Avengers and Philosophy: Earth's Mightiest Thinkers, The (15 page)

Getting Her Arête Together

You were a mess . . . you weren’t half the woman you’ve become over the last couple of years.

—Luke Cage to Jessica Jones
²⁴

Luke Cage (Power Man) uses these words, among others, to convince Jessica that he truly wants to marry her. She
was
a mess, and she
is
one of the most intriguing and compelling characters in Marveldom. She is perpetually unhappy, self-deprecating, and utterly lacking in self-confidence. Jessica gained her powers when she was exposed to some chemicals following a car accident that killed her parents and brother.
²⁵
Prior to the accident, she was a miserable loner—so much so that she had a crush on Peter Parker and even
he
didn’t notice her—but she is even more so following her accident, given her guilt over partially causing it. After her convalescence in the hospital, Jessica is given the good news that she can return to her old high school and that a foster family wants to adopt her.
²⁶

When Jessica returns she is more alienated than ever, treated like a freak by the cheerleaders, humiliated by the jocks, and pitied by Peter Parker.
²⁷
In her frustration, she runs away and discovers she has superstrength and can fly, but she is still thoroughly unsatisfied. Describing her early superheroing, Jessica says she tried it “for about a week. And it wasn’t a good week. It was an angry week. But I kept telling myself. There’s people in need. People causing trouble. That was the excuse but really . . . I just wanted to hit things.”
²⁸
Years later, she gives up the “superhero game” and becomes a private detective.

Jessica seems to be perpetually looking for
eudaimonia.
More so than probably any Marvel character, she is a loner. Her fundamental repulsion at being a superhero makes it seem unlikely that she would need to be an Avenger. But like her friend Carol Danvers, she is miserable when she is
not
an Avenger. She drinks excessively, has meaningless trysts (repeatedly), uses foul language, and smokes like a chimney. There is no
eudaimonia.
She even yells at Carol when she urges Jessica to take on a case.
²⁹
Despite her outburst, she knows that Carol is her friend. This is why Jessica, who trusts no one, can tell Carol about her one-night stand with Luke Cage (a former and future Avenger). Ironically, when Carol tells her that Luke is a “cape chaser” (dates only superheroines), she tries to set Jessica up with Scott Lang, a former Ant-Man.
³⁰
In other words, although Carol criticizes Luke for only dating heroes, Jessica seems trapped in the same pattern—and not only “capes” but Avengers in particular.

In the series
The Pulse
, Jessica is already pregnant with Luke’s child, and many of her fellow Avengers pitch in to help. Carol organizes a lunch with Jessica and Sue Richards (the Invisible Woman) because Jessica is worried about what her kid will be like, having two superheroes for parents.
³¹
Sue, also a former Avenger, allays Jessica’s fears by telling her about the two kids she and Mr. Fantastic have. Later, Carol takes Jessica and Luke to the design studio of founding Avenger Janet van Dyne (the Wasp) to help Luke find a new superhero outfit.
³²
When Jessica’s water breaks, Carol flies her to the hospital, and when Luke can’t get to the hospital because of heavy traffic, Jan issues the call, “Avengers Assemble!”
³³
In their moment of human need, Jessica and Luke, both fiercely independent, get a little help from their friends—all of them Avengers.

Later, the woman in charge of the hospital insists on getting Jessica out of the hospital because “we cannot give birth to whatever she has in there! We don’t know what kind of mutant is going to come out! She could give birth to an atomic bomb or—or a poison!!”
³⁴
When she suggests sending Jessica to the Baxter Building or S.H.I.E.L.D., she is interrupted by Captain America, who says, “That won’t be necessary. . . . We’ll take her.”
³⁵
Cap, surrounded by the New Avengers, takes her to the house of Doctor Strange, a former Avenger, to give birth. During the birth, Ms. Marvel is right next to her, holding a cloth to her head.
³⁶
While the paparazzi wait outside, powerless journalist Ben Urich wonders, “What about the person behind the mask . . . who needs help and friends and love just like the rest of us . . . Who will be there to help them when things don’t go their way? When tragedy strikes?”
³⁷
As if the point needed further clarification, Urich’s narration is matched with images of Luke, Cap, Spidey, Spider-Woman, and Iron Man.

Together with Luke and a baby girl, Jessica becomes less dark; she’s even happy at times. Interrupting her wedding to Luke, she inserts her own vows, telling him:

I truly believe that together we are so much better than we are apart . . . I don’t get lost in my own head like I used to. This world is a scary place. You being an Avenger—it’s so . . . scary. Every day there’s some idiot in our face trying to ruin it. And ever since we got together, I just haven’t cared.
³⁸

This is an incredible statement from the (formerly) self-loathing Jessica Jones, the one who looks down on the superhero lifestyle. Being part of the Avenger community—best friends with the leader, marrying another, and a former Avenger herself—she finds
philia.
In her wedding photo, Jessica beams in the midst of the New Avengers, clearly among her own and, most important, having found her
eudaimonia.
³⁹
In fact, when Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is captured, and Luke is still recovering, Jessica joins Spider-Woman, Mockingbird, and Ms. Marvel to do battle as an Avenger again.
⁴⁰

The Original Irredeemable Ant-Man

I . . . stopped trying to figure out the Pyms a long time ago. I’m pretty sure they . . . drove me to drink in the first place.

—Tony Stark
⁴¹

Over the last five decades, Henry (Hank) Pym has become one of Marvel’s most flawed, and repulsive, heroes. When he first appeared in
Tales to Astonish
, volume 1, #27, in January 1962, he decided that his serums were “far too dangerous to ever be used by any human again!”
⁴²
Nonetheless he returned eight issues later because “so great a discovery must not melt into nothingness!”
⁴³
And indeed, Pym has been a character conflicted between doing the right thing and pursuing his science even when it consistently leads to disastrous results, such as physically abusing his wife, Janet van Dyne, or endangering the team in his poorly concocted efforts to get himself invited back into the Avengers after he was expelled.
⁴⁴

After one such screwup, Tigra calls him a “rat” and tells Jarvis that she is happy to see him gone. Ever the voice of wisdom, Jarvis cautions Tigra—and the reader—about being too judgmental. Although, in the words of Captain America, Pym is guilty of “misconduct before the enemy,” Jarvis says, “He is a hero! Men are fallible—even heroes.”
⁴⁵
When Pym tries to apologize to Jan, she tells him, “I pity you. . . . You’re a deeply troubled man! You need help!”
⁴⁶
Eventually, he is reinstated, first as an adviser and then as a member of the West Coast Avengers.
⁴⁷
In that capacity, he dates Tigra—yes, the same Tigra—contemplates suicide, and eventually gets back together with Jan (for the umpteenth time). Though she is beautiful, heroic, and an Avenger, Tigra is not Jan, the love of his life and the woman with whom he cofounded the Avengers. As with Carol and Jessica, Hank’s
eudaimonia
is accomplished by being an Avenger and being
with
the Avengers, especially Jan.

Hank’s latest reconciliation with the Avengers comes when Hercules and Amadeus Cho want to reconvene a new team of Avengers after Norman Osborn forms his own Avengers team (known to comics fans as the Dark Avengers).
⁴⁸
They find Jarvis and he tells them, “There’s only one man I can think of . . . to lead a team of new Avengers”: Hank Pym.
⁴⁹
Pym, at this point, is not Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, or Yellowjacket, but the Wasp (an identity he takes in honor of his now deceased former wife). When Jarvis tells him, “There has come a day, sir, unlike any other, where earth’s mightiest heroes must unite against a common threat,” Pym interrupts him with, “Stop. The Avengers’ oath, Jarvis. That won’t work on me. Who do you think wrote it into the charter?”
⁵⁰
Unfortunately, he is still Hank Pym, arrogant and self-centered. Previously he concocted all sorts of schemes (which backfired) to get back into the Avengers. Now, when they call him, he says, “I’m flattered. But I’m in the middle of something. And really? Me? There has to be someone else out there. Some other superhero.”
⁵¹

But as much as Hank is shirking his responsibility to save the world, he remains a sympathetic character. He tells the others that he is and has always been afraid of leading the Avengers. At first he felt that he could not “measure up” to Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man, until he came up with the plan that stopped Loki during their first adventure together. “That’s when I realized what I brought to the table . . . I, Henry Pym, was the smartest man in the room. And whether the others realized it or not, I was their leader.”
⁵²
But he could not control the Giant Man serum, and one day he realized Tony Stark was Iron Man. “Next to him . . . I was less than nothing. And far from the smartest man in the room.”
⁵³

Appropriately enough, in the next issue Iron Man humiliates Pym and tells him that he is taking over, to which Pym replies, “You can take over from here? You? Tony Stark? Mister fought-against-Cap-in-the-Civil-War. Shot-Hulk-into-space-and-caused-World-War-Hulk. Gave-the-Skrulls-everything-they-needed-to invade-Earth. You’re taking over? Give me one good reason why.” Stark responds, simply, “Three words . . . You’re Hank Pym.”
⁵⁴
Pym stands down, but when he hears about some of Stark’s recklessness while he was away (kidnapped by Skrulls), he begins to reconsider. When Pym takes on Chthon, the latter says, “It appears the only thing greater than how much the people of this world believe in me is how little they believe in you?” Pym says, “Well, y’know what? Screw all you! I don’t care if any of you believe in me. I’m Hank Pym and I believe in myself. I’ll fix this.”
⁵⁵

Pym ultimately prevails in battle, helped by the Vision and the other Avengers. But the battle also shakes him from his arrogance and victimization. When Hercules says he owes him an apology, Pym says, “No, you did what you thought was right. I could ask no more of any Avenger. As for Iron Man . . . The Tony I knew was better than this. Something’s up with him. He seemed . . . off his game.” Despite having the opportunity to critique the man who humiliated him, Pym defends him, showing the sort of
arête
that we would not have thought possible of him, while also being a pillar of virtue for his fellow, Iron Man, as Aristotle would have hoped. When Pym flies after Tony, Tony says, “So. You’re calling yourself the Wasp? And you’re going to lead a new team? Those are big shoes to fill, Hank. Three words of advice. Don’t screw up.”
⁵⁶
Not exactly heartwarming stuff, but Tony recognizes Pym’s
arête
and accepts him as a fellow Avenger and a leader of a new Avengers group.

Neither Gods nor Beasts But Political Animals

“Superheroes . . . do not fit into the societies that they protect,” which is why their personal lives are both important and incomplete.
⁵⁷
In this chapter, we analyzed the way in which three Avengers’ search for fulfillment (
eudaimonia
) involved their fellowship (
philia
) and practice of excellence (
arête
) within the community of the Avengers. Importantly, Ms. Marvel, Jessica Jones, and Hank Pym all languished in terms of morale, and at times morality, outside the Avengers. Finding their
eudaimonia
required the
philia
and the opportunities for
arête
made possible by lives intertwined with Avengerness, even if they periodically leave or get thrown out of the Avengers. It is noteworthy that the most self-loathing superhero, Jessica Jones, and the most repulsive superhero, Hank Pym, often return to the center of Avenger life and never leave its periphery. So, to update Aristotle, the Avengers have both gods and beasts, but even they are not self-sufficient; they need the
polis
in order to attain
eudaimonia.
⁵⁸