MARTHA THOMASES: Superman Red… or Blue?
My last two columns generated a certain amount of off-topic political discussion, which is 1) exciting and 2) frightening. The fright stems from the fact that political discussions got us kicked off this site four years ago.
The excitement comes from proving something I have always believed. Feminists claim the personal is political. I think the arts are political, too. You may have a different opinion. It depends in your definition of art. I think art is something created by an artist that makes you see the world in a new way.
Forty years ago I had surgery, and was lying on my parents’ couch zonked on major pain killers. I was reading Dune, watching the Olympics and the political conventions. I couldn’t tell which was which. Maybe that’s because Dune is a mind-blowing book. The sequels never moved me as much. Perhaps it was the drugs, or maybe they need world-class diving in the background.
Different people with different perspectives can find enjoyment in the same entertainment. The Hunger Games, which seemed to me to be a reasonably populist and feminist fable, has made over $200 million as I write this, and I doubt all those ticket-buyers are part of the Occupy Wall Street crowd.
Comic books would seem to be an All-American form of entertainment. Especially superhero comics. Truth, justice and the American Way. Upholders of the law who best criminals and ne’er do wells. And yet, those of us who consider ourselves rebels and/or leftists have found plenty that resonates.
Superman is an undocumented alien. The X-Men are scorned because they are a minority, born different from the rest of us. The Legion of Super-Heroes imagines a future in which we not only survive, but learn to use science to live in peace. Mostly.
Often it is the sensibility of the writer that makes a story resonate politically. Twenty years ago, when Bill Clinton was running for his first term, Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove supported his candidacy. Dan Jurgens did not. If you were reading Superman comics then (when one storyline ran through four different titles, each published a different week of the month), you might have been able to pick out their different points of view.
There are people who share my political beliefs whose work I don’t like, and people with whom I disagrees whose work I read avidly. There are writers like Jamie Delano, who I mostly love but whose work I like less the more I agree with him.
We have an election ahead of us this year, and I hope that, as a nation, we can debate issues on their merits, and not descend into the kind of lies and distortions that frequently foul our discussions. And I hope comics do their part, presenting different issues and different perspectives through the prism of graphic fiction.
I think Superman is a Democrat. How about you?
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I’m very much a Democrat, but I think Superman’s probably an independent. :) Great article, thanks!
Oddly enough, the Superman Red/Superman Blue storyline you reference is, I think, exactly the period during which I put an end to a decade or so of avidly collecting DC Comics. :) Started with Byrne’s Superman relaunch in the eighties, continued with few interruptions until that storyline. Not that it was necessarily that storyline specifically that made me quit or anything; I had some pretty major Life Stuff going on. But I admit that that storyline wasn’t very impressive to me personally, and it was probably at least a little bit of a factor in that decision. Took the recent “New 52” relaunch to get me re-immersed in the DC Universe. But yeah, thanks for the insight into the creative dynamics behind that particular storyline! Very interesting. :)
Oddly enough, the Superman Red/Superman Blue storyline you reference …
Heh. I was thinking of a completely different Superman Red/Blue story. I guess I’m showing my age again. (And wonder if these young wippersnappers even know what I’m talking about.)
This might be simplistic but my definition of politicians is that a Republican is fiercly loyal to those s/he knows. A democrat cares about the people s/he doesn’t know just as much. Therefore I agree that Superman, like most comic book heroes, is a democrat.
I’ve heard it as a conservative gets offended for themselves while a Democrat gets offended on behalf of someone else.
I’ve heard it said that “you’re a Democrat if you have no brain” and “you’re a Republican if you have no heart.” At least, I think that’s how it goes.
Mindy
tricky… i think Superman the “archetype” might be a Libertarian. but each writer writes him as they see their own ideal soo… i just can’t stand it when they try to heavy-hand it like with hawkman and green arrow :)
FWIW, I think Superman is an independent also, not allying himself with a political party but with issues.
Interestingly, the Superman / Red Superman Blue story that Matt believes Martha was referencing, (1998), but probably meant the one the Sean remembers, (1963), inspired me to write an humorous(?) essay about the original.
In 1998, I couldn’t believe that DC was attempting to reference that story from the Weisinger days, so I wrote about my feelings about it, and a few years later, ComicBase, (for whom I was reviewing comics at the time), put it on their website. More than a screed against that story, it is an indictment against the entire Weisinger editorial output, for which, some of my friends think I am a traitor to my generation.
If you want to read it, it is still here:
http://www.comicbase.com/Guest_Columnists/guest-2005-10-07.asp
George –
Read that, and can’t really disagree with the overall view. OTOH, I was maybe 8 or 9 years old when I first read the story and the childish quality of it didn’t bother me at all.
(What did bother me was the Anti-Evil Ray. The Supermen demonstrated it worked by using it on a couple of insects, natural predator and prey, and showing that the one stopped attacking the other. Even at 9 I knew if that were the case then blanketing the earth with Anti-Evil Rays would be a terrible idea.)
Thanks for cluing me in about the orginal Red/Blue storyline. I had a vague idea that it existed, but didn’t really know anything about it. I had the impression that Martha was referencing the one I remembered because of her comments about Simonson/Bogdanove and Jurgens, who were the Superman creative teams during the era that I remember. But the timeframe she references with respect to those folks doesn’t quite match up with the 1998 timeframe of the Red/Blue storyline I remember, either. So maybe I misconstrued what she was saying. :) Thanks!
One thing that’s politically interesting to me about superheroes is that they all work outside the system — they’re all vigilantes, at the very least. Inherent in that is the concept that, for justice to be obtained, they HAVE to step outside the system. It says that the system doesn’t work. That’s a powerful statement, I think.
Finally, someone said it… They are not all vigilantes, but they pretty much all individualists. They will work with the system in limited ways, but primarily outside and by themselves or in small groups. The approach where the system takes over more and more aspects of people’s lives, locking them into a state controlled pigeonholes is an anathema to most superhero modes of operations.
It is left as exercise to the reader to determine which party today is advocating increased role of the omnipresent state and significantly lessened individualism, and which one is advocating limited role and limited powers to be given to the state and greater control to be concentrated in individual and small groups.
And as the reader works thru that exercise, they would be wise to recognize that what a party is advocating doesn’t have to line up with what they actually do…
John, you totally nailed it!
The arts (all arts, all media) have always been political. Which is why the Soviet Union, China, and other totalitarian governments throw the artists (all arts, all media) into prison.
Another great column, Martha!
And DUNE is a VERY political book, as well as a treatise on religion, drugs, and power. (Like you, not much into the sequels.)
Bought HUNGER GAMES last week. As soon as I finish KATHERINE OF ARAGON, I’m starting it.
Mindy
Superman is an independent, because his loyalty would be to the “American Way” not special interests that both Dems and Repubs play to. But he’s far more Republican than Democrat. If you look at the history of both parties you’ll see why.
Neither, really. He would probably see himself as outside the political system. Nevertheless, his primary value is protecting the weak and downtrodden from the whims and excesses of the powerful. His archenemy is a corporate overlord. These point to him being more sympathetic to the words, if not the deeds, of the Dems.
First, I had a horible flash back to that awful post-rise-of-the-Supermen arc which split Clark, (amazingly enough without the aid of Kryptonite), into Superman Red and Superman Blue — so, y’know, thanks for that.
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Next, I thought about the actual question — is Clark a Republican or Democrat. (I think the question should be “Is Clark ..” After all, “Superman” gave up his citizenship, last I remember. I honestly tend to think that Clark would be more Republican — though a very moderate one. The (adopted) son of a Kansas farmer in the Bible belt would certainly give him that sort of leaning. But, he’d be a very intelligent one (No, that’s not a dig on republicans in general). I think he’d be against big government. From a town where everone works to earn their keep, he’d wouldn’t be enthusiastic about certain government handouts and programs. He doesn’t like war, but knows how valuable a strong military is.