Superman’s real kryptonite: American politics

[plady69]

link

[rjpb]

Pretty good article, and I tend to agree with the writer. Not because Superheroes should be divorced from politics, but few writers can do it well. While political and social issues can be addressed in comic books intelligently, it's very easy to get preachy and didactic. I reread the O'Neill/Adams GL/GA series a few years back for the first time since the 70s, and the stories are pretty cringeworthy today in their earnestness.

 

Around the same time, Ditko was experimenting with his objectivist hero Mr. A, but those stories are also nearly unreadable as the character seems to spend more time explaining his Randian world view than actually acting on it.

 

Alan Moore is one of the few writers that can inject politics into a story and make it organic to the story itself. Miller did it well in DKR, but by most reports had lost it by the time of Holy Terror.

 

One socio-political element that is very germane to superheroes is the tension between the twin motivators of most characters, avenging vigilantism and paternalistic altruism. Two sides of the same coin really, and something that often made the Daeredevil/Punisher meetings so interesting.

[plady69]

Good analysis. One reason I always liked the Golden Age comic books is that the writers and characters had a direct link to their pulp counterparts.

 

A lot of younger readers never realized that Superman and Batman were pretty mean dudes way before the 80's and 90's reinventions.

 

Glad you enjoyed.

[Pat Calhoun]

I liked the article as well. the writer did a good job describing the 180 degree turnaround of pre-WWII Supe social reformer versus WWII & beyond 'party liner'. when I collected GA back in mid-'60s as a young teen pre-WWII Supe was big fave. Kafka described WWI as a 'great failure of the human imagination': WWII was even more so- 'killing' comic book superheroes among many other things...

[rjpb]

 

A lot of younger readers never realized that Superman and Batman were pretty mean dudes way before the 80's and 90's reinventions.

 

 

Though not as mean as some others who routinely incinerated their foes or dropped them to their death, and not just nazis and japs, and of course there was the Hangman who actually hung bad guys.