Why the World Still Needs Heroes.

A popular trope in stories suggests that the presence of heroes causes villains to emerge—that extraordinary good invites extraordinary evil in response. This "escalation" narrative, seen in works like The Dark Knight, implies that if heroes never rose up, the villains might never have either.

But this flips the natural order and presumes a much kinder world than the one we all live in.

In the wild, predators exist whether or not there's something to stop them. Lions don’t stalk gazelles because the gazelles learned to run. Wolves don’t hunt sheep because there are shepherds. Predators exist because the world is dangerous and survival often depends on strength, cunning, and brutality. And that is exactly why defenses—whether it’s camouflage, horns, or herders—evolve in response.

Villains, in the same sense, don’t arise because heroes wear masks. They arise because the potential for destruction exists within human nature, technology, and unchecked power. It only takes one determined individual with enough cruelty or genius or staggering stupidity to bring cities—or civilizations—to their knees (cough Orange man with the combover bad cough). And just as the natural world responds to predators with protective adaptations, a society under threat needs protectors: individuals capable of matching or outpacing the danger.

Heroes are not the cause of chaos, but a response to it. They are not escalation, but evolution—a moral and practical necessity in a world where villains, like predators, will always find a way to survive. Their very existence acknowledges a truth we often try to ignore: the monsters are already here, and they don’t wait politely for balance.

The question isn't whether superheroes invite evil, but whether we can afford to face evil without them. Short answer: We can't.

Deconstruction to dissect a myth can make for an interesting one-off story, but only archetypal truths can carry the weight of the world.