Why the British Don’t Do Superheroes为什么英国人不打造超级英雄

I don’t know about you but I’m rather a fan of Batman or The Batman， if you prefer to give him the definite article as the new film does. It’s also rather heartening to see fine British actors earning a pretty penny portraying him—Robert Pattinson1 dons the cowl in the new film， hot on the heels of Christian Bale2. And it’s not just Gotham’s3 bone crushing vigilante4 that our acting schools are clearly adept at preparing actors for： Brits Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield have both slung webs as Spider-man and of course Henry Cavill has donned the blue leotard proud playing Superman four times.

我不知道你怎么样，但我却是新老蝙蝠侠的粉丝，如果你和这部新上映的影片那样，喜欢给蝙蝠侠（Batman）加上个定冠词（The Batman）的话。看到优秀的英国演员扮演蝙蝠侠，赚上一大笔钱，也令人颇为振奋——克里斯蒂安·贝尔曾出演过蝙蝠侠，紧随其后的是罗伯特·帕丁森，他在这部新片里披挂上阵。我们的表演学校显然不只擅长培养力大无穷的哥谭侠客：英国人汤姆·霍兰德、安德鲁·加菲尔德都曾发射过蜘蛛网，扮演过蜘蛛侠，当然还有亨利·卡维尔也曾穿上蓝色紧身衣裤，四度光荣地扮演超人。

As well as the actors， our directors like Christopher Nolan have elevated the Batman story to a new level and indeed our writers （such as Alan Grant） have also had a hand in this process： so why is it that Britain has never developed a homegrown Batman-style fictional vigilante of its own， or indeed any serious cultural contender to the steroidal mass musculature offered by the DC or Marvel worlds？

除演员外，我们的导演（如克里斯托弗·诺兰）已经将蝙蝠侠的故事提升到了一个新的高度；事实上，我们的编剧（如爱伦·格兰特）也曾为此助力。那么，为什么英国就没有本土造就的蝙蝠侠式虚构的江湖好汉或任何有实力的文化竞争产品，来与DC漫画公司或漫威世界提供的那类打类固醇的肌肉大块头一较高下？

If you look back at the heyday of British comics and their survivors， then we have the likes of Roy of the Rovers—a footballer—or Dan Dare， an urbane pipe-smoking space pilot whose only dark side is on a distant moon5. Neither of them had super powers either， and their necks were conspicuously narrower than their heads.

回顾一下英国漫画全盛时期以及留下来的那些作品，我们有巡游者队的罗伊——一位足球运动员，或大胆阿丹——一名温文尔雅叼着烟斗的太空飞行员（其唯一的黑暗面是在一颗遥远的月球上）这样的人物。两者都不具备超能力，而且他们的脖子明显比头窄。

Britain’s nearest corollary to Batman is Judge Dredd， but he lives in Mega City One which is approximate to New York state. Also he’s a policeman， which actually makes him and the whole set-up altogether the more subversive and also rather different from the likes of Bruce Wayne， Clark Kent or Peter Parker6. Moreover， the only superpower that Dredd possesses is a profound lack of empathy， which is not usually so highly regarded as qualities go， outside of the Home Office of course.

英国最接近蝙蝠侠的角色非德雷德审判官莫属，但他居住在“巨城一号”——一个和纽约州差不多大的城市。此外，他还是一名警察，这实际使得他和整个情节设定更具颠覆性，也使他与布鲁斯·韦恩、克拉克·肯特或彼得·帕克等人物截然不同。此外，德雷德拥有的唯一超能力是极度缺乏同理心。当然，除了内政部，同理心就品质而言通常不怎么受重视。

Instead when it comes to fighting crime， Britain has thrown its creative energies into gentleman detectives like Sherlock Holmes， Poirot and Morse7， as well as overtly less gentlemanly ones， like Inspector John Rebus. But whatever their backstories—including Dr Watson’s military service in Afghanistan8 or Rebus’s in the SAS9—these are not men of action， nor are they avenging angels.

相反，在打击犯罪方面，英国将其创造力投入到了绅士侦探身上，如夏洛克·福尔摩斯、波洛和摩斯，以及那些显然不太绅士的侦探身上，如约翰·雷布斯探长。但无论他们的背景故事如何——比如华生医生曾在阿富汗服役，雷布斯在英国特种空勤团当过兵——他们都不是善于打斗的人，也不是复仇天使。

Then we come to Miss Marple10 who， let’s not forget， first appeared in 1927， 12 years before Batman threw his first punch. At a push Christie’s super-sleuth11 might be able to tell you what a numchuck is—well， maybe—but she couldn’t pick it up， let alone throw it. Either way， I’d hate to see the Hollywood adaptation in which she performs the sort of high kick that Gal Gadot can pull off： and God forbid that we one day have a Marple ‘reboot’12 in which she stalks the darkened Rectories of Dorking and Royal Tunbridge Wells bringing retribution13 to suburban blackmailers and embittered14 disinherited siblings.

然后，我们来看看马普尔小姐。别忘了，她第一次出现是在1927年，比蝙蝠侠打出第一拳还要早12年。在万不得已的情况下，克里斯蒂笔下的这位大侦探也许能告诉你啥是双截棍——嗯，也许吧——但双截棍她可捡不起来，更不用说一把甩出去了。无论如何，我看不惯好莱坞的那种改编方式：让她表演盖尔·加朵才可以成功做到的那种高踢腿；但愿不要有一天让我们看到马普尔小姐人设“重启”：让她一路潜行到多尔金和皇家坦布里奇韦尔斯昏暗的教区，对那帮住在市郊的敲诈犯展开报复，让那些因继承权被剥夺而心生怨恨的兄弟姐妹受到惩罚。

What our crime fighters have in common is that as well as being less steroidal than their American counterparts， they are rather more interested in solving the crime： they are motivated by justice in its traditional sense rather than revenge. Indeed， most of the time they leave the business of revenge up to criminals.

我们那些抗击犯罪的斗士有一个共同点：他们不像美国同行那样浑身散发着类固醇的味道，而是对破案更感兴趣；他们的动机是传统意义上的正义，而非复仇。事实上，大多数的时候，他们把复仇这件事留给了罪犯。

And that raises the question of whether our different choice of ‘heroes’ reflects British and American criminal justice systems. Where the American system is characterised by a muscular certainty about the efficacy of punishment （including the capital variety）， our criminal justice system is transparently less convinced about the virtues of punishment and appears to be fixated far more on public protection and （ostensibly） on rehabilitation15 and reform—the right of the accused to remain innocent until proven guilty is paramount. And that’s not very Batman.

这就提出了一个问题：我们对“英雄”的不同选择是否反映了英国和美国的刑事司法体系。美国制度的特点是对惩罚（包括各种死刑）的效力非常确定，而我们的刑事司法系统显然不太相信惩罚会有好处，且似乎对公众保护以及让罪犯消除前科、（表面上）改过自新的关注远超美国——最为重要的是，被告在被证明有罪之前享有无罪的权利。这可不怎么像蝙蝠侠。