My original plan for the final part of this miniseries was to do Trump vs. Red Skull. A shameless Nazi with a bizarrely colored face? How could I resist?
And yet, the deeper we plunge into the flaming, festering hell pit that is Trump’s second term, the more I begin to wonder if I’m entirely on the right track. MAGA’s fake geek guys might even view these villainous comparisons as compliments. More importantly, am I giving Trump too much credit?
To be clear: I stand by my previous analyses. Trump is a worse president than Luthor, a more prolific killer than the Joker, and a more ruthless dictator than Doctor Doom. But each of those villains is his own man with his own ideas, intellect, and moral code, such as it is. But Trump? He’s more puppet than master.
And that brings us to today’s post.
For those who haven’t heard of the Ventriloquist—one of Batman’s lesser-known nemeses, to be sure—he debuted in Detective Comics #583-584. The Ventriloquist’s puppet, Scarface, is a drug-dealing mobster who slaughters traitors and competitors alike. The Ventriloquist himself is meek, squeamish, and such a non-entity that he didn’t get a real name—Arnold Wesker—or an origin until several years after his debut.
But don’t feel too sorry for him.
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“Only following orders,” you say? Now why does that sound familiar? Ah, yes, the Final Report to the Secretary of the Army on the Nuernberg War Crimes Trials. Here’s one choice passage (emphasis mine):
“That the incredible massacres [of Eastern Europe Jews] charged in the indictment had in fact occurred, the documentary proof left no doubt….Some of the defendants endeavored to deny personal participation in these murders; most leaned heavily on the defense of ‘superior orders’….[T]he Tribunal sentenced [SS Major General Otto] Ohlendorf and thirteen other defendants to death by hanging.” (Page 189-190)
Yeah, “only following orders” is not a great way to generate sympathy for your character, but that may not have been their intention: some stories depict Scarface as a magical object that controls vulnerable people, while others claim he’s just a conduit for Wesker to act out his violent fantasies. Either way, Wesker becomes so dependent on Scarface that, when deprived of his company, he either falls apart or, more commonly, seeks a substitute. A literal sock on his hand is better than facing life alone.
Now let’s turn to Trump. If this man ever had an original idea or a personal accomplishment, they are well-buried beneath a mountain range of billion-dollar missteps. His “opinions” and “morals” can be predicted based on who is around him and what he sees on television:
If it is true that, as Oscar Wilde wrote, “most people are other people,” it is certainly more true of Trump than of anyone without such a high level of unearned privilege that it insulates them against having to develop basic ethics and critical thinking skills.
So, here we have two men who are clearly and hopelessly in thrall to others. How do we decide which one is the bigger puppet? Detective Comics #831 provides a clue. When Harley Quinn was first incarcerated, Wesker risked Scarface’s wrath to brighten her day.
Wesker was willing to endure abuse from his puppet master—whether you interpret that as a mental illness or a cursed doll—just to make someone else happy.
There it is, then: two pathetic men who regularly enable the commission of horrific acts and refuse to take responsibility for themselves, but one of them still has enough decency deep down inside to at least try, at personal expense, to help another person and curb his master’s worst excesses. And he is not the one who was elected president of the United States.