In Civil War we find the organization of heroes called the Avengers at odds over how to react to a tragedy where a band of third-tier superheroes filming a reality television show try to capture an escaped cadre of villains above their pay grade. In order to avoid capture, the villain Nitro blows himself up (he can put himself back together so for him this is no big deal). The collateral damage was an elementary school where 800–900 people may have been killed.11 This begins a serious discussion of whether to register superheroes with the government. After being confronted at a funeral by the mother of one of the children killed, Tony Stark begins to rally the troops to the side of registration. Meanwhile, Captain America is ordered to help handle any supers who refuse to adhere to government orders to register. Believing that such governmental interference would lead to politicians holding puppet strings over heroes, Captain America goes underground, rallying troops to his cause.12 A few attempts are made at civil discourse but they fail spectacularly. What we’re dealing with here is a failure to communicate.
So, let’s set up the teams. In one corner, we have Captain America, who doesn’t want to be told how to defend people. In the other corner, Iron Man thinks it’s a good idea to install a system of accountability. Each hero believes he is in the right and is ready to fight the other to prove it. In one climactic scene, a fight breaks out and the hero Goliath is killed. This ends any chance of reconciliation between the two sides. However, prior to this event, readers expect some diplomatic solution that never comes. The fighting is suboptimal. Not only is Goliath dead but a great fissure runs through the hero community. Because they are fighting each other, as Spider-Man correctly notes, it is only the bad guys who win. The fighting makes no one better off and actually makes a lot of people worse off. This sounds like a similar situation to that of the two guys sitting in separate jail cells trying to decide if they should become snitches for the cops.
In the game matrix shown in Figure 4.2, we can see what happens as the two groups make war. The two rows are Captain America’s two strategic options, fight or talk it out, and the two columns are Iron Man’s alternatives, fight or talk it out. In the payoff cells, Cap’s payoffs are underlined. If they sit down and hash things out peaceably, assuming each side negotiates in good faith, it is reasonable to presume that both sides get something they want and no one gets hurt. It isn’t a perfect solution for either side but that’s what happens in a compromise. In this case, we find the heroes in the southeast box where both Captain America and Iron Man receive payoffs of 10.
Figure 4.2. The Avenger’s Dilemma.
If they go to war, they both get a payoff of 2 as shown in the northwest box. Call it comic book machismo but engaging in a fight yields some positive benefit for the combatants (except Goliath of course, because he’s dead). Where the dilemma comes into play, just like for the two jailbirds, is in the northeast and southwest boxes. These “off diagonals” show that by backing down in the face of a fight, the loser gets nothing. The principles they stand for are lost and they don’t even get to throw a punch! This occurs for Cap if he chooses to talk it out while Iron Man fights, as demonstrated in the southwest box. Here Cap gets 0 while Iron Man gets 15. It occurs for Iron Man if he chooses to talk it out while Captain America fights, as demonstrated in the northeast box, where Iron Man gets 0 and Cap gets 15. Following the logic of the prisoner’s dilemma, each party has a dominant strategy. No matter what the other hero chooses, the largest payoff for both heroes individually is to fight. If both heroes follow their dominant strategy, that puts the game in the northwest box, with a payoff of 2 for each. In other words, the Avengers (and other heroes in the Marvel universe) end up in a civil war rather than détente. The joint payoff could have been 20 (each side receives a payoff of 10 if they negotiate), but instead the joint payoff is 4 (each gets 2 for fighting). What we have here is not only a failure to communicate, but also a prisoner’s dilemma, not between thieves but between heroes.
As fans of these characters, we are used to seeing them fight. It happens a lot, but the extent to which Civil War and other large-scale hero against hero battles lead to what can only be considered bloodletting is shocking. But that’s what you get with a prisoner’s dilemma. In the comic, it is only when Captain America realizes the damage the civil war is causing to the civilians he had sworn to protect that he surrenders to authorities and the war ends. Otherwise, the two sides might still be following their dominant strategies.
And the Answer Is …
Curiously, superheroes, despite their attitudes of being above the fray and their attempts to maintain peace, will often fight each other. Sometimes this is conducted within the scope of group rivalries. The Avengers and the X-Men battle occasionally but the more familiar fights occur within teams or between famous heroes. Any fighting amongst themselves seems oddly out of character, but employing game theory in general, and the prisoner’s dilemma in particular, helps us to explain these uncharacteristically personal battles.13
People often engage in actions that are harmful. Only in hindsight do they realize that their strategies were poor, and comic book heroes are no different. Game theory can explain seemingly irrational behavior because it allows us to consider multiple strategies and how the players will react to each other. This interdependence isn’t part and parcel of most economic models, but that doesn’t mean that every scenario we face is a candidate for a game theoretic explanation. In fact, most of the time basic economic theory works quite well at predicting outcomes of events, but in some cases we need to dig deeper into the economic tool bag to understand hero behavior.
Endnotes
1. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart used this as a threshold for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964. The case revolved around the question of whether the state of Ohio had the right to ban a movie called The Lovers and remain in compliance with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Justice Stewart said that the First Amendment allowed all pornography except the hardcore variety. When asked to explain what constitutes hardcore porn, he replied “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that” (Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964).
2. Plastic Man’s powers were gained in a hardscrabble way however, as he had to fall into a vat of experimental acid and lived with monks in the mountains for a few months while he recovered.
3. If this sounds familiar, it is because this material forms the basis for the movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
4. In the good ole days before cable television, cartoons would appear on network television for a few hours after school and for a few hours on Saturday morning.
5. Yes, I know there is no “ugh” in skullduggery, but there is an “ugh” sound so if you read it aloud this sentence works rather well.
6. Pervading the Marvel universe, Hydra is the ultra-secretive terrorist organization with Nazi roots against which Captain America has fought nearly his entire existence.
7. Walk through a casino some time and look at the slots players. Most of them are zombies. No, really. The mindlessness of what they are doing has sucked out their brains, their souls, and everything that makes them human.
8. As an example of this, Lisa and Bart Simpson play rock-paper-scissors to determine which of their names will go first on a script they have written. Lisa knows she will win because “poor predictable Bart. Always takes rock.” While Bart is thinking “Good ole rock. Nothing beats that!” (Simpsons, 1993).
9. After studying the moves of goal tenders and players in soccer, Chiappori et al. (2002) show that the actions of these competitors, who study each other’s moves and upon whom there are hundreds, if not thousands, of instances of taking and trying to block kicks, are closer to a randomized strategy than almost any academic exercise. Similarly, Walker and Wooders (2001) demonstrate that te
nnis players must have some randomness to their strategy on the serve. If they continue to serve to their opponents forehand, no matter how good the serve is the opponent will beat them. These studies, along with one conducted by Palacios-Huerta (2003), demonstrate that randomness in adopting strategies is important in sports, primarily because of the many, many repeated interactions amongst players. At the professional level of sport, it is the expected randomness that allows economists to predict strategy—a random strategy. That may sound odd but all that means is that rather than focus on a strategy over and over again, in sports you must mix things up. In professional baseball, the pitcher who throws nothing but fastballs will not be a pro for long because the hitter always knows what is coming. If you take your penalty kicks low and to the left every time, goalies will stop you enough that you won’t get a chance to take penalties often.
10. To support my contention, critics on the website Rotten Tomatoes (n.d.) ranked the film at 27%, while audiences gave it a barely passing grade of 63%.
11. In the movie the events that lead to the attempt to register superheroes is the devastation of the fictional country Sokovia in a battle with the villain Ultron, and the death of some Wakandian aid workers in an attempt to avert a biological weapon attack.
12. In the movie, the main combatants include Captain America, Hawkeye, Falcon, Bucky Barnes, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man squaring off against Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther, The Vision, and Spider-Man. The comic book version of this story involves many other heroes and different alliances.
13. For more on heroes and game theory see O’Roark and Grant (2018).
References
Bendis, B. and Gaydos, M. (2003). Alias, #25. Marvel Comics.
Buccellato, B. and Miller, M. (2015). Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Four, #9. DC Comics.
Chiappori, P., Levitt, S., and Groseclose, T. (2002). Testing Mixed-Strategy Equilibrium When Players Are Heterogeneous: The Case of Penalty Kicks in Soccer. American Economic Review, 92(4), pp. 1138–51.
Claremont, C. and Cockrum, D. (1975). X-Men, #96. Marvel Comics.
Englehart, S. and Dillin, D. (1977). Justice League, #143. DC Comics.
Jacobellis v. Ohio. [1964]. 378 U.S. 184 (Supreme Court of the United States); 1.
Lee, S. and Kirby, J. (1964). Fantastic Four, #25. Marvel Comics.
Miller, F. (2016). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, 30th Anniversary Edition. Burbank, CA: DC Comics.
Moore, A., Bolland, B., and Higgins, J. (1988). The Killing Joke. DC Comics.
O’Roark, B. and Grant, B. (2018). Games Superheroes Play: Teaching Game Theory with Comic Book Favorites. Journal of Economic Education, 49(2), pp. 180–93.
Palacios-Huerta, I. (2003). Professionals Play Minimax. Review of Economic Studies, 70(2), pp. 395–415.
Rucka, G., Derenick, T., Jeanty, G., Kershl, K., Lopez, D., and Morales, R. (2005). Wonder Woman, #219. DC Comics.
Simpsons. (1993). [Television series episode]. The Front. Culver City, CA: Rich Moore.
Spencer, N. and McNiven, S. (2017). Secret Empire, #1. Marvel Comics.
Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. [Online] Available at https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice#audience_reviews [Accessed August 20, 2018].
Taylor, R., Raapack, J., and Miller, M. (2016). Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One, The Complete Collection. Burbank, CA: DC Comics.
Tomasi, P., Mahnke, D., and Benes, E. (2015). Superman/Wonder Woman, #17. DC Comics.
Walker, M. and Wooders, J. (2001). Minimax Play at Wimbledon. American Economic Review, 91(5), pp. 1521–38.
Weldon, G. (2016). Superheroes are fighting each other because they always have. Here’s Why. [Online] Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2016/06/21/superhero-fights/#Xs2D339kUOqo [Accessed April 4, 2018].
5
Don’t Give Up Your Day Job. Why Do Superheroes Go to Work?
Since the advent of money, people have wondered how they can transform what they have into something spendable. Economists investigate how the skill, education, experience, or other non-tangible attributes a person brings to a task, what we call human capital, can improve one’s earning potential. They also pay close attention to income disparities. They debate such things as whether raising the minimum wage might help lift people out of poverty and whether cycles of poverty can be overcome. Despite their cold-hearted reputations, economists really do care about the well-being of all people, not just the rich. This means our deep-seated concern must extend to superheroes because, despite their varied talents, there isn’t one of them called Money Man. Money Man’s power would be shooting money out of his fingers. He would never be short of cash. He’d always pick up the bill for the team and he would almost certainly be an excellent tipper. Alas, he doesn’t exist.
It is possible to imagine that if Aquaman walked into the corner tavern for chowder and fries or if Dr. Strange floated into a diner and asked for a milkshake, someone might offer to pick up the tab. After a while however, perhaps in one of those dark times where the general populace doesn’t trust the hero world, Aquaman is going to have to pay for his own dinner. If he can’t find a bank to convert the currency of Atlantis to dollars, he’s going to end up doing dishes. Dr Strange burned through all of his money trying to fix his hands. If Aquaman asks him for a loan, he isn’t going to get much help. What’s a hero down on his luck to do? Well, they could behave like the rest of us and get a job.
In economics we talk about improving human capital to raise your earning potential so that you can not only afford rent and meals, but also start paying back that mountain of student debt you acquired while building the human capital. Heroes have had human capital bestowed on them in spades. Other than Squirrel Girl and Firestar, both of whom are or were attending college and probably paying tuition, there aren’t any significant heroes who built their human capital through the traditional, expensive higher education system. Squirrel Girl isn’t adding to her superpowers by attending classes, she just wants to learn about a lot of things. Firestar studied physics and got a job at the Jean Grey School.1
With superheroes, we have a segment of the population who possess a unique set of skills that should be able to make them enormously wealthy. If nothing else, they could become professional athletes. A team of baseball players with Flash leading off, Black Panther at shortstop, and She-Hulk batting cleanup would make the 1927 New York Yankees look like a little league team,2 and those same Yankees would pay hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to acquire that talent. Superman would be the first billion-dollar player. It isn’t like heroes can’t play sports. The X-Men regularly get together for a baseball game. Victor Stone, prior to becoming Cyborg, was a division one football prospect who now literally has a rocket for an arm. There are certainly ways that these heroes could employ their skills, even below the radar, to become rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
Yes, there are some characters who seem to be unburdened by the mundane concerns of subsistence. Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen are famously trust fund babies. Danny Rand is the heir to Rand Enterprises, a multi-billion-dollar company. Professor Xavier is sitting on a pile of cash as a result of a financially successful father. How else can he afford to keep his School for the Gifted open and provide an SRS Blackbird for them to fly around in?3 Black Panther, being the king of the nation of Wakanda which holds the world’s only known reserves of a metal called vibranium, is a multi-trillionaire.4 Those in the god category presumably have stocks of wealth—Thor, for instance, doesn’t seem to be hurting for a little spending money now and then. Other characters are self-starters and were making a name for themselves even without powers. Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Emma Frost, and Adrian Veidt have made vast fortunes on their own.5 This wealth was all created without the aid of superpowers.
What is curious about the hero world isn’t how many rich people inhabit it, but rather how many poor ones do. Sure, it is expected that prior to attaining
their status as defender of the weak, some of these people were weak and powerless themselves. Some were barely scraping by. After Peter Parker’s uncle died, his Aunt May had to go into debt to pay the rent. Luke Cage was in jail preceding his elevation to Power Man. Silver Surfer was a slave for centuries so he’s got no savings account to fall back on.
Others were doing OK but then their powers caused them to lose it all. The best example of this is Bruce Banner who, after becoming the Hulk, decided to give up his career as a scientist for fear of destroying everything and everyone with whom he came into contact. To avoid the rage-inducing features of a nine-to-five job, such as rush hour traffic and requests to work weekends, Banner removed himself from society. Jessica Jones got her powers as a result of an accident that killed her family (Bendis and Gaydos, 2001). This left her traumatized and after a brief stint as a hero she retired from that business, believing she could not live up to the expectations. Her career as a private investigator has not brought her riches and at one point Jessica notes that she is so poor she has ramen noodles coming out of her nose (Bendis and Gaydos, 2002).
So, what’s the deal here? Why aren’t heroes using their powers for the time-honored tradition of enriching themselves? At the very least they could form the best circus ever. They could be tremendously entertaining and consumers would pay loads of money to watch them. Hiring Zatanna as a consultant couldn’t hurt.6 She’s been performing on stage for years and seems to be set financially.
The thing is, in the few instances where heroes try to charge for their services there is a palpable uncomfortableness. In the Justice League #0 (Johns and Frank, 2011), we are provided with the backstory of Shazam. Young Billy Batson is granted magical powers by a mysterious wizard. Uttering the magic word—yes, you guessed it “Shazam”—Billy is transformed into a hero with the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, etc., etc., etc.7 When he first gains these powers, Billy and his foster brother Freddy run around town doing all kinds of things. Shazam is big and tall, which opens doors for the young teens. However, Shazam is drawn to people who need help. In one of these instances Billy stops a purse thief. The woman whose purse was saved offers him $20, more money than Billy has ever seen. Chagrined, he takes the money and he and Freddy go on a minor spending spree. Freddy believes they have hit on a money-making scheme, but the artwork shows a look on Billy’s face that makes the reader think Billy knows this is wrong.
Why Superman Doesn't Take Over the World Page 11
