Drinking is something that should only be done responsibly and in moderation. Every once in a while, people partake in the occasional drink to unwind or perhaps in a social setting. We've all seen individuals have a few drinks too many, whether it was a friend, family member, on TV or maybe even yourself. What happens when those few too many lead to bad choices and serious consequences? Again, the key is being responsible. For normal people that might have had too much to drink, they might vomit or pass out. Unfortunately there are times when they say or do things they wouldn't normally do. Worst case scenario involves those too many drinks and the person doing something completely irresponsible, like get behind the wheel of a vehicle.
What happens when super-powered individuals drink? Drinking and trying to control a motor vehicle can easily be avoided. Drinking and having potentially deadly superpowers wouldn't be so easy to avoid for them. "With great power comes great responsibility." Does that cross over to superheroes needing to be really careful when it comes to alcohol? == TEASER ==
A lot of characters these days have some sort of healing factor. This wasn't always the case but has become a convenient way to explain how Spider-Man can be cut and bruised in one issue and completely healed in the next issue or other title. Having a healing factor means alcohol will have less of an effect. When Wolverine goes drinking, he drinks a lot. Rarely do you see Wolverine even a little bit tipsy.
Other characters, while having incredible superhuman abilities, may not have an above normal resistance to alcohol. Tony Stark is usually the first that comes to mind. He didn't just drink casually, he was an alcoholic. In the regular series his drinking really became serious at a point when he was still wearing the Iron Man armor but eventually he lost everything. He ended up on the streets and almost died. Luckily for others, he didn't drink and operate his suit too often (something that his Ultimate Universe counterpart does these days). If we had a drunk Iron Man, what happens if he flew into an office building or into traffic? He could be trying to shoot a villain with his repulser rays but accidentally hit an innocent if his vision was blurred or if his coordination was off.
Carol Danvers is another character that developed a drinking problem. Her body could be a deadly weapon. I don't recall her making any deadly mistakes while drinking. She seemed to prefer drinking alone and passing out.
Imagine someone like Superman could get drunk. Sure it'd be almost impossible with his superhuman attributes. He could drink gallons of beer and show no effect. But what if there was something strange reaction between the alcohol and his Kryptonian physiology? Heck, what if he drank out of a glass that had tiny traces of Kryptonite in it, for the sake of argument? Superman has been seen doing some jerky things (more so in the Golden and Silver Age comics). A drunk Superman would end in disaster. We can assume that Superman is constantly holding back his strength. Shaking someone's hand or even tapping them on the shoulder requires complete control and concentration. Superman also has his other abilities such as flight, heat vision, super breath, etc that could easily destroy a city if not used with sober level headed thinking.
Does it fall on superheroes to avoid just avoid drinking? Alcohol lowers people inhibitions. People often do foolish things or get really angry. Many heroes can be considered weapons of mass destruction. Adding alcohol to the equation could be disastrous and deadly. It might be best if they just avoided drinking altogether. Alcohol is not a necessity. If a character feels they really need that one drink, there's clearly a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.
Heroes shouldn't drink, at least not heavily, they have too much power, if they got drunk they could do something reckless and stupid and very dangerous
I recall reading an issue of Cap in which he said he unable to get drunk. Although a while back in the short-lived Wolverine:Weapon X series Steve and Logan got sloshed on a international pub crawl. Does anyone know what's with that? Possibly just one writer ignoring anothers' work?
" That's why I love comicvine, it brings up good topics. Im surprised that through all the turbulance in spidey'slife he didn't turn into a total wino. Many characters enjoy a after battle drink, but what if one did take it too far? "
Awesome Article. It does seem that rarely do comic characters just have a drink, its a all or nothing kinda thing. Although have a silly question if Legion got drunk would the world seem more or less clear :-p
i find after dealing with a load of crap you just want a stiff drink. not right but it's human just like superheroes(well kinda human). don't know what it's like in america but here in ireland people usally get wasted at least once a week and its considered social. it's wrong but superheroes should reflect mistakes and sometimes ways of overcoming them. it's not simple all good v all bad. shades of grey
I remember Hercules got Galactus drunk and made him laugh. That may be the only time something good came from drinking in excess. But, it's only funny in comic books... where nobody can really be hurt. In real life... it's very different.
@JonesDeini: Yeah the ultimate irony to that is most of the mature situations as it were, which heroes find themselves in, all seem heavily influenced by themes from Watchmen. Sure, that was a breaking out moment for the comic arts, but there's other character development that you can do.
One thing I will give some credit to, pre-Watchmen, are those early anti-drug stories. The Spider-Man and Green Arrow ones being the most significant. At the time that was a huge deal, and I'm pretty sure they were both contentions for the evolution and eventual obsolescence of the CCA.
well it depends on what superhero, I mean if superman gets drunk we would have an intoxicated flyer and thats no good, but when a guy like deadpool or hercules get drunk, only awesomeness can happen
" Meh, let'em drink. Hell, with all the stuff that they deal with they've earned it. Just a side note, I'm sooo sick of Marvel using alcoholism to add "depth" to their characters. It worked ONE TIME with Tony and since then they've gone crazy with it. It's almost as lame as using sexual abuse or rape to give a female character "development". "
I totally agree. Maybe there was original value at the start, but they branched into realism with these sort of story developments and it just halted there. There's not many other things that happen to heroes, other than losing family members. This is definitely one of the blind spots in most super hero writing. "
Totally agree, they should take a hint from Alan Moore. Everybody in Watchmen had a personality issue that felt organic and wasn't handled in a contrived manner.
This topic came up once in an issue of Spider-Man (I don't recall what issue). Peter had gone to a party and had some punch, not knowing it'd been spiked. Later he had to change and fight some super villian and his drunkeness completely threw off his sense of balance and agility. I remember him saying that between having to fight the villian and web-swinging around Manhattan he barely made in through the night alive and so he VOWED to never drink again.
In a bar at 30th floor of a building a very drunk man says " I 'm going for a ride " then throws himself out the window . 3 minutes later he returned through the same window . Another customer asks " Damn how you do that ? " drunk man replied "It's a magical beer you drink and then you can fly ... " the two men drink their magic beer, and the 2nd man throws himself out the window and crashed on the floor below ground 30 . Then the bartender says " Damn , Superman, you're really dumb when you're drunk "
Someone on Facebook listed some characters they wanted to see drinking. One was Ms. Marvel. I wanted to use this image but it didn't "fit" in the article.
" @Soldier zero: his (rather unfortunate) way of coping with the loss perhaps "
Ok, try to look this way: Logan has a pretty strong fatherly instinct toward the various X-Kids, the two he's most close with are Kitty and Jubilee. So his reaction to the loss of the first is getting drunk and trying to gut thee other when she came around to get him back on his feets. Myabe I'm losing something here, but it really seem a big WTF.
" Meh, let'em drink. Hell, with all the stuff that they deal with they've earned it. Just a side note, I'm sooo sick of Marvel using alcoholism to add "depth" to their characters. It worked ONE TIME with Tony and since then they've gone crazy with it. It's almost as lame as using sexual abuse or rape to give a female character "development". "
I totally agree. Maybe there was original value at the start, but they branched into realism with these sort of story developments and it just halted there. There's not many other things that happen to heroes, other than losing family members. This is definitely one of the blind spots in most super hero writing.
Meh, let'em drink. Hell, with all the stuff that they deal with they've earned it.
Just a side note, I'm sooo sick of Marvel using alcoholism to add "depth" to their characters. It worked ONE TIME with Tony and since then they've gone crazy with it. It's almost as lame as using sexual abuse or rape to give a female character "development".
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