The new Late Show with Stephen Colbert is in full swing on CBS, and he has already had quite the starting week. Last night, Stephen welcomed Elon Musk, the visionary engineer and entrepreneur behind such high-end companies and concepts as Tesla Motors, the SpaceX program, and SolarCity. In his interview with the forward-thinking magnate, Colbert refers to Musk as “the real-life Tony Stark” by commenting on how he’s made his money through many ventures that look to improve live for people and the planet at the same time. “You’re trying to do good things and you’re a billionaire. That seems like either a superhero or a supervillain.”

It isn’t long into the interview until Stephen settles on supervillain when Musk reveals that one quick way to make Mars habitable for humans would be to drop thermo-nuclear weapons on the poles of the planet so it can be heated to a point that it can sustain human life. Well, that certainly is one possible solution. Not exactly what one would have expected, but it would definitely be effective. Now, of course this leads to Stephen branding Musk as a possible supervillain, but honestly what villain doesn’t start off with some sort of nobel cause? We all remember the line from The Dark Knight. There tends to be only one or two things that separate heroes from villains if you think about it. How many times has Tony Stark himself aired on the side of villainous in his attempts to protect people? Hell, in Captain America: Civil War Tony will—spoiler alert!—legitimately become the villain for that very same reason. It’s a thin line to walk, and it seems 9 times out of 10 the deciding factor is whether the person thinks it is worth destroying, enslaving, or ultimately shackling a part of humanity in a move they consider to be for our own good.

So, Musk wants to Nuke an uninhabited planet to give humanity a chance to expand into the stars. So for now, we can consider Musk a do-gooder. We will only have to fear his Bond villain status if he then tries to nuke Earth from orbit and fill Mars with only people he choses. Well, that or if this guy ends up on his payroll.

Where do you weigh in? Hero or villain? Let us know in the comments below!

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HT: Popular Science
Image Credit: CBS
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