When I think of anarchists in superhero comics the only ones I’m aware of are Anarky and Flagsmasher. With Flagsmasher I don’t know much about him so I used a video by ComicDrake as a reference. I’m not sure if he’s the most reliable person on comics but he seems ok from the video. He mentions how Flagsmasher was originally this anarchist villain who was against nations and borders and wanted to destroy them. But over the years he got warped into this weird character that supports a new world order. Basically his character morphed from no nations and no borders, to supporting the European Union as a way to eliminate borders and eventually to support a new world order just so he can get rid of nations and borders. Seriously, how can you call yourself an anarchist and support the European Union? It’s so bizarre how his ideology got morphed into that. It felt like they had an decent idea in the beginning with this character but they didn’t know what to do with him after his original run.
Then we get Anarky who is much more straightforward. He’s an anarchist who’s against the government and corruption in Gotham and fights Batman because he sees him as an enforcer of the status quo. Now he’s interesting to me because while other villains upset the status quo they never do it to make things better. They just want to make themselves more powerful. Even a character like Poison Ivy who at first would seem like a person who is ideologically driven to upset the status quo was originally just in the supervillain gig for herself. While Anarky on the otherhand is genuine and sincere about his belief to destory the establishment and make Gotham better. His character arc is fascinating, he starts out as an Anarcho-Syndicalist, then he becomes a Grey Market Anarchist and finally he gets into Neo-Tech which is this weird Objectivist offshoot. His character’s views are basically a reflection of his creator’s views, Alan Grant. So when his views change it’s because Alan Grant’s views change. It helps that Alan Grant is an anarchist himself so when he writes this character it feels more believable. In fact I’d argue he’s only really good when he’s written by Alan Grant. Other writers aren’t as good with him. The only adaptation of Anarky that was good in my opinion was in Batman Arkham Origins. It wasn’t perfect but it got the spirit of the character down right.
Overall, I find Anarky to be a better character than Flagsmasher. He seems more well thought out and interesting. His character progression is interesting and he never neatly fits into this superhero and supervillain dynamic which I find unique. The last time I saw him in the comics was in an issue building up to the Batman Catwoman wedding where Catwoman is having a bachelorette party and Red Hood is keeping watch over her to make sure nobody ruins it. But Anarky comes to ruin it and Red Hood calls him a liberal which pisses off Anarky greatly. The last time I saw them do anything interesting with him was in Detective Comics by James Tynion where he teams up with the Victim Society only to switch sides once he learns what their true motives are. Anarky is a pretty cool character and deserves more love.
Side note: Also having Anarky team up with Green Arrow is funny to watch. Since usually Green Arrow is this ultra-leftwing hero and here comes this anarchist who basically calls Olly a champaingne socialist and doesn’t think he’s radical enough. I always enjoyed that.
