From Anti-Hero to Super Douche: How the Protagonist is Changing

Remember back in the late 80s and early 90s where it become suddenly cool to have an anti-hero? Punisher, Cable, Wolverine, Batman, Lobo, and scores of others began to fall into various demarcations of bad-assery and the fans were eating it up. At the end of the day, if the protagonist had a good heart, what did it matter if he or she killed a few people or participated in some less-than-ethical behavior?

I agree. Trends nearly suck all the time, and it appears "douchery" might just be the next best (worst) thing.

I like the "I'm the good guy, but I'll shoot the bad guy in the face" attitude for anti-heroes. Or "I have good intentions. I'm just not a boyscout and I'll do bad things to do good things. End justifies the means and all that..."

I like the arrogant, F everything attitude.

"Remember back in the late 80s and early 90s where it become suddenly cool to have an anti-hero? Punisher, Cable, Wolverine, Batman, Lobo, and scores of others began to fall into various demarcations of bad-assery and the fans were eating it up. At the end of the day, if the protagonist had a good heart, what did it matter if he or she killed a few people or participated in some less-than-ethical behavior?

But recently, I've begun to see a new trend that I'm particularly nonplussed about: flippant and brazen disregard aka super-douche behavior. Case and point--Jack of Fables (also, John Colby from Chew, and, to a lesser degree, Deadpool). Now, I ADORE the Fables series; I own everything that has been put out by Vertigo with the Fables name attached (even the book of cover art). However, I never enjoyed the character of Jack Horner solely because of his devil may care, F*** the world attitude. Now, being a character that is bristling over with machismo and testosterone is one thing--I like Bigby Wolf, Wolverine, etc--but being "That Guy"--the person that cares nothing about any other human being, has no common curtesy, and expects the world to cow to whatever demands are made of it ("and you best say please and thank you while doing it") is another matter entirely.

Let's call a spade a spade, shall we? This behavior is nothing but the masculine form of prima donna-ism. It is childish, foolish, and unappealing. If I wanted to see a d-bag use people and throw them away, I could just go visit my own dad. This behavior is supposed to be reserved for villains, not heroes. Your thoughts?

"

Good does not have to be nice, but that doesn't condone being a dick to everyone.  It is a disturbing trend to say the least.  I will take my Captain America and Thor with a touch of Punisher, thank you very much.

Douches are taking over the world I blame MTV

Douches are taking over the world I blame MTV

@Roy_G_Bamf: 
You hit on something that is total about one thing. Sales figure. for some reason Douche bag culture sale. it has alot to do with the way people are today no one gives a damn about anyone else.

what caused it well besides MTv, the it okay to hate arabic people thing, this false fox news patriotism, you guy don't have all day, ohh a generation on now parents who saw "Wall Street" their Mid 20's and total got the idea that Gordon was a hero!  i'll stop because  you can see where i am going

@KenTheProfile: I totally agree with you. The current culture is backward, so I guess that we can't blame the comic companies for trying to meet the demand of the culture. I tend to forget that sometimes.

if every one was supergood boyscout heroes I prob wouldn't read comic much, its realistic to have anti-heroes and dicks

                    @KenTheProfile: I believe the over emphasis on self esteem is a huge part of the d-bag culture going on right now, people should teach their kids that they aren't the center of the universe, no people shouldn't run their kids down but they should give them some sense of reality.