I’ve been working on a new character at the moment, and it’s got me thinking about the nature of heroes.

Heroes in most books share a single basic element – a steadfast moral compass that refuse to even wobble slightly no matter what’s going down. In most cases, your basic hero plods through the book and even when he/she’s got the whole tough thing going, they have an unbendable sense of justice that permeates everything they do. When I think of heroes like this, I’m automatically thinking about thoe hardboiled detectives of the Bogey era who are pretty much the next best thing to useless, but who seem to somehow get there in the end by giving a one-punch to the badguy after being bludgeoned close to death. It’s a common theme. You’ve all seen it.

And me – I’m downright sick of it.

Great moral speeches and lunatic fringe theories swamped in a stubborn resentment of human nature. That’s what it is. The characters are so bound by their little compass that they just can’t move forward in the emotional department. They have no sense of depth, and it’s why the bad guys are often more interesting. The bad guys are unhinged. They’re melodramatic, filled with quirks and eccentricities. They have zany hoodlum pals and wacky ideas on how to take over the earth. The hero has but a simple magic sword or uber-powerful magic spell which they refuse to use for fear of actually hurting someone with what is, essentiall, a bloody weapon!

That’s what it’s for!

It’s like those scifi tv series where some guys are on a ship, or wherever they are, and they have an uberweapon on board. Aliens attack, but the captain’s always so Star Trek and goes, “No! We must attempt to communicate! Quick! Send out messages of peace to calm their raging battle-driven hearts! We shall stop their hatred with hugs! Dispense flowers to all crew members immediately! Arm all chicks with catsuits!”

Drives me crazy.

Break out the guns and Hulk Smash!

And these fantasy heroes running about in their sandles, too afraid to rip out their sword and cut up a few guys. Insanity! What else is a sword for? Polishing? Might as well become a prostitute if all they want to do is polish swords…

Thankfully, there are some sensible characters out there. We call them anti-heroes. Me, I’m a big fan. I don’t honestly like calling them anti-heroes, though. I like calling them realistic. Because, let’s face it, if you’ve got some wild-eyed 6 foot viking mauling you with an axe, you cut the bastard up or die trying and it’s as simple as that. He who’s left standing wins, right?

I’ve been reading bunches of books lately which have had one of these characters in them, and most have happily pleased me greatly. Joe Abercrombie‘s character, Shivers, really got to me. Shivers begins his tale trying desperately to hold onto a moral compass pointed directly North. He’s trying to be a great man. Luckily, he learns that there’s just no point trying, because that won’t get you anywhere. And that’s the lesson I’d like to see given to all these hero characters.

My all time favourite realistic hero, Edge, from the George G Gilman westerns is a character I’m a little surprised to have not seen in other places. He’s got it going. Anyone points a gun at him = dead. Simple. Anyone spits a racial curse in his presence = dead. Easy. Morals? What are those? Can’t eat them, can’t spend them on beer.

I was happy to read Jesse Bullington’s Grossbart characters, too. They ripped up the concept of hero and left it for dead in the sand behind them. Probably went back and stole its belongings, too. Without doubt, the Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart is one of the highlights this year for heroes. It renewed my faith that human nature isn’t dead, it’s just being overwhelmed by this sickening trend to Hollywood our heroes and make them act all politically correct.

Get a moral compass hero in one corner and an anti-hero in the other corner and let them fight it out in the middle and see who wins.

Moral guy’s going to be a big puddle of goo before he gets a chance to hold out his hands and say, “Let’s not kill each other, brother hero dude.”

I’d like to say, though, that if it were indeed politically correct not to murder, kill, slaughter, and commit the most evil of atrocities just because we’re on the “right” side, then we certainly wouldn’t be contributing to a war in the middle east. So, embrace our humanity, I say! Give our heroes more depth. More brutality.

Let them do what they just gotta do.