The world lives on without Empathy, and it’s not a pretty place. But what is evil, anyway? Frontier, aka Nina, has an eye-opening conversation with Thunder Woman to find out. Finally, what is the big announcement the Commanders in Crisis have to make to the U.S. and the world? Let’s find out in Commanders in Crisis #6 from Steve Orlando, Davide Tinto, Francesco Carotenuto and Fabio Amelia.
Cori McCreery: Howdy again, Ari, my bud! Sorry I don’t get to talk about violent mice with you, but this is also good.
Ari Bard: Listen, there’s no violent mice, but there is the existential death of intangible ideas and radiosapiens, which is a close second. And hey, in Tom & Jerry there (might?) be empathy, which is more than I can say for Earth-Z, am I right?
The World Without Empathy
CM: The opening of this issue, with the heroes ruminating on what a world without empathy actually means, is really quite powerful stuff. Empathy is an idea, a concept, and even without it, they can still find ways to help others, because they can twist other concepts to their desires.
AB: You are correct, and I will say the conversations Orlando writes between characters in this opening scene are extremely poignant and well thought out. I appreciated Steve’s overall thoughts on Empathy, and I enjoyed reading them. However, I have talked before about how writing empathy is really hard and that very few writers are actually capable of writing someone who is clearly feeling and clearly dramatically affected by someone else’s emotions. It is hard to display empathy’s demonstrable impact. Well, the same is true about a lack of empathy, and I think it shows here. I think the Commanders in Crisis are actually displaying too much empathy when it’s supposed to be dead, and so what’s on the page as far as the characters go actually falls a little flat for me.
CM: I get that, and it totally makes sense. I felt like it works though, because I expect my heroes to be a bit better than a normal person, so I guess I kinda just have this feeling that they’re still holding onto the last shreds of the dead concept, you know?
AB: I do, and that’s reasonable. I think I read this book right now and I see individualism and selfishness, which may come from a place largely void of empathy, but that’s not quite the same. Perhaps it’s unfair that I’m being so particular and maybe my perspective on empathy is too singular, but I am not quite sold on the premise of its death anywhere in this world as much as the rise and triumph of forces that oppose empathy, which isn’t quite the same. What I liked about this scene was that it was built around superheroes having discussions we don’t often get to see during all sorts of moments, whether they be action-filled with Originator, in private between Sawbones and Prizefighter, or in front of the public with Seer. I also loved the idea that Empathy isn’t all there is in the fight for good. It doesn’t mean heroism and love and compassion are also dead. What I didn’t like was the bit with Ignacio spacing out or not being able to listen out of a lack of care for what Prizefighter was saying. It really felt like a cheap bit to me.
CM: Yeah, that I’ll agree with. It felt like Orlando was trying to get the point across about the lack of empathy, but empathy and attention are not the same thing. You can be incredibly attentive to someone and not care one iota about what they’re saying, or you can have a lapse in attention but still care deeply; the two things aren’t tied that closely together. But while Empathy is gone, another concept has joined the fray. What do you think about Inspiration?
AB: That was really interesting, especially as a riff on a number of superheroes combined but namely Wonder Woman. I really like this take on what inspiration can be and how Thunder Woman seems to ideally inspire others by getting them to think of new solutions or see perspectives they haven’t seen before. It fit really well with the discussion they were having, which contemplated what the essence of evil really is. What’d you think about that, Cori?
‘What Is Evil?’
CM: On the one hand, I like how thoughtful this approach is, that evil is subjective, and that some things that people see as evil are actually just destructive forces or misunderstandings. I think the example within the story here was a really great one, where both sides saw the other as evil, but neither was completely in the right nor completely in the wrong. But I also have to point out that while there are subjective evils, there also are objective evils. There are ideals and people who are just monstrous, monstrous examples of evil, and there’s no subjective lense that will allow you to frame it otherwise. What did you think of this sequence?
AB: I’d have to agree. I think the discussion was nice, but overall this may simply be a symptom of the issue trying to do too much. In many ways, it’s a symptom of some of the more traditional superhero comics we see where creative teams need to fit so much into a limited number of pages and there isn’t a lot of room left for nuance when so many scenes and conversations need to be had. Nevertheless, I think it gave Nina the perspective and hope she needed, and I’m excited to see what she does with it.
A Big Announcement
CM: Well, the rest of the Commanders have made their own decision, and it’s one that might shift the whole status quo of the book in a different direction. They’ve all come to the determination that the best path forward is one of honesty and integrity, two ideals that don’t need Empathy to get by. What do you make of their decision to announce to the world that not only does the multiverse exist, but the current state of if?
AB: I have to be honest, when they were talking I was under the impression that they might forgive Nina and then do something like this, but it seems we’re not there quite yet. As far as this announcement goes, however, it’s a bold move. It’s also very interesting how much their personal experiences as president are informing this decision. Either way, I’m all for disrupting the status quo, so I’m interested to see what happens.
CM: Before we close on this chapter, I do want to mention the little bit of Executrix’s backstory that we got, and how she seems to have captured and put in stasis almost every other version of herself throughout the multiverse except for the Nina that led the Commanders. It’s a fun concept with a villainous version of a character specifically seeking out all of her heroic counterparts to disable them first.
AB: Yeah, I really enjoyed that bit, and it added some depth to a villain who hasn’t really been fleshed out yet.
Originator’s vocab list:
- Chronodilativepsychodeevolution
- Feminoveloinspirationism
- Ideacorporevivexposition
- Empathorecidivism
- Novemonanism
- Radiocorporeasapientia
Yes, it's Cori McCreery—strange visitor from DC fandom who came to Xavier Files with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal critics. Cori, who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, race a speeding bullet to its target, bend steel in her bare hands, and who, also works as an editor for a great Eisner winning website, Women Write About Comics, fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice.
Ari Bard is a huge comic fan studying Mechanical Engineering so he can finally figure out how the Batmobile works.
