Warning! Spoilers for Heroes Reborn #5!
In Marvel’s altered Heroes Reborn reality, their version of The Dark Knight called Nighthawk just revealed why both he and Batman are such brutal heroes in their respective lines of work. And to think, it’s all due to a little bit of understanding when it comes to the criminal element they all too happily rail against every night.
Revealed in the opening pages of Heroes Reborn #5, the first story titled, “The Pageant of the Masters of Nocturnal Artistry” by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera, shows Nighthawk in his element as he takes down a different version of Kraven the Hunter than what fans are used to. Thinking to himself afterwards about the idea of criminals in general, Nighthawk gives fans an inner look into what heroes such as Batman and Nighthawk really think of the people they fight, and how it affects their work ethics in the long run.
Reflecting over the fact that he’s just trying “to fill that void” that the brokenness inherent to the job and life in general does to people, Nighthawk goes on to describe the criminals he puts away by thinking, “But when I look into their lunatic eyes, what bothers me most isn’t their crimes, however heinous they might be. It’s how deeply I understand their rage.” Succinctly revealing his disgust for the people he fights on a constant basis, Nighthawk is also clear to point out that those feelings go hand in hand with an understanding of who they are at their core as well as what that understanding means for a crime-fighter such as himself.
Going on to link their wicked ways to his own actions by basically saying that he sees himself in them as well as understands their rageful bouts of insanity at a base level, Nighthawk follows this thought up with a bombshell reveal when he says, “And that understanding…makes me punch their sick, grinning faces all the damn harder,” easily making a case as to why both he and his DC doppelgänger of Batman are so brutal in their tactics.
Taking this last line into consideration, the reason for the brutality inherent to these heroes’ shtick stems from the fact that through the understanding of the criminal element, both vigilantes see part of themselves in people that freely allow their rage and lesser instincts to rule their everyday life. Conversely, Batman -- who has always done his best to redeem the villains he fights -- and Nighthawk can’t fully surrender to their own rage, and as they beat down criminal after criminal, they’re essentially beating on themselves because of the understanding that the people they face on a nightly basis aren’t really all that far off from who they are themselves; a terrifying fact for heroes that do whatever they can to not fall to the same rationales as the evil they thwart.
So while Batman and Nighthawk will always do what they can to take out the newest threat, it doesn’t mean they’ll go easy on the criminals and sadists that remind them of themselves. Understanding is the first step in truly knowing a person, and as Nighthawk just admitted, it also happens to make these heroes want to brutally hurt these people even more.