where do this kind of nihilism and avoidance and the concept of must win come from?

Cultural confrontation is always ahead of everything and slower than everything, because literati are always arrogant predictions, but enjoy the vanity brought by hindsight more. The turning point in culture sometimes foreshadows future things, but more is transformed after major changes in the situation.

If I have never had an opponent, I naturally don't have to win. If I can easily crush my opponent, I can naturally write a few victory experiences about my crushing method. If I draw with my opponent, I must write about how I won easily without any effort with the most spring and autumn brushwork.

If I want to fight but lose, I at least write from other angles why we make a lot of money without loss, at least dare to fight, and must sing about courage and tell about justice.

If what is finally presented is only avoidance and nihilism, what is going on?

Shiler stared at the Batman Who Laughs. He had hoped that this character would never appear in front of him, but from another angle, he hoped that he would appear quickly.

It is not that Shiler is anxious to kill him, but that once he appears, it indicates that some problems that have been hanging in Shiler's heart have finally found answers.

Standing in front of the Batman Who Laughs, Shiler closed his eyes slightly.

The explosion sound of the bomb, which was louder than the roar of the airplane engine, made him unable to hear any sound anymore. In the trembling, the hazy vision stayed on the dial of the watch, and the number of the year stayed at "2016".