Man of Steel

Y'know, I always did think Superman was a bit of a pinko…

[Via The Corner, which doesn't seem to find this as amusing as I do.]

Comments

[Anonymous]

i hear he can murder 60 million in a single bound

[Anonymous]

I always thought most super-heroes were thinly veiled metaphors for the state, and in Captain America's case not veiled at all.

Maybe we can have Super Bush now!

(Insert Wonder Woman joke here.)

[joe]

How about, I Wonder why any Woman would vote for this throwback.

[Steve Skutnik]

Didn't they already do this one a la Ted Turner's "Captain Planet?"

[Michael Duff]

I'm delighted to see artists confronting the political nature of superheroes.

This notion that comics should be "apolitical" is a modern invention, and a false one at that.

If anything, modern comics avoid real politics and push sappy pseudo-religious causes like environmentalism.

I'd love to see Superman beating the crap out of Osama Bin Laden, but it would probably work better as a Lobo comic...

[Lazarus Long]

It depends on how accurately they portray the political situation. If they show a future socilist paradise, well that isn't political but fantasy...(unless Superman can use his super powers to beat the Mises calculation argument).

[Madog]

Captian Planet was a Green, not a Red. 🙂

I like the idea of an alternate history for superman, it's a neat idea. But then again, I'm a sucker for alternate history stories. There's a fun one I read awhile back where Stalin immigrated to the US and ended up as mayor of Chicago in place of Daley. 🙂

[Anonymous]

http://reason.com/hitandrun/000222.shtml

[Lazarus Long]

Madog: I agree they are fun. But I hope they don't whitewash all the bad stuff about Stalin.

[Root]

The Amazing Kavalier & Clay is an interesting novel for comic book fans. Check it out on Amazon. Fun read.

[Comic Book Guy]

Those wacky conservatives, always jumping the gun to score points on the opposition. If they'd read the widely available previews for this series they'd know that the whole point is that it ends in disaster, ie. that Superman as a "People's Hero" DOESN'T work and ends up ruining the world rather than saving it.

[SM]

Exactly right, Mr. CBG. Isn't there another character - Michael Medeved i think - who scans comics for hints of deviancy ?

[Robin]

"Actually [it is] a sly comment on contemporary world politics, where the U.S. dominates the globe like an unchecked giant [and where] the Soviet Superman uses his strength to gain global dominance."

Then again, all stories in comic books have usually been a form of wishful thinking, haven't they. In this case, it's simply a lamentable look at an unfuffilled wish.

And I like your challenge, Lazarus! ... Let's see the Communist Superman use his super powers to beat the Mises calculation argument. Indeed.

[Anonymous]

This is not a new idea. Saturday Night Live, back when it was funny, had a sketch in which the would-be Clark Kent (Dan Aykroyd) grows up in Nazi Germany and becomes Uberman, who would fight "for untruth, injustice, and the nazi vay." Newspaper headline shown: "Uberman kills every person in England. U.S. Next." The sketch then cuts to a panel of historians discussing this "what if" scenario. They conclude that the U.S. could still have won by developing a kryptonite bomb to kill Uberman.

[Jim Walsh]

A few years ago, DC did an alternative-world "Batman" story where Batman lived in Germany in the thirties, fought the Nazis, and rescued an unpopular liberal economist named Hayek. Not everything in the comic book universe is left-wing by a long shot. Also, don't forget that Steve Ditko (co-creator of Spiderman) was a Randian.

[Anonymous]

http://reason.com/9803/ci.bd.artifact.shtml

[M Ali Choudhury]

James Merritt:

I think you're being a little delusional about what communist rule really was like and how unlikely it was to "evolve" into something approaching a free-market democracy with some concern for human rights.

Given how the communist regimes routinely inflicted economic disaster, the outlawing of religion, environmental desruction and the imprisonment, suppression and murder of anyone who disagreed with them, I'm very glad the evil empire is gone.

Back on-topic the new series looks interesting although from what I've heard the characterisation is a little lacking particularly for Lex Luthor.

[Mark S.]

Of course Superman was a commie. He was played by Christopher Reeve, wasn't he? 😉

OK, kidding aside. Over time I've become more or less disillusioned with the whole "super hero" concept in comics. The notion that mankind needed some all-powerful protector with super strength and an unquestioning "boy-scout" view of justice and civics is kind of insulting.

A let's not fool ourselves about comics being apolitical. Not too long ago, DC put out a "special" issue of Batman to be distributed by an anti-gun group that featured the Dark Knight going after an arms smuggling ring, bashing pro-gun groups, and brooding about his dead parents... oh, he does that last one every issue.

Lets not forget the political origins of Wonder Woman: http://reason.com/0105/cr.ng.william.shtml

It's a good thing that the only comic I read anymore is Mike Mignola's "Hellboy." That one has pretty much stayed above the political fray. However, if I ever see the title character truly becomes the Big RED Guy, then I'm afraid I've going to have to pass.

[Franklin Harris]

Superman has always been part of the political establishment. In the late '30s and early '40s, he was a New Dealer. In the '50s, he fit in nicely with the whole "I Like Ike" ethos. In the '80s, Frank Miller picked up on this and had Superman doing dirty deeds for President Reagan. Even now, with Lex Luthor having become the DC Universe's U.S. president, Superman still plays within the Establishment's rules. So, it is an obvious thought experiment to see what would happen is a natural "team player" like Superman grew up in the U.S.S.R. instead of the U.S.A. And it's the best idea writer Mark Millar has had in ages. I despise most of his other output.

[Anonymous]

Duff sez: "I'd love to see Superman beating the crap out of Osama Bin Laden, but it would probably work better as a Lobo comic..."

Well, I guess since we can't have the real thing a comic book fantasy will have to do...

[xit1254]

So Superman is jewish? No wonder Jerry Sienfeld loves him.

[James Merritt]

"I think you're being a little delusional about what communist rule really was like and how unlikely it was to 'evolve' into something approaching a free-market democracy with some concern for human rights." - M Ali Choudhury

I have no illusions about how communist rule REALLY was, and no desire ever to be under such rule, thank you. Again, that was supposed to be what we were fighting AGAINST during the cold war. I remember clearly what America was like forty years ago, on the other hand, from first hand experience. It is clear that things have changed markedly here, and not just because or in response to crisis events such as 9/11. I have also had occasion over the past 20 years to meet with people from the former USSR, who confirmed that there was also an evolution going on in the USSR, although clearly it didn't happen quickly enough to win the cold war or preserve their own empire.

A big question of this particular Superman story (and in fact, the entire mythology, if you've followed it for any length of time) is whether having Super Powers (or being a super power?) is enough to do the right thing in the first place and avert catastrophe down the road.

[Kevin Carson]

zit1254:

I always thought Superman was at least half black. How else do you explain a father named Jorell?

I thought of the SNL "Uberman" skit the minute I saw this. He identified a reporter as a Jew by looking through his suit, and said "I'll just drop him off at Auschwitz on my way to the Eastern Front."

Lazarus:

Ken Macleod solved the Mises rational calculation problem by bringing in nanotech as a deus ex machina.

[THX-1138]

James Merritt, "For the most part, however, Superman is most effective when he lets people (and nations) solve their own problems."

Have you noticed, James, this is exactly what God does?

[Chuckie]

God is dead. -- Neitzsche (1895)
Neitzsche is dead. -- God (2003)

[Robin]

Kevin, the key word is "rational." Nanotech may be logical, but isn't necessarily rational. So MacLeod had better stick to electronics and leave economics to Von Mises and his disciples.

[Blorg]

Uh...Chuckie...Neitzsche never said "God is dead..." a character in a piece of writting done by him, whom he describes as a mad man said it. So I guess God should say "Mad man is dead." Though I really don't expect this god to get his facts straight, since it apparently took him 108 years to come up with that less than stellar come back...

[Sahar Christopher]

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DATE: 05/20/2004 07:02:43
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