Do you find it necessary for your favorite DC hero to WIN, WIN, WIN all the time

[Buried Alien]

Reading some remarks on these forums, I get the impression that for some fans, it's necessary that their favorite DC hero WIN, WIN, WIN every time, all the time, and that the slightest adversity, challenge, difficulty, mistake, setback, or defeat is proof that the writers are part of some grand conspiracy to "get" the character. Is this really how some fans feel about their favorite DC characters?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Dethi]

Well since my two favs at DC Comics seems to lose everytime, I would like them to WIN, WIN, WIN....

[millernumber1]

I think this is a tendency among some readers, yes. I personally would like my own favorite, Stephanie Brown, to win at least SOME of the time.

[BaneBreaker]

Not for me. I would prefer that some of my favorites lose.

[astro@work]

I don't mind my heroes losing occasionally, as long as the core of the character isn't destroyed.

If the character ALWAYS wins, the stakes feel kind of low. But conversely, if the character's stories are a never-ending parade of failures, it eventually starts to diminish the character.

[TheCape]

Not really, i'm fine with my fave loosing or getting beaten in his own game, happens to everyone.

[stephens2177]

My favorite can't even exist in the DCU,and he gets knocked around all the time,even if they talk like he is very powerful.

The original kesel kon-el was always losing,same as the YJ tv shows Kon,and they are my favorites.

Winning is cool,but sometimes it's good to see your favorite getting stomped to remember they have room to grow and are not invincible....even if they are pretty much invincible

[nickytesla96]

I got into comics four years ago through Image Comics, so series like Saga, East of West and Black Science. Started pulling cape comics a year later. So I tend to follow writers over characters. A lot of my pull and trade list is writers whose previous runs I liked (Omega Men, Black Bolt, Ultimates, Descender, Kingpin, God Country, etc). That'll probably naturally change the longer I read cape comics though. I already feel like Moon Knight is a character I wanna follow regardless of writer. But for the most part I don't feel this way.

I do feel like some fans are justified though. For example, Wally West lost... everything lol. And some characters aren't even confirmed to be back in-continuity yet.

[Godzilla2099]

I'm not going to lie, I love watching my favorite heroes win. As for a loss, if its a good fight or they bounce back, I'm also good with that too.

[Spiderboy12]

I want to see my favorite heroes get bested and captured by their villainous foes. Once captured, the villains put them in a trap in which death is certain, and they boast about how clever they were in overcoming them. Then they set the trap in motion, and leave. The comic ends with our heroes just minutes or seconds away from death. The next issue opens with a recap, and then our heroes manage to use their ingenuity (and perhaps something in their utility belts they invented for just this purpose!) to escape from their certain death trap. Then they find and battle the villains again, and this time emerge triumphant!

Then the theme song kicks in. Na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na — [Hero name goes here]!

[Dr. Ellingham]

Is this really how some fans feel about their favorite DC characters?

Yes, and the why is even more important:

In general, we comic fans need the escapism and over-invest in the lives of fictional demi-gods. We take it personally when they lose, when they aren't the main character, when they disappear, etc. Mostly, that is...okay, as long as there's some perspective.

But - there's a more severe category within fandom, which I suspect is the loudest, where their own self-esteem is wrapped up in how DC / WB treats their self-selected avatars.

[Shadowedeyes]

There has to be a balance I think. Winning all the time is, to put it frankly, boring. But if you have nothing but loss after loss after loss, it starts to be heard not to see the character as nothing but a failure, and so assume that any attempt at something will be a loss. Ultimately I should be both excited when a character wins, and saddened when they lose, but I should never feel bored about it.

[Jon Clark]

The problems I have are

1)How do you get a hero to lose and pick up next issue? We no longer would accept the old Batman cliché where the Joker knocks Batman out and then straps him to some hairbrained trap that Batman then easily escapes. Most bad guys are expected to at least unmask our hero if not take the pragmatic step of killing him.

Would anyone buy the idea that the only time the hero loses is when his opponent isn't going to do more than escape? Oh he loses to guys like Never-Kill Bandit and Paranoid Pete but never to Joker, Cheshire, or Doomsday?

2)I'm a Superman fan and while I don't think he is the MOST powerful guy around, I also don't want to see him taken down by ordinary guys. Superman against Darkseid or the Spectre, no problem if Clark loses. Superman against Deathstroke sans kryptonite (or the like)- at best Slade manages a stalemate (he escapes capture). Superman against Bane, Captain Cold, the Comedian, … again barring special weaponry (kryptonite, magic, red solar) the bad guy should never have the upper hand.

[The Darknight Detective]

Losing a battle is fine, as long as he or she ultimately wins the war.

[Ascended]

I love it when my favorites win, but I like seeing them get the crap beat out of them too. It makes their eventually victory that much sweeter. And it reminds us that what they're doing is actually terribly dangerous.

I like seeing Superman beaten up on occasion because I think it's important to remind people that yeah, he's bulletproof, but the stuff he fights on a daily basis is every bit as capable of hurting/killing him as the people Batman or Spider-Man fight. Superman doesn't seem so boring and invincible when he's got a black eye and fractured arm. And when he keeps going after a beat down? It just reminds us that powers or no powers, he's one stubborn tough SoB.

As long as the character is respected, I'm more than fine with seeing them defeated, either physically, mentally, or otherwise. Failure is how we define character, after all. Now, I'm not interested in seeing my favorite characters get sh*t on by writers trying to elevate someone/thing else (don't red shirt my favorite C-listers!), but an honest loss? That's great, actually.