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In 1930s America, there was a tendency to romanticize and make folk heroes of the most daring and flamboyant criminals of the day, especially bank robbers. Understanding this is easy. Many people lived in reduced or desperate circumstances. Unlike today, malnutrition and hunger were part of the lives of millions of Americans. Many people lost fortunes in the collapse of the stock market [which did not fully recover value lost in 1929 until 1953.] and others had life savings vanish in bank failures. Bank robbers were perceived as striking blows against a financial system that had failed millions of people, and people thought of them as modern Robin Hoods.
Robin Hood is one of the most enduring and beloved figures in English-speaking legend. His tale has been the subject of retellings in countless books [there is no “original” Robin Hood—the story is just out there], many movies and tv series. “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1955-1960), one of the earliest tv series [143 episodes!] made dealt with Robin’s adventures, and starred Richard Greene.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047706/
Children of the 1950s probably have the lyrics of the theme song memorized somewhere:
Chorus
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen,
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men,
Feared by the bad, loved by the good,
Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Robin Hood!
He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green,
They vowed to help the people of the king,
They handled all the trouble on the English country scene,
And still found plenty of time to sing.
Chorus
While Robin Hood has been the subject of many movies, Errol Flynn’s “Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938) is probably the definitive one, and rare for its time, filmed in color. [url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029843/. [/url] It remains one of the greatest action movies ever made, and is justly much beloved.
Robin Hood is still the subject of novels written today.
Robin Hood was a decent man turned outlaw by an unjust, corrupt system. He and his band of “merry men” plundered the rich and shared their takings with the deserving poor. Robin had ‘inside’ help from the noblewoman Maid Marian. Robin and his companions live simply in the depths of Sherwood Forest, and do not lavish their stolen wealth upon themselves.
In many versions, Robin himself is a nobleman. In most, he is pardoned when the good, just King Richard Lion-Heart returns to England, bringing an end to the excesses and misrule of his wicked brother John.
Historical reality differs, of course. Richard I spent a mere six months of his reign in England, spending the rest of it in places more interesting to him. John could not compete with his dashing brother in terms of popularity, but he was nowhere near as dreadful or incompetent as legend paints him [and Elizabeth II descends from him, not Richard].
Eventually, the conduct of the 1930s gangsters made obvious that they were not latter-day Robin Hoods. They were not lovable rogues; they did not help the poor and were in fact vicious killers who would shoot anyone who got in their way. People began seeing them as the thugs they were, and they ceased to be folk heroes.
The fact that the comparison was ever made speaks to the enduring nature of Robin Hood in human hearts.
Sometimes, Robin appears in slightly different forms. Johnston McCulloch created Zorro in 1919 in the serialized novel “Curse of Capistrano”. Zorro has endured to this day, through countless pulp fiction stories, serials, tv series, and movies. Fireworks produced its own incarnation of Zorro in the series “Queen of Swords”, which like “Mutant X”, was embroiled in lawsuits.
The archetype of the ragged but secretly good and noble man is etched in the minds of anyone familiar with Robin Hood. More recently, this archetype has become that of the ragged but secretly good and noble man opposed by dastardly suits, which was the theme of the long-running 1960s series “The Fugitive”, and of Season 1 “Mutant X” itself.
“Mutant X” tries to use elements found in Robin Hood, Zorro, and the Fugitive, and most fans respond unthinkingly, probably in no small part due to the way the traditional and popular culture has trained us to think. Brennan isn’t Robin Hood, however; most mutants are not oppressed peasants, and the resident Dastardly Suit appears to be head of the only law enforcement agency capable of dealing with malicious or criminal mutants.
Most emphatically, Brennan Mulwray is not Robin Hood. Robin Hood was originally an honest and decent man forced into outlawry. Brennan, in contrast, was a criminal child, who chooses to be a criminal adult. He has no compelling need for large amounts of quick cash, except that he wants material things and he is unwilling to acquire job skills or work regular hours.
Brennan parasitizes people who do work for a living. He does not share his loot with the poor.
At no time in the series does Brennan express remorse or regret for past crimes, but instead defends his past acts by saying he only robbed from people who “deserved” it. When does anyone deserve to be robbed? Who set Brennan up as an authority empowered to pass such judgments? No one did, of course; theft is theft. There is no robbery open season.
So, why does Brennan join the Mutant X team? Is he decided to battle against injustice directed towards mutants?
No. Living in the Zen Hole in the Ground protects him from arrest. Stealing $10 million dollars is not a trivial crime, and since Brennan’s face is doubtless captured on a number of security cameras, there is an active warrant out for his arrest, still in force at the end of the series. Staying underground keeps him fed and sheltered as well.
Brennan is not a reliable member of the “team”. He may conduct himself as a team member, or he may go off on his own, putting others at grave risk, or he may decide that he is in charge, whether or not he is qualified or capable of leading, without considering whether anyone would have any motivation to follow him. Every action he takes is all about Brennan, and no one else.
Had Brennan been sincerely repentant, the character would have evolved from a self-serving, self-absorbed thug towards something better—but this fails to happen, though many imagine that it does. Character development and transition from worthless societal parasite to decent human being would have generated interesting subplots and made Brennan a fascinating character.
But Brennan never repented, never expressed guilt, never made restitution to anyone he victimized. After two years as a member of the Mutant X team, when Adam is presumed dead, Brennan quits and immediately picks the pocket of a stranger when he needs some cash.
No other act so clearly reveals Brennan’s true nature as this theft. Does anyone believe that this is the first wallet Brennan has ever lifted? How did Brennan decide that complete strangers deserved to have their pockets picked? The reality is that Brennan committed his thefts based upon his convenience: easy targets become his prey. It’s no more complicated than this.
Brennan plainly has not changed.
Brennan is not a modern Robin Hood. He is not a hero. He is an opportunistic predator with a pretty face. Fans see no more deeply into the character than Victor Webster’s features when they think about the character, whom they credit with all manner of human qualities that simply are not there. Fans imagine Brennan does feel remorse and does attempt atonement, except that neither is shown or even implied on screen. There is no reason for believing these things other than wishful thinking.
Brennan’s adoring fans make excuses for the character, whose two decades or so of crime are dismissed with a glib “everyone makes mistakes”, as if bank robbery, murder, grand theft auto and the rest are mere minor lapses in judgment. They perceive Brennan as a hapless victim who could not have turned out any other way, ignoring the fact of human free will. We are not victims. Many people grow up in far worst circumstances than Brennan, and grow up to be honest, decent individuals.
There are mistakes and mistakes. Stealing a car is not the same as armed robbery which is not the same as murder, but they are indeed, all mistakes.
One is supposed to learn from relatively minor mistakes and not descend down and down to ever-deeper levels of errors. We are not supposed to flutter from mistake to mistake throughout life—if we do, we must either be witless or a career criminal, or more likely, both. According to canon, Brennan’s been an active criminal for nearly two decades. The conclusion is obvious.
Also offered is the notion that whatever Brennan did as part of Mutant X cancels out his previous life of crime. This assumes that the acts of Mutant X are inherently positive and good, which may or may not be true; there are ample reasons to question the acts and purpose of Mutant X.
What about all of the people Brennan victimized? Would they agree that Brennan’s Mutant X activities compensated for their financial losses and any fear Brennan created in the act of committing crimes against them? Shouldn’t they be consulted? How can anyone presume to speak for them?
We discovered that at the opening of Season 3, when Brennan learns that Adam has compiled his criminal history—just in case. Adam never trusted Brennan.
Subtract Victor Webster’s good looks from Brennan, and the fan base would never have existed. Had Brennan been fat, smelly, and crude, his criminality and undependability are not considered attractive by most people.
Skin deep superficiality—that’s what it is all about. Had Victor Webster been cast as Mason Eckhart, and not fitted with a creepy white wig and black suits, Eckhart would have been the hero of the show without a single change to the series premise or a single word altered in the scripts. |
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