Before I delve in I'd like to thank User:Valkerone for his help in looking over my proposal and making sure I accounted for everything, so big credit to him. Anyways, let's get into it.
What is the work?[]
BioShock: Infinite, the third installment in Irrational Games' BioShock series. In a departure from the series, Infinite does not revolve around the underwater city of Rapture with its setting instead being the floating city of Columbia.
Infinite takes place many years before the first game in 1912. It follows Booker DeWitt, a washed-up ex-Pinkerton Detective still dealing with trauma from a mysterious, shady past. Steeped in gambling debts, Booker takes a job from mysterious employer offering to clear all his debts in exchange for completing the job. The job itself at first seems rather simple: to go to Columbia, a floating city built by the United States of America that ended up seceding from it, and extract a mysterious girl named Elizabeth and bring her to New York.
As Booker heads up into Columbia however, he finds not all is as it seems. While initially appearing to be a pristine and idyllic embodiment of the American Dream, beneath the surface of Columbia is a hotbed of oppression and societal unrest. After freeing Elizabeth, Booker finds she has a mysterious power to create "tears" that let them traverse through alternate dimensions/timelines. As the two fight to escape the city, they must navigate the conflict between two warring factions in the city: the Founders, the ultranationalist, xenophobic and religious fundamentalist ruling party of the floating city, and the Vox Populi, an uprising that began as a revolt against the Founders' oppression but has since devolved into wanton destruction and terrorism.
Who is the villain?[]
Zachary Hale Comstock, the leader of the Founders and self-styled "Prophet" of Columbia. Originally a preacher, Comstock quickly gathering a wide following with his zealous proclamations, claiming to have had visions of an idyllic floating city. Early into his career, Comstock encountered a physicist named Rosalind Lutece who had discovered a way to lock atoms at fixed positions in space through something known as a Lutece field. Comstock took a great interest in her research and supplied his backing to Rosalind if she would work with him to create Columbia, a floating city with Comstock had claimed to see in a vision which would be the embodiment of Comstock's ideal of the American Dream. Rosalind agreed
Before he was "Zachary Comstock" however, he was known as a different name: Booker DeWitt. In fact, Comstock is an alternate version of DeWitt from a different timeline, something that will be elaborated on below.
What has he done?[]
Yes, before coming to be known as Zachary Hale Comstock, Comstock was Booker DeWitt. Born on April 19, 1874, by the age of sixteen, Booker was a soldier in the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment who took part in the "Battle of Wounded Knee". Having been mocked by his fellow soldiers for his apparent Native American heritage, Booker sought to disprove the rumors by going out of his way to be as brutal as possible in the massacre, scalping his victims and burning women and children alive in their teepees. His atrocities in the massacre earned him the nickname "The White Injun", yet also led to him being promoted to staff sergeant and receiving the Medal of Honor.
However, Booker was wracked with guilt for his actions in the massacre and ended up seeking out a river baptism for forgiveness for his actions. While our Booker, the one we play as in the game, ended up refusing the baptism and walking away, believing it wasn't enough to absolve his sins, in an alternate timeline, Booker accepted the baptism and was reborn as a new man: Zachary Hale Comstock.
Following the baptism, Comstock developed a fervent belief in religion and became a preacher. Comstock soon developed a wide following across the United States, and became influential enough that he was able to affect the policies of the U.S. government. At some point in his career, Comstock met Rosalind Lutece, a quantum physicist who had discovered a way to lock atoms in a fixed position in space through something she had deemed a "Lutece" field. Comstock took a great interest in Lutece's research, having claimed to see visions of a floating, idyllic city that could be brought to life through it. Using his influence to gain support from the United States government, Comstock presided over a project headed by Lutece to finally realize his vision of a floating city that embodied the American Dream, Columbia. In 1893, Columbia was completed and was unveiled to the world with great fanfare. Comstock became its ruler and headed up its dominant political party, the Founders.
Through experimentation with the Lutece Field, Rosalind discovered an alternate male version of herself named Robert Lutece, who was conducting the same experiment at the exact same time. Determined to meet her male counterpart in person, Rosalind brought her research to Comstock. Comstock agreed to provide Rosalind with additional funding, believing her discovery would allow him to look into the future. Eventually, working together Rosalind and Robert were able to construct a machine to create "tears" between alternate timelines, allowing Robert and Rosalind to meet face-to-face. Comstock used the machine the Luteces had built to see into the future and accurately make predictions, allowing him to cultivate the image of him being a "prophet" to the citizens of Columbia, increasing their fanaticism. However, through his use of the machine, Comstock began to age rapidly, eventually resembling an old man despite still being in his thirties.
While Columbia was once the pride of America, things changed when the Boxer Rebellion erupted in China. Against the wishes of the U.S. government and President William McKinley, Comstock had Columbia intervene to put down the rebellion, revealing Columbia's true nature as a massive warship as he reigned down fire upon innocent civilians, massacring them all. When the U.S. government ordered Columbia to stand down, Comstock refused and declared Columbia's secession from the Union. Columbia soon vanished into the skies, as Comstock proclaimed it the "true America" and deemed the rest of the world a corrupt "Sodom below".
Columbia all to himself, Comstock founded an oppressive society built upon his own fervent cult of personality and twisted vision of the American Dream. Within Comstock and the Founders' Columbia, nonwhites are segregated and treated as lower classes, workers are exploited under the thumb of Comstock's comrade, wealthy industrialist Jeremiah Fink, and atheists and non-Christian religions are persecuted.
Comstock soon began to desire a blood successor to succeed him as ruler of Columbia, yet was impeded by the fact that his heavy use of the Lutece Device had rendered him sterile and unable to produce a child. Believing that city had to be led by his bloodline for it to continue prospering, Comstock enlisted the Luteces to use their device to search through the different universes to find an alternate version of himself who could still give birth. They soon came across our Booker, the one who had rejected the baptism and not become Comstock, and made a deal with him to pay off all his gambling debts in exchange for his infant daughter, Anna DeWitt. While Booker at first agreed, after Robert took Anna away Booker immediately realized his mistake and chased after him to take his daughter back before she was taken through the Tear. Before he could rescue Anna in time though, the Tear closed, slicing off Anna's pinky finger and allowing Comstock to get away with his daughter.
Renaming Anna to "Elizabeth", Comstock locked her away inside Monument Island Tower and, keeping her isolated from the outside world, began raising her to be an ideal successor to him, calling her the "Lamb of Columbia" and circulating propaganda that depicted her as Columbia's savior. As Elizabeth had developed the power to create tears between worlds due to her pinky being left in an alternate dimension, Comstock created the Siphons to dampen her powers and had Fink construct the Songbird to watch after her. In addition, Comstock had also seen through his use of the Lutece Device that Booker would one day try to rescue Elizabeth and created propaganda demonizing his alternate self as a "False Shepherd" who would come to wreak havoc on Columbia.
However, Lady Comstock was suspicious of Elizabeth, not buying her husband's explanation that she had been given to him by God. After she accused Rosalind of being the mother of the child, Comstock admitted to her the truth. Horrified, Lady Comstock soon began to resent having to cover up the truth. Suspecting that his wife was going to let the truth slip to the public, Comstock had Lady Comstock murdered to keep the truth concealed and pinned her death on their maid servant, Daisy Fitzroy.
Robert and Rosalind Lutece also began to turn on Comstock after gazing into the future through their device and seeing how Elizabeth, as ruler of Columbia, would lead the city on a campaign of terror and destruction against the "Sodom" below Columbia. To avert the ruin and destruction that would bring, the two began plotting to take Elizabeth away from Comstock and return her to her original universe. However, Comstock became aware that they were planning to betray him and had Fink sabotage their machine to kill both of them. Though they both seemingly died, in truth their atoms were scattered across space and time, giving them the ability to appear and exist wherever they wanted.
The Luteces then went to Booker DeWitt and enlisted him to rescue Elizabeth. As a side effect of crossing between dimensions, Booker's mind constructed new memories from his old ones, that he was extracting Elizabeth to take to New York to clear a gambling debt. Thus kicking off the plot of the game.
Within the game itself, Comstock rarely appears in person though his visage can be seen all across Columbia and the player can learn bits and pieces about his backstory. At one notable point in the game, Comstock uses a Siphon to resurrect his wife as a twisted, spectral being known as the Siren to go after Booker. Eventually, Comstock manages to recapture Elizabeth from Booker and locks her up in the Comstock House to condition her to succeed him. Determined to make it so Elizabeth can never disobey him again, Comstock has two of his scientists hook her up to a machine that tortures her with painful electric shocks when she's disobedient in order to brainwash her into following his vision. In at least one future, Comstock succeeds and Elizabeth goes on to become ruler of Columbia after him, leading the floating city in a destructive attack on New York city. However, this Elizabeth feels regret for what she become and gives present Booker instructions on how to avert that future. With the help of the instructions from alternate future Elizabeth, Booker is able to rescue Elizabeth in time before she can be mentally conditioned and escapes with her to go confront Comstock. The two confront Comstock on board his flagship, just as the city has devolved into widespread chaos in the midst of the clashes between the Founders and the Vox Populi. and Booker kills Comstock by shoving his face into a baptism bowl and drowning him in it.
However, seeking to avert the death and destruction Comstock caused, Booker and Elizabeth travel back in time to kill Comstock before he rose to power, only to learn the truth about Comstock's origin and true identity as a baptized Booker. Thus, the two travel to the point where Booker attended the baptism, and Booker willingly allows several different versions of Elizabeth to drown him before he could make his choice on whether to accept it, making it so Comstock never existed in the first place and that his atrocities would never come to pass.
Heinous Standard[]
While Frank Fontaine sets a hefty standard for future BioShock villains to pass, Comstock easily exceeds the threshold, standing at the forefront of a regime that oppressed thousands. He's directly responsible for the racist, elitist and religious fundamendalist society of Columbia, which he purposely constructed on top of a fanatical cult of personality around himself to put himself on top, personally murdered innocent men, women and children in the Wounded Knee Massacre, order the massacre of countless more innocents in Columbia's attack on Peking and brainwashed his daughter to lead a violent and destructive crusade against the surface world. As ruler of Columbia, he's also responsible for presiding over the atrocities that occur at every level of the society. He's also responsible for Elizabeth leading Columbia in a destructive crusade against America and the world in at least one alternate timeline as, while he wasn't present for it, he was the one who brainwashed her into doing so. In short, everything within the game is traceable towards Comstock.
Within the game itself, Comstock's only viable competition is the Vox Populi's Daisy Fitzroy, the initially well-meaning leader of a revolt that ultimately ended up degenerating into wanton violence and child-killing. However, while Fitzroy and the Vox Populi also end up committing similar atrocities, they're at least more sympathetic than Comstock in that they're rebelling against a system that's oppressing them, not to mention it was Comstock's own xenophobic and oppressive policies that led to the Vox Populi forming in the first place.
Within the Founders themselves there's Jeremiah Fink, who also commits his own fair share of atrocities, but he at least seems to care for his brother if one Voxophone recording is to be believed and he's seen shielding a little boy from the Vox Populi at a later point in the game.
Mitigating Factors[]
Alright, this is going to be a bit of a doozy.
Firstly, there's the matter of how Comstock came to be, Comstock did indeed feel bad about the atrocities he committed at Wounded Knee, which was what led him to seek out a baptism in the first place. However, unlike our Booker, who refused the baptism and still felt tremendous guilt over what he did, Comstock's new identity led to him falling down a rabbit hole of religious fanaticism and basically becoming a completely different character from our Booker. Instead of taking his baptism as a chance to take accountability for his sins and start a new life, Comstock used it as an excuse not to take responsibility for his actions and to go on to do even worse things under the delusion that everything he did was forgiven as it was for a higher purpose. In fact, after he became ruler of Columbia, Comstock falsely took credit for the actions of other soldiers at the massacre and set up a theme park exhibit in Columbia that depicts the slaughter as a glorious thing. If he truly still felt sorry about it, he wouldn't be trying to glamorize it.
Comstock designed Columbia to be a place where the American Dream could prosper, but his vision of an ideal America was one that championed white supremacy and religious fanaticism. It was one where he was on top, and everyone else revered him and obeyed him without question. Comstock does ultimately want to create a utopia, he really does, but it's a utopia for him and his chosen people only, with everyone else being subjected to inhumane conditions and forced to serve him.
Though he sought to have a child, it was for entirely self-serving and egotistical reasons. He only saw Elizabeth as an extension of his own ego, a way to ensure his legacy would continue to be revered long after his death. Any idea he might care for Elizabeth can be swept away by his horrific treatment of her, locking her up in a tower for all her life and later subjecting her to painful torture to mentally condition her into his ideal successor. He also never truly cared for his wife either and was willing to murder her to keep Elizabeth's true origin from coming out.
There's also the matter of Booker and Elizabeth's dimension hopping throughout the game and how, because of it, it isn't technically the same Comstock they're always facing. However, while the timelines Booker and Elizabeth cross over into have subtle changes to them, there isn't much of a difference between the Comstocks of each timeline and they're all basically the same character. They each come from a timeline that diverges out of the reality where Booker became Comstock and are all guilty of what are essentially the same atrocities, each having the same endgame of facilitating a destructive war across America after he passes away.
I haven't played the Burial at Sea DLC for BioShock Infinite but to my knowledge, while it does feature Comstock, the Comstock that appears in it is an alternate version who fled to Rapture before committing most of the atrocities he does in the main game. I asked my friend Valkerone, who has played the DLC, about this and he confirmed that it's an alternate version from the Comstock we see throughout Infinite. It's the "Columbia Comstock" who's the candidate here, not the alternate one who fled to Rapture.
Final Verdict[]
Definite yes to Comstock. He represents the worst excesses of American exceptionalism and religious fanaticism. It says a lot when even your own alternate self hates you and is willing to kill himself to prevent your rise.