This Trio is Terrible

Pulp fiction seems to have a villain motivation problem. Back when I wrote the first post for this blog, about the Joker, I included a quote from Ben Bova. He states, "in the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil [. . .] There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds". Villainy, in pulp fiction, is just bad guys doing bad things for no other reason, presumably, than to be bad. Snidley Whiplash hasn't any reasons for tying women to traintracks, normal people don't do that. But, normal people do hatch plans like Iago to psychologically control others through gaslighting, manipulation, rumors, and drama. Real people do cheat and steal to amass wealth. There is no believability or realism to Snidley Whiplash's villainy, but sociopaths and white collar criminals do exist.  

These characters, the Terrible Trio, are far more like Snidley Whiplash. Created in 1958 by Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff, the Terrible Trio are a team of thieves who wear animal masks. The Vulture, The Fox and the Shark apparently are famous inventors who get bored and turn to lives of crime. I guess thrill seeking is a motivation. American Psycho plays on this idea of successful professionals breaking out of boring monotony to do crazy, criminal stuff just to feel again. But the Terrible Trio is not Patrick Bateman, they aren't Joker-like serial killers. 

This group commits high stakes heists, using seemingly expensive equipment for elaborate plans that incorporate the land, the sea, and the sky (the three milieus of the three chosen animal themes). These schemes can't be cost effective, seem to be highly visible PR stunts, and not realistically worth the time, money and effort.

Eventually, writers tried to incorporate mysticism, real estate fraud, and drug dealing into the Terrible Trio modis operandi. The Trio then becomes a white collar criminal enterprise instead of grandstanding hobbyist villains. 

Batman usually battles criminals with psychoses, mobsters and organized crime, or international terror threats. This group could be a different kind of criminal. The white collar criminal doesn't have much representation in Batman's rogue gallery. Like Gordon Geko, these guys could hide in plain sight, in otherwise respectable finance and corporate positions. There are plenty of films and television shows that play with white collar fraud. Wall Street, the Wolf of Wall Street, the Big Short, Blue Jasmine, the Wizard of Lies, White Collar all deal with the dark side of high finance, and fraud. Why not within the pages of Batman? 

A big theme in this blog is how characters could be or have been written better. This is another example of characters that could be far better than their original premise. Snidley Whiplashes are silly, unbelievable pulp fiction creations. Gordon Gekos, though, they are most certainly real, harmful, and have understandable motivations. Greed is Good, after all.