Superman, the embodiment of American Values, the beacon of Conservatism and Americana.Being used to push a political agenda that is the complete opposite of who he is as a character.
Just to be expected. Superman the embodiment of conservative American values can’t be a conservative or believe in conservative values in today’s world.Because GOD FORBID Superman stand for something!
Rather than flowing with the tide of the liberals who own the rights to him!
Hey do you know who Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster are?
Superman’s very first story literally dubs him “Champion of the Oppressed.” He stops a wife beater from killing his wife and threatens a lobbyist.
Superman has literally never been a beacon of conservatism. Superman is meant to be an ideal. He’s aspirational. And he’s a goddamn immigrant created by two Jewish men who were the sons of immigrants.
Superman is not just a refugee, he’s an undocumented immigrant. Just because he’s white-passing and enjoys Ma Kent’s apple pie, that has never meant that he is not a refugee or an undocumented immigrant.
Though I hesitate to use the term because no human beings are illegal, he is quite literally an illegal alien.
“But Superman espouses Truth, Justice, and the American Way!”
That was added in, later, actually. It’s not from Siegel and Schuster. It’s from the Adventures of Superman radio serial that ran from 1940-51, and it didn’t even show up there until 1942, when WWII wasn’t going so great for the Allies. They did away with the addition in 1944, after the tide of the war turned in the Allies’ favor. Then it returned during the height of the Cold War scare, for the Adventures of Superman television show (1952-58). That’s probably when it became most entrenched in pop culture myth. The Ages of Superman: Essays on the Man of Steel in Changing Times pg 225. It’s also referenced in a Mark Waid interview.
It’s not from old comics canon, some intrinsic, original thing necessary to the story. It was added on, later, and then abandoned when it’s somewhat dubious purpose had been served. Superman was always an analog for the immigrant, right down to his paralels with Moses as the baby in the basket found by Pharaoh’s daughter.
Superman was never meant to be the standard bearer for white, conservative upper class values. Next thing, you’ll be telling me Batman is a conservative who would never advocate for responsible gun control…
Superman’s real superpower is finding white button up shirts opaque enough to hide a bright red, blue, & yellow Superman logo underneath without it showing through.
in superman adventures #19, there’s a villain named multi-face who can convincingly disguise himself as anyone, even tricking dna tests and x-ray vision. Superman initially can’t stop him
and the only reason he gets caught is because multiface decides to disguise himself as, of all people, CLARK KENT i’m screaming
why do villains always mess up so badly
Clark Kent attending Bruce Wayne’s yacht party where Bruce told Clark to wear his clothes and……
Ta-Da!
Sard borken
calling the people at the party Bruce’s “fake friends” as if he’s Bruce’s only real friend and he’s low key jealous
Okay I absolutely love this comic but I gotta offer a correction because I got the chance to read this recently and the real context is even better:
Clark and Bruce have never met at this point. Clark ended up on this yaught by accident and the people there just assumed he was Bruce Wayne making an entrance because none of them have ever met him. Clark isn’t even Superman at this point, he’s still just a twenty-something from kansas with super powers trying to figure his shit out, and he just stumbles into a billionaire’s yaught party and then foils an assassination attempt on accident.
The best part is that Bruce finds out about this incident bc he obviously has surveilance on the parties he never attends and he’s just completely fucking baffled. I’m pretty sure this incident is why he knows Superman’s secret identity. What a fucking first impression. Absolutely legendary.
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