I’ve been reflecting a lot on the article “Hyde the Hero” and as it talked about the Hulk as Hyde, I started thinking about other superheroes that might fit this mold. I’ve also been looking at some critiques on the new Batman movie and the article above came up. In the article, author Julia Métraux asks the question “is Batman/Bruce Wayne just an American version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?” She notes that there is an easy comparison between Dr. Jekyll with Bruce Wayne who are both wealthy men, but that their alter egos are written as polar opposites to each other. One of the main points of contention is that Mr. Hyde is definitively the dark side of Dr. Jekyll, but Batman seems to be a better half Bruce Wayne since the former is a literal superhero. However, Batman can also be seen as somewhat monstrous, it’s just that his need for vengeance drives him to do good instead of evil. An important point that Andreas Reichstein points out in a linked article, “Batman- An American Mr. Hyde?,” is that “In order to draw a clear line between Batman and the other, the evil, the criminal side, the artists have created a certain range of supervillains who are clearly insane and have obviously crossed over the thin line separating possessive fanaticism and absolute evil.” This suggests that there is a figurative line in the sand where monstrosity is neither good nor evil, and the different adaptations of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde seem to bounce back and forth across that line.
