This Comic Book Isn’t Entertaining Anymore

(when real life takes a dark turn)

All good writers and actors know that villains must possess at least an ounce of goodness. The audience has to perceive that goodness to believe evil characters are real. The same goes for heroes. We must be able to detect a spec of darkness within them. It may only manifest as indecision or doubt. It may be a pause that lasts just a little too long before our hero resists temptation. Without these inner contradictions both heroes and villains would come across as two-dimensional comic book characters instead of the fully realized characters they are meant to be.

Out here in the real world, we all have both darkness and light. We all also choose which one will guide us regardless of its size. Life up until today felt as if we were living in a movie where too many of the villains were keeping their little bit of goodness deep in their pocket so surrounded by lint that it couldn’t breathe.

Suddenly we seem to be living in some kind of 1940s comic book or propaganda brochure. One devoid of color and filled with darkness. I strongly suspect the main characters have turned out their pockets and stomped on their little bits of goodness rendering them incapable of ever rising again.

It’s scary shit. It feels big because it is. But we still have our light. We still have our goodness. It’s okay to be scared even as we continue to shine our lights. It’s okay to be afraid of what we have to get through to arrive at a place where the darkness no longer has so much power.

Darkness fears light because darkness masquerades as light. It claims to be the way. The truth. That story doesn’t belong to darkness. So now our job is to continue to shine. Even if our hands shake as we hold up our lights.

Cinse Bonino
2025