On Characters' Motivations

Question

I'm currently writing a sort of serious superhero thriller. The main character finds out his father is a kingpin and drug lord. At the beginning of the story the main character, who has been living in a bubble his entire life, witnesses a cold-blooded murder during a mugging. In the draft that I have right now, the people killed were strangers. This event weighed so heavily on the main character, who is the paragon type, that when he finds out his father is in control of the city's underworld, he becomes bent on stopping his own father.

Does that sound like a good enough motivation? Or do you think I would have to give the character more of a reason to fight his own father? I was thinking maybe adding a another character, like a friend or a brother, who gets killed in the mugging but I felt that would be jumping the shark or even a bit Batmanish or Spidermanish if you know what I mean? What do you think? Also, I want to add that even though some characters have superpowers in this world, I want it to be somehow grounded on reality.

Answer 1

What you're describing is a trope known as Broken Pedestal (tv tropes link). It describes the painful disillusionment with someone the MC considered a role-model, or otherwise a person to be respected and admired, until discovering that character's "true colours".

Such disillusionment can be a powerful motivation, and often a source of conflicting emotions: the MC might turn his back on his former hero, or he might wish to redeem him (while still actively opposing him). Consider, for example, what Luke Skywalker thought his father was, and his response upon learning that his father is Darth Vader.

As such, there is no need for an additional motivator, in the form of a friend etc. being killed. In fact, such an event would be "too much", it would dilute what you're trying to say. It would also imply that your MC only cares because his friend was hurt, not because of the general wrongness and injustice of his father's actions. That would make him a less moral protagonist.

However, there is one thing you need to be wary of: you cannot build a character solely on him being against something, as in "against his father". He needs to be also for something - for justice, for people's right to life and safety, etc.

Answer 2

You can have the murder be of someone the MC knows, or of a stranger, but they will be different stories.

If the murder victim is someone the MC knows, the MC's intentions will always be clouded with revenge. That's not a bad motivation, it just may not be what you want.

If the murder victim is a stranger, the MC's focus is on the immorality of what his father has done.

For Batman and Spiderman, the defining event in their lives is not (just) that someone they loved died, but that they lost one or both parents while they were still minors living at home (Peter's uncle was in a father role to him).

In your case, your character's defining event is realizing that his father is a bad person and focusing all his attention on stopping him. He doesn't have to lose someone he knows to come to that realization. So, if you add in that twist, make it count. Don't just throw it in hoping it makes the situation more horrific. "My dad ordered someone's murder" is more than enough to turn someone's love and loyalty into ash.