Glorifying a villain as misunderstood due to a deprived, troubled childhood is beyond inappropriate. It’s reprehensible and diminishes the hero, who should be the one being glorified and romanticized or what the heck is the point of the hero? The hero is not the supporting character, what part of “hero” do some hack writers not get? Romanticizing the villain without the character fully and permanently redeeming him or herself isn’t even good writing in terms of character development nor plot so there is no real point of doing it.  Particularly when they are as twisted and evil as DC’s The Joker. There is no redeeming factor for some of these devils as much as can be said for some real life people out there who are just plain evil. Some do it by choice, for others it’s in their nature.  Whatever the case, they commit terror against other people who have every right to live out their lives, so NO. It isn’t grey. It’s clear cut. They kidnap, rape, torture, and kill people in barbaric ways. He or she chose to do the bidding of evil. They are the bad guys. PERIOD. There should be no shades of grey here. A perfect life is rare, even for the hero. This incessant need to humanize villains is off center. It is the victim and the hero with whom the reader should identify with. Not the character who chose the wrong side of justice. We all have problems which is why we should tolerate and be kind to each other instead of miserable. It is part of being a mature, responsible adult and citizen. Most of us still know to take the loss and still do right by others, but glorifying and romanticizing villains, be it mobsters like those seen in The Godfather, The Sopranos, Scarface, and Goodfellas to comic book villains in the upcoming Warner Brothers feature film Suicide Squad, it’s twisted.

Marvel Comics’ The Punisher (Frank Castle), saw his entire family get murdered. He became a vigilante. He took the law into his own hands because he saw the law as slow, full of loopholes, useless. The law frowns upon vigilantism because of population control. The government doesn’t want everyone going around taking the law into their hands. It doesn’t justify the existence and authority of the police and the judicial system, so it’s seen as a crime in its own right. In real life, President Andrew Jackson supported vigilantism. If it was fine for the Democratic President, then it is fine for fictional soldier and citizen Frank Castle; especially when you have an inept criminal justice system and people whipped into fear through shaming and political correctness.

People refer to the Punisher as one who is glorifying guns, others see him as a hero who is getting rid of some bad guys before they hurt others. His character is reminiscent of Charles Bronson’s character in the Death Wish franchise and Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dirty Harry series.  Punisher is doing Batman‘s job but in a more permanent way that goes against Batman‘s views.  Both characters are known in their respective universes as needing psychiatric attention; Frank Castle is Dick Tracy on steroids. He just happens to be a more believable character than Bruce Wayne is. One whose existence could be possible and probable. He doesn’t have the luxuries Wayne has so he needs to come up with money and he needs guns.  It’s hard to fight evil without a gun when evil has guns. He has to fight fire with fire. The difference is, the gun in Punisher’s hand is used for good; to take out evil. The guns in the bad guys hands are used to carry out crimes, usually heinous ones. Yet both Batman and The Punisher find that more often than not they have to work under the cover of night where there are less witnesses out and about. The night gives them the extra chance to disappear into the darkness without being caught by the local and/or government authorities who despise vigilantes because vigilantes are doing a better job than the ones deputized to do the work in the first place, particularly in literature.

Writers need to stop humanizing and glorifying a depraved individual like The Joker. When the final installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman movie premiered in a theater out west, a lunatic shot up a movie theater and killed a number of people. That sick individual did it for the notoriety. What made him into the monster that he is, isn’t guns or comic books. It was the medication he was on and his warped feelings toward society. Taking gun rights away from all Americans wouldn’t have changed anything. When you get an evil nut like him out on the street, he’ll figure something out to kill a large number of people. From building a homemade bomb to simply locking everyone in the theatre from the outside and setting the building on fire.

The movie theater tragedy re-ignited the gun debate. The irony  is not lost here. The Batman character himself has his origin in gun violence as we have seen it played out time and time again in the comics, on film, and in animated media. As a result of  what happened to his folks, Batman does not carry a gun. He originally did but that was before they concocted his origin; after his origin was explained, he never really carried a gun again and he never killed until recent reboots of the character by DC that is. Bad move on DC because DC just destroyed the most admirable part of the character. The issue here is mental illness, not the gun. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have guns and they have them at home to protect their families. Hundreds of thousands of these guns were not used in a crime today. It’s not the weapon. It’s who has possession of it. Much like Batman’s utility belt, the gun is a piece of technology and like any other piece of technology, it can be used for good or bad. The Punisher uses guns for the side of good; his enemies use them for evil.

The movie theater killer is an insane guy who got dressed up as the equally insane Joker with the only difference being that The Joker is fictional. He committed a heinous act while an audience watched the Batman movie, something like The Joker would do in the comics. Maybe that nut was trying to call out a real life Batman to his real life Joker.  Surprisingly, the Media and the politicians did not attack comic books over this issue.

They chose not to because superhero movies are big box office for Hollywood and Hollywood is politically active. Hollywood gives lots of money and perks to the politicians who do its bidding. There is the crime that really goes unpunished. Comic Books are glorifying guns and evil as much as the rest of the entertainment industry is. It’s where the money is.

To quote the late professional wrestler Randy “Macho Man” Savage: “Where money lies, honor dies”…and usually it’s with a body count.

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Well regarded as one of the most professional of professional wrestlers of all time Jake “The Snake” Roberts has been praised for being a great worker in the ring by the likes of Ted DiBiase, the late Bad News Brown, and the late Randy “Macho Man Savage”, particularly noting his wrestling ring psychology.  Roberts knows and understands the business and art of professional wrestling better than most. He can work the microphone with the best of them, he knows how to manipulate the crowd, he knows how to develop a good storyline or wrestling card, and he knows how to wrestle. He knows who is a good worker, how to treat people, and when a wrestler is a main event draw or not. Besides being a great wrestler, Roberts is one of the best bookers of wrestling. [A booker in professional wrestling is the person who recruits and hires wrestlers, sets up angles between wrestlers, determines the outcome of matches, plots ideas in advance, and schedules the events of a wrestling card]  Jake “The Snake” Roberts  is the one who convinced Vince McMahon to give Stone Cold Steve Austin his “push” (promote him for main events) and The Snake was the man who “jobbed” (lost the match to make the other guy look good) for Austin when Austin recited Austin 3:16 for the first time as an ad-lib. Without Austin, The WWE would have been in worse trouble than it was in the famed Monday Night Wars with the WCW under Ted Turner.  The Snake is beyond a doubt one of the best minds and talents in the business.

What many people don’t know or may have forgotten, is that Roberts was an associate of Paul Ellering and The Road Warriors. Eventually Jake “The Snake” Roberts, the late Road Warrior Hawk, and Road Warrior Animal ended up calling themselves The Legion of Doom (LOD).  Yep, The Snake was an original member of The LOD. In an interview with The Hannibal TV this past February, Mr. Roberts stated that: “Hawk’s the one who came up with the idea of  ‘The Legion of Doom’ [be]cause he did such a great job imitating voices ….’meanwhile at The Halls of Justice’….we were stoned and doing silly sh*t on the road and thought “F*ck it, let’s do it”.”  Incidentally, Mr. Roberts is great at mimicking voices himself .

So they got their name The Legion of Doom from the infamous crew of Saturday morning cartoon bad guys who gave the Super Friends a weekly 40 minutes of trouble. 40 minutes of trouble is exactly what they did to other wrestlers in the ring anyway, and Hulk Hogan got his name from a comic book character as well. As for the monicker “The Snake”  Roberts got that from the late NFL quarterback Ken “The Snake” Stabler. Although a fan of the Oakland Raiders’ QB, ironically Roberts wasn’t too fond of a particular part of his wrestling persona. He hated snakes! He was terrified of them and jests that he still is. He is after all  from Texas where there are a lot of poisonous snakes and he regrets coming up the idea when he was high. Being the consummate professional he pulled it off. He would slither into the ring and keep his 6 foot 6 frame low to the mat before the match started. He played his part extremely well but since he hated snakes, it wasn’t an easy gimmick for him to do so. He also wasn’t the only one who was not a fan of snakes. In a match with the late Randy “Macho Man” Savage, a de-venomed cobra was supposed to bite Savage in the match. Savage, an explosive warrior in the ring had power, speed, and high flying maneuvers. He was like a giant cat who was just as unpredictable inside the ring as he was outside the ring. A peculiar character, funny, professional, Savage is considered one of the best wrestlers of all time but his insecurities often got the best of him. He insisted that Roberts be bit by the cobra first to make sure that it would be safe for Savage to be bit by the reptile. Roberts thought he was joking but for the match to go on and in the end for Roberts to get paid, Roberts had to get bit by the snake. So he did as Savage requested and got bit by the cobra himself. In Snake’s career, he’s also had to show representatives of organizations for humane treatment of animals and reptiles that the creature wasn’t hurt before and after matches even though he himself would be bruised and banged up.  As a professional wrestler you stress and worry about getting injured and not injuring your opponent; they don’t have union benefits and they have to get their own healthcare. Roberts had the additional stress of not getting the snake injured which was often not even his snake!

Unjustly, The Snake never won a championship title in the former WWF. It would have meant more money for him and his family but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t a star. He was a star. A super star. The WWE Hall of Famer was one of the few wrestlers who did not need a championship title and unfortunately the promoters knew that. Roberts was supposed to be a “heel” in the WWE. The bad guy. He was a thinking man’s wrestler. He was the closest wrestler to the late legend Nick Bockwinkel that wrestling had. A devious but articulate, eloquent speaker who could take you to task. The WWE knew this and wisely replaced Piper’s Pit with The Snake Pit (when the late icon “Rowdy” Roddy Piper temporarily retired) . In the WWE, Savage and Hulk Hogan may have been the “baby faces”,the ‘good guys’, when Roberts was there and the fans loved them but when it came to fighting Roberts, the fans cheered for Roberts in his confrontations with these two good guys. In an angle where Roberts slapped his finishing move on Hulk Hogan, the deadly “DDT”, the fans cheered for Roberts’ DDT and not Hogan long after Snake left Hogan on the floor. The feud with the champ that was supposed to make Roberts a lot of money, it never happened. The public loved Roberts and his days as a “heel” were soon over.

The 1999 documentary Beyond The Mat portrayed Mr. Roberts negatively. He dismisses it and being a Christian he forgives those who showed him in a bad light. He is human after all and like the rest of us he has had bad times in his life. He has however had his unfair share of tragedy from his childhood to his adulthood. His 18 year old sister was kidnapped and murdered by her husband’s ex-wife. Her husband was 35 years her senior. He suffered a severe injury during a feud with The Honky Tonk Man thanks to the wrong prop guitar. He’s fought addiction with alcohol, pills, and heavy drugs. Roberts has had two failed marriages. He’s had strained relationships with his daughter from his first marriage and with his father “Grizzly” Smith (according to Roberts his father raped his mother when she was 12 while he was dating her mother and that’s how he was conceived). He’s been snaked (no pun intended) by promoters in terms of position and pay. He’s been in jail, he’s been in and out of rehab. The man did not  have it easy folks. In 2008, he completed drug rehab which was paid for with the help of the WWE but fell again to his demons. In 2012  things started to change for Roberts. “Diamond” Dallas Page helped Roberts with yoga when Roberts found himself addicted again. (Page helped Roberts because Roberts helped train Page; there is some loyalty in wrestling after all) The Snake has reconnected with his children and his grandchildren.  The proud grandfather of 10, he lost 80 pounds in three years through exercise, yoga, and eating right thanks to his faith, AA meetings, and Page. Roberts has fought and beaten cancer and he’s seen two of his grandchildren beat their own odds and live, praising them as his heroes when he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014. They  were born just over one pound yet they fought for life and he did too. You can’t pin this family down for the count! His finishing move, the DDT, was called “the coolest maneuver of all-time” by the WWE which says a lot because this organization has seen a lot of cool moves by wrestlers in its history.

A new and critically acclaimed documentary called The Resurrection of Jake The Snake Roberts is out on DVD about this incredible survivor.  Presently he is on tour doing stand up comedy, sharing stories about wrestlers like Andre The Giant, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Macho Man Savage. He is scheduled to perform stand up on his 61st birthday at Flappers Comedy Club in California.

In the summer of 2016, you can see Jake “The Snake” Roberts in a film called The Bet.  Fellow professional wrestlers Tommy Dreamer, “Diamond” Dallas Page and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper are in this comedy,  which sadly marks Piper’s final film appearance who died last year from cardiac arrest due to a blood clot. The Snake has a book coming out soon and has hinted he may appear at Great North American Wrestling in the near future. Until then,  you can meet Jake “The Snake” Roberts himself at the Rhode Island Comic Con which is scheduled from November 11th-13th (go to www.ricomiccon.com for details). You can follow Jake “The Snake” Roberts on his Twitter @JakeSnakeDDT, on his Facebook page, and on his website  www.jakethesnakeroberts.com where you can order his documentary or you can catch it on Amazon, iTunes, and GooglePlay.

Through all of this the actor, the entertainer, the motivational speaker, remains a semi-retired professional wrestler and why not; he was born into it. The Hall of Famer is one of the best of all time. He knows everything about the business and he knows it all too well. It’s in his blood. It runs through his veins, kind of like venom when a snake bites you.

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