Review: The Goon- Once Upon a Hard Time (Part 2 of 4)- A human being a human

Writer and artist: Eric Powell
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 25th March 2015



The central narrative idea in this book is that the main protagonist (The Goon) is reverting to an animalistic nature, and that there is a parallel between his story and the half-human, half-animal characters in ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ by H.G. Wells.

This sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately when you look at it with objective eyes it’s quite apparent that the parallel doesn’t really work.

I’ll explain. The idea is that Goon is so angry that he has become an ‘animal’ and all he cares about is bloody, violent revenge on all those who have wronged him. Do you see the problem yet?

I’ll continue. At the beginning of this book Goon picks up a copy of ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ by H.G. Wells. The narrative then switches to telling the story in that famous book, with the obvious inference being that it’s a parallel with the situation that Goon finds himself.

I enjoyed reading about Dr Moreau, but the story of that book doesn’t quite fit with the story of the Goon for the obvious reason that the tormented creatures created by the mad Doctor Moreau are nothing like the character of the Goon. The half human, half animal abominations are fighting against their animal natures, trying to convince themselves that they are men, but they are not men, and their true animal natures dominate. The moral lesson being that you cannot turn an animal into man, because man alone is touched by the divine spark of his creator, and any attempts by man to play God is doomed to end in failure.

The Goon is not undergoing the same dilemma as these poor, doomed creatures because the emotion that is driving him is not animal at all, it’s a very human emotion called REVENGE. He is not turning into an animal when he kills his enemies. What he is doing is acting like a wronged human. Animals kill for food. Humans kill for revenge. So having Goon reading The Island of Dr. Moreau and worrying about becoming an animal because he is killing for revenge doesn’t really work. It’s a sad fact, but the more he kills, the more human he becomes.

‘Far from being ‘instinctive’ or ‘hard-wired,’ revenge is a profoundly social desire; and it is one of the desires that distinguishes us from other species of animal. Revenge is probably not an occurrence in the animal kingdom. Of course, intraspecies aggression is common among animals. But aggression is almost always futureoriented: that is, animals fight to gain or defend territory, for status within the group, or to win a mate. Revenge, by contrast, involves aggression that refers back only to a past action, and so is unlikely to exist among animals.’ (Why do we humans seek revenge, and should we? Study by Sonia Kruks, Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, 2009).

The idea behind this comic book is great. To have a book within a book that explains the psychological torments of the main protagonist is something that works, but when the parallel doesn’t fit you end up self-sabotaging the entire project.

The fact that the parallel between Goon and TIODM doesn’t fit is particularly noticeable in the final panels of this comic book as Goon violently assaults his enemies. This is portrayed with accompanying panels of text straight from Well’s novel where the protagonist talks of his feelings of estrangement from humanity, and how he just wants to be left alone, to enjoy isolation, books and astronomy till the end of his days. There’s no thoughts of violence there, just resignation. This man has quit life, whilst Goon is still full of it as he stabs a screwdriver into a man’s neck in one panel and wrenches an arm out of it’s socket in another.

Goon is not resigning from life. He’s full of passion and righteous anger. He is not conflicted about the animal part of his nature, he is fully human, doing all of the awful things that angry human beings do, all of the time.

Goon OUAHT Part 2 had a great idea, but the choice of book, and the choice of parallel didn’t really fit. The sub-heading of the book is ‘A Man Turned Animal,’ but this isn’t really true. The sub-heading should actually be ‘A Man acting like a Man.’

This comic book is about revenge, and revenge is a very human emotion, not animal. We have free will, so we are in control, we get to choose whether to act violently, or not. Animals act out of instinct, man acts out of choice. I really enjoyed this book, but I strongly disagree with the central premise. Taking violent revenge on our enemies does not make us animals. Revenge is about choice, and choice is what makes us human beings.



Rating: 6/10 (Good book with flawed central premise)


Link to study quoted in this review: 
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ias/insights/Kruks7May2.pdf