The point is that a superhero can’t take preemptive action. The author can invent a situation where a raid is possible, but for the most part, superman must destroy the nuke after it has been launched—preemptively destroying the launch pad instead would look like an act of aggression from the hero. And going and killing the general before he orders the strike is absolutely out of the question. This is fine for a superhero, but most of us can’t stop nukes in-flight.
A dictatorship is different because aggression from the villain is everywhere anyway—and it’s guaranteed that we will be shown at least one poor farm girl assaulted by soldiers before our hero takes action against the mastermind. Only when the villain is breaking the rules egregiously and constantly is the hero allowed to bend them a bit.
If you have a situation with both an antihero and a hero in it, the hero can be easily predicted—as opposed to the antihero,who is actually allowed to plan. Superheroes end up quite simple, since the rules they obey are so strict, they can only take one course of action (their choices tend to be about whether they follow the rules or not, and not between to courses of action that are both allowed). And that course of action often isn’t the most effective.
It really depends on what we mean by “superhero”. If we stick to the archetypal Western examples, you’re probably right. But things becomes less clear if we consider something like Watchmen, V for Vendetta (V is pretty super), or the many gray area types Marvel and DC have (I’m leaving that vague because I’m not too familiar with the canon), not to mention various manga and anime heroes (Lelouch?) But maybe we wouldn’t call them superheroes precisely because they don’t fit the “only act in response to clear, certain evil”. Mostly, I think this points to the fact that, to no one’s surprise, {Supervillain, Superhero} is not a comprehensive summary of thinking styles, nor are they sharply defined categories.
The point is that a superhero can’t take preemptive action. The author can invent a situation where a raid is possible, but for the most part, superman must destroy the nuke after it has been launched—preemptively destroying the launch pad instead would look like an act of aggression from the hero. And going and killing the general before he orders the strike is absolutely out of the question. This is fine for a superhero, but most of us can’t stop nukes in-flight.
A dictatorship is different because aggression from the villain is everywhere anyway—and it’s guaranteed that we will be shown at least one poor farm girl assaulted by soldiers before our hero takes action against the mastermind. Only when the villain is breaking the rules egregiously and constantly is the hero allowed to bend them a bit.
If you have a situation with both an antihero and a hero in it, the hero can be easily predicted—as opposed to the antihero,who is actually allowed to plan. Superheroes end up quite simple, since the rules they obey are so strict, they can only take one course of action (their choices tend to be about whether they follow the rules or not, and not between to courses of action that are both allowed). And that course of action often isn’t the most effective.
It really depends on what we mean by “superhero”. If we stick to the archetypal Western examples, you’re probably right. But things becomes less clear if we consider something like Watchmen, V for Vendetta (V is pretty super), or the many gray area types Marvel and DC have (I’m leaving that vague because I’m not too familiar with the canon), not to mention various manga and anime heroes (Lelouch?) But maybe we wouldn’t call them superheroes precisely because they don’t fit the “only act in response to clear, certain evil”. Mostly, I think this points to the fact that, to no one’s surprise, {Supervillain, Superhero} is not a comprehensive summary of thinking styles, nor are they sharply defined categories.
Many of those examples are probably classed as antiheroes. Punisher would be a great example of a hero who changes the status quo (by shooting it.)
Aim to be an antivillian? Someone who wants to conquer the world and rule it with an iron fist, but is unwilling to use evil means to do so...