So you're minding your own business one day in your science lab when suddenly you're bitten
by a radioactive spider while being bombarded by gamma rays just as you inherit several
billion dollars worth of advanced robotic war suits- congratulations, you and your newfound
superpowers, and superwealth, officially qualify to join one of the most elite evil-fighting
groups in the universe: the Avengers.
But pump the brakes for a second there hot shot, because while being a superhero may
seem like an easy win-win, there's actually a great deal of reasons you may want to turn
that membership down and go back to living the life of an average joe.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're going to walk
you though why being an Avenger would suck.
There's No I In Team
First and foremost, you can forget about going solo.
You're part of Earth's most elite group of defend- err, we mean Avengers- so now you're
going to have to start acting like it.
That means no more solo excursions.
Got some past grudges to settle, tough luck because you're going to have to run all of
your superhero'ing past the rest of the group.
As part of an elite organization of superpower-wielding bad asses, your life will be no different
than an employee at a large, prestigious company- you now officially represent the team's 'brand'
everywhere you go, which means if you want to do ANYTHING on your own, you better get
approval from the rest of the organization first.
The Avengers are a scary thing for most people, on a good day they are protecting the people
of earth, but on a bad day the Hulk is out rampaging and smashing millions of dollars
of houses and vehicles.
This can make the public jittery about the presence of this superpowered group, and so
as not to raise the public's ire, you can no longer engage in any behavior which is
off-brand for the Avengers.
That means a strict code of conduct and ethics both which must be adhered to at all times,
and absolutely no going off and doing anything remotely non-Avenger'ish, including settling
old grudges.
In fact your new life is going to mostly revolve around the team, including your free time.
If you like taking off on the weekends for long walks in nature to blow steam off and
clear your head, you'd better find a new hobby.
You're not just an Avenger now, you're a huge target for a staggering number of superpowered
baddies who all very much want to destroy you and your team- so you can't give them
a single opportunity to do so!
That means no splitting up, leaving yourself vulnerable to getting captured or killed,
or putting the rest of the team in a bind should an emergency arise.
In the movies it might be all fine and well for the group to get all emo and split off
on soul-searching excursions, but in real life all that'd be doing is letting supervillians
lay traps to capture each individual member when they are at their weakest: alone.
The real Avengers would have to stick together constantly in order to avoid being overpowered
and destroyed one by one, which brings us to the next reason why it would suck to be
an Avenger...
They're Out To Get You
If you want to be an Avenger, we hope you're ready to deal with ever-constant threats against
your life, because literally everybody is going to be out to get you, all the time.
The Avengers traipse around the world- and sometimes other worlds- putting down evil
threats day in and day out, and all that superhero'ing adds up to a whole lot of very pissed off
supervillians with huge grudges against them.
These villains are going to be plotting their revenges as soon as they are defeated, and
as we've seen in some of the movies those revenges can be quite clever and devastating
indeed- imagine falling into a mastermind revenge plot every single week, because that's
what your life is going to be like the moment you hit a critical mass of pissed off bad
guys.
Returning war often deal with huge amounts of PTSD that can severely affect their personal
lives.
After living for a few months to a few years in a war zone, constantly on the alert, their
nerves are frayed to the point that loud noises can send them into an immediate defensive
or violent posture.
That's not their fault, their brains have simply been trained by experience to constantly
expect the worst, and in their case the worst is a hidden IED or insurgent in civilian clothing
opening fire unexpectedly.
The frayed nerves can make PTSD sufferers break down mentally when triggered, leaving
them in a poor emotional state and sometimes making daily life all but impossible, and
sometimes the symptoms never fade away.
Now imagine engaging in the huge climactic battles the Avengers are called to, literally
all the time.
Your life is in danger constantly from superpowered threats, and you're routinely engaging in
massive displays of violence.
All that mental stress is going to add up to some serious PTSD, but specially when you
consider that then in your day to day life, you have to be afraid of being ambushed by
previous supervillians.
You're living your life constantly looking over your shoulders, afraid of any situation
that begins to seem even slightly out of the ordinary, and asking yourself if every new
person you meet can really be trusted or if they are just a pawn in some super villian's
plan to destroy you and your friends.
Still sound like fun being an Avenger?
Of course you could just kill all of your foes and thus ensure that there's no one left
to seek revenge, but that brings us to our next point on why being an Avenger is terrible...
Paparazzi All The Time, Everywhere
You're an Avenger.
You're the ultimate public persona, champion of earth and superhero dedicated to protecting
the weak.
You're also under the most intense public scrutiny imaginable.
Like we mentioned before, you're a good guy with superpowers, and that makes people feel
safe- but it also scares them, because the greater your powers the greater risk you are
if one day you decide to stop being such a good guy.
The more superpowered deeds you conduct, the more fear will grow of what would happen if
you ever turned against the un-superpowered public.
To keep public paranoia in check, it's going to be important that you abide by the strictest
code of ethics imaginable, you're going to be less super hero, and more super altar boy,
because you can't afford a single lapse in morality or judgment.
So when you're up against your bad guy and ready to defeat him, sure it would be easier
to just smite him into next tuesday and be done with it forever- but remember, people
are going to be watching what you do very carefully.
If you start offing super villains left and right, it might be a pretty prudent, and permanent,
solution to evil doing, but it's also going to start ringing some serious alarm bells
with the public.
And if the public gets scared, eventually that's going to bring the government into
the picture- and you may have super powers, but the government has super billions of dollars
to research and develop ways to defeat and contain you.
Get the public paranoid enough and you just might find yourself locked up in a super-power
proof cage deep in a government detention facility somewhere.
But it's about more than just exercising proper use of force in the middle of a fight, even
if that means taking a serious ass kicking on occasion just so you don't appear like
a mass murderer- it's also about your day to day behavior.
You're a public symbol now and have to appear incorruptible, not just because everyone looks
up to you, but because again, if you don't play the boy scout good enough, the government
is definitely going to be coming after you.
That means giving up all of your vices, because public scrutiny is going to dig into every
inch of your life.
Got an embarrassing internet search history?
You better find a way to permanently delete it before the millions of hackers who all
want to know what the latest super hero is into start hacking into your computer.
Start a new relationship?
You better make sure that you have an ironclad non-disclosure contract in place before a
spurned lover spills the beans about what you're actually like one on one, and what
weird stuff you like to do in bed.
Enjoy occasionally smoking a cigarette?
Forget about it- you're an icon for billions of children around the world now and can't
set a bad example anymore.
You better be ready for legions of fans and paparazzi to follow your every move, and if
you think movie stars have it bad, imagine how much worse the saviors of planet earth
would have it.
Say goodbye to your privacy.
Of course, threat of constant death and no more private life are pretty terrible, but
neither compare with the mental stress of actually having super powers in the first
place...
Can't Save Everybody
We've all seen the commercials- for 32 cents a day you could ensure that a starving child
somewhere has three meals a day.
For just 32 cents you can end the daily misery of an innocent child, relieve the stress and
pain of a poor parent doing everything they can to keep their child fed and healthy.
You'll probably even save that child's life- starvation is a leading cause of death amongst
children in developing nations.
What is 32 cents a day to you in your daily life anyways?
That's barely $10 a month, and you can really make a difference for less than the price
of one fast food meal.
You right now have the superpower to ensure one starving child can be saved from starvation,
yet most people choose not to do that.
If you had real superpowers though, you would gradually become aware of the fact that every
day millions of people suffer or die, and all it would take to stop it is one person
with superpowers to help them.
As you foil evil plot after evil plot, you won't be able to help but grow ever more aware
of just how much misery you could personally end with the most minuscule of efforts.
Stopping a rapist preying on a young child doesn't take nearly the same effort as toppling
Thanos, and yet women and children are raped in staggering numbers every single day.
Innocent people are murdered every day.
The strong prey on the weak, gangs push in on neighborhoods and terrorize local families,
natural disasters strike... the list goes on and on, and you could stop any of these
things from happening.
You could save dozens- hundreds- no thousands of lives, with the least effort.
That mental stress is going to be significant, and as time goes on, it'll only build greater
and greater.
Maybe you do your best though and put in an honest 12 hours a day fighting crime and saving
lives.
What about when you want to take a day off?
Taking a single day off is going to require you to mentally accept the fact that you are
choosing to sit on the couch and play video games while people you could save are dying
or being hurt.
Try going to a movie and relaxing when you know that in the two hours you sat in that
theater, hundreds of people you could've helped suffered needlessly.
What we're saying is that you better have a good shrink, because at first it might seem
fine to just blow off the mental stress, but as time goes on the knowledge of how much
evil you could stop is going to grow heavy indeed.
Consider Superman- with his super senses he can literally hear evil being committed, even
when he's trying to blow off steam after a hard week of crime fighting by going on a
casual date.
Good luck enjoying literally anything ever again.
Would you still like to be an Avenger?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, make sure you check out our other video, YOU vs THANOS - How Could You Defeat Him.
See You Next Time!