"DC as Demo Crats" by Bob Price

[Vichy]

Here is a great article from his Hero Worship Column, by Bible, comic book, Nietzsche and Lovecraft geek Robert M. Price that I enjoyed:

Excerpts:

I have a confession to make. I have a special affection for “heroes” (I know some may challenge the designation, but that’s the whole point of the essay) like Rorschach, the Punisher, Supreme, and Superman the Last Son of Krypton. These are crime-fighters who seem to understand their role, the role of the executioner, as what Martin Luther called “the Left Hand of God.”

What happened? What made Batman into the “scoutmaster” as we call his 50s and 60s version? What turned Superman into the “boy scout” we still hear him called in derision? It was a little thing, I think, called the Comics Code authority. It was a piece of paternalistic liberal fascism. Kids can’t read Tales from the Crypt without getting warped? Then we better not show them any real criminal violence or justice either! Let’s come up with a safe substitute.

The recent animated Justice League episode, “A Better World” would seem outrageously silly if we were not already so thoroughly embued with the capon liberalism of DC. The whole premise of the cartoon is that all it takes is Superman deciding the world has had enough of Lex Luthor (and hadn’t it?) and executing him—and what happens? The world is plunged into a totalitarian regime run by the former heroes! What? That is a natural progression only in the tear-clouded eyes of ultra-liberals who see no difference between the state’s right to exercise force on the one hand and fascism on the other! And how revealingly ironic it is that at the close of the very same episode Luthor, now pardoned by the government, inaugurates the plotline whereby he will become President of the United States! Good thing Superman didn’t kill him, huh?

Remember the crossover book which co-starred the Morrison JLA with the Wildstorm Wildcats? The DC superheroes assumed the stance of smug moral maturity as Superman and the rest “sagely” warned the new kids on the block that time would correct their judgment on the propriety of killing bad guys. But I think that is just the doting, dithering decadence of those who mistake our world (Earth Prime”?) for Toon Town. If you’re trying to set comics in the real world, then you’re going to need Supreme, the Punisher, Rorschach, and the Eradicator.

I don't 100% agree with him, being an anarchist (of the Heinlein, not Tolstoy, sort) but I find it really childish and silly the sort of irrational norms they promote in comic books.

And for those who argue: well, if they kill the Joker, who is Batman going to fight? Someone else! Like there's a limited supply of thugs? Our planet certainly seems to be overflowing with them. Also, some of the villains are practically invincible in their own right and can't be properly killed even if they are defeated (think Thanos or Vandal Savage).

 

[DACrowe]

I'm not against the concept of superheroes being right wing zealots or fascists removed from the political spectrum all together. Anarchist Moore explored this with the Rorschach character in Watchmen and countered it with the liberal elite utopian viewpoint in Ozymendes (hint: both ended up doing bad things and destroying themselves or the world around them).

But your excerpts reads of someone who hates censorship (as do I) and uses that as a "critique" of vaguely entitled "liberal fascists." Censorship is not necessarily liberal or conservative, but I digress. While he finds the idea of the "hand of God" portrayed in superheroes perfectly reasonable, he sure is in a bad place. He points out why he hates the "liberalism" of DC. Wait until he reads Marvel's thinly veiled assault on neocons and the Bush Administration called "Civil War."

For a writer who both loves superheroes (perhaps a wee too much if he thinks we should run governments like that) and hates liberal subtexts....he sure doesn't have many comics to choose from.

 

[Vichy]

Civil War was as much pro-gun control as it was anti-NeoCon.

Frankly, as much as I love the characters in Marvel and DC (well, some of them) I prefer Supreme Power. I like mythology about mythic figures, peons wouldn't (and couldn't) control that kind of power, they are beholden to it. Whether or not Superman rules the world is up to Superman, and there's no clear reason he shouldn't.

There is another reason aside from the soft-left nonsense that keeps comic books from progressing in that direction, though, and that's the desire to retain present-day Earth. I guess this is so people can 'identify' with it, but as a person who prefers speculative hard science fiction where the main characters are all non-human machines (Greg Egan's Diaspora) to Asimov's "Brooklyn Jews in Space" I can't say I sympathize.

I'll take Nietzsche and or even Ragnar Redbeard in my comics to Habermas and J.S. Mill any day.

 

[Watchman]

Good God...somebody takes their men in capes fighting mind controlling gorillas way too seriously. Have some fun.

 

[Vichy]

Good God...somebody takes their men in capes fighting mind controlling gorillas way too seriously. Have some fun.

Superheroes are mythology. Just because you don't care to engage the philosophic element implied by that doesn't mean the rest of us don't. I take Superman just as seriously as I take any religion.

I take everything seriously. Like Nietzsche said, the seriousness of a child at play. I think if you think of comics or film as mindless amusement you've got a pretty limited engagement with the material. Like the person who reads the Illiad and just sees a bunch of 'cool fights'. If that's all you can get out of it I hope you enjoy it, but some of us are a bit subtler and deeper in our thoughts.

 

[DACrowe]

Civil War was as much pro-gun control as it was anti-NeoCon.

Frankly, as much as I love the characters in Marvel and DC (well, some of them) I prefer Supreme Power. I like mythology about mythic figures, peons wouldn't (and couldn't) control that kind of power, they are beholden to it. Whether or not Superman rules the world is up to Superman, and there's no clear reason he shouldn't.

There is another reason aside from the soft-left nonsense that keeps comic books from progressing in that direction, though, and that's the desire to retain present-day Earth. I guess this is so people can 'identify' with it, but as a person who prefers speculative hard science fiction where the main characters are all non-human machines (Greg Egan's Diaspora) to Asimov's "Brooklyn Jews in Space" I can't say I sympathize.

I'll take Nietzsche and or even Ragnar Redbeard in my comics to Habermas and J.S. Mill any day.

Huh, you're going in a lot of directions there. I'll just leave it on your first point: Civil War was not about gun control. It could be viewed as libertarian to some degree, but that is not what Marvel writers intended when that was made.

 

[Vichy]

It could be viewed as libertarian to some degree, but that is not what Marvel writers intended when that was made.

Yep. If Captain America wasn't such a b**ch he shoulda cut Tony's head off.