The social origins(and likely political leanings) of Marvel superheroes

[Fantasyartist]

The recent debut of the"Iron Man" movie has caused grumbling in some quarters(which shall remain nameless- hint, they're definitely left of centre) just because the alter-ego of Iron Man, Tony Stark, is a wealthy industrialist/ international playboy and NOT a horny handed son of the toiling masses such as Peter Parker/Spider-Man or Matt Murdock/ Daredevil ( a photojournalist and an attorney respectively).

Leaving aside the fact that the idea of foppish man/woman of leisure and wealth by day and masked avenger of wrong is as old as a certain Caped Crusader if not Don Diego/Zorro, it may be worth commenting on the varied social origins of Marvel superheroes.
Only a minority such as Tony Stark ( Iron Man), Janet Van Dyne (Wasp) and Simon Williams (Wonder Man) , Reed Richards (Mr.Fantastic) could be said to be born into the "equestrian class"( as social commentator and critic Lewis Lapham) termed it of wealth and privilege).

Others such as the Sub-Mariner, Thor and the Black Panther , simply by virtue of their regal rank, seem to have inherited whatever wealth they had at birth(in Thor's case earthly riches hold little interest- he's not just a GOD, but effective ruler of his own pantheon of deities, remember?)
Steve Rogers, the late Captain America, Ben Grimm, Wolverine, Colossus are all identifiably "working stiffs"( in one X-Men story Peter Rasputin reveals that at heart he is more farmer than super hero). Marc Spector, Moon Knight, as one of two sons of a rabbi, is presumably middle class at the very least as is his co-religionist, Katherine "Kitty" Pryde /Shadowcat.
Sue and Johnny Storm also fall into this category, if only because they are the children of a prominent and presumably "comfortably fixed"( a euphemism for rich) doctor.

Defining the precise politics of superheroes is also problematic. As a prominent industrialist, Tony Stark is presumably more politically conservative than say the ultimate centrist, Captain America. Spider-Man and Daredevil appear to be mildly liberal( at least conceding that to some extent social conditions cause-or contribute to- anti-social criminality)Wolverine and Colossus seem essentially apolitical, as do Bruce Banner/Hulk. The Punisher, might be thought to be "fascist"( a charge applied to anybody to the right of Leon Trotsky or Mao Tse-Tung during the 70s), but a careful reading of his stories indicate that true to his oath as a Marine to "support, uphold and defend the Consititution of the United States of America", he is no friend of anybody( be they white supremacists, Islamic fundamentalists or Soviet spies) who clearly wishes the US ill.

Does anybody think as I do on this?

Terry

 

[Kable24]

too deep...have headache now.

 

[moraldeficiency]

The Commie take on Iron Man (I agree with none of this but it's an interesting if half assed approach to Tony Stark)

http://www.slate.com/id/2190373/

Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear."—Alan Greenspan

It's not quite as catchy as Spider-Man's "With great power comes great responsibility," or Superman's "Truth, justice, and the American way," but in 1963, Stan Lee decided that the world needed a superhero for whom the tenets of capitalism would be a solemn vow, and thus was born Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. Partially based on Howard Hughes, Tony Stark was no self-doubting teenager dressing in spidery fetish gear, no family unit of four with fantastic powers, no hulking monster who just wanted to be left alone. Stark was a millionaire, an inventor, a ladies' man, a defense contractor, and a card-carrying member of the military-industrial complex. "I'm gonna make him the kind of guy that normally young people hate," Lee gloated.

Further alienating his young-people demographic, Lee set Iron Man's creation story in Vietnam: 1963 saw the United States send 16,000 American military advisers to South Vietnam, and Tony Stark went with them. Hobnobbing with American soldiers while they tried out his new flashlight-size mortars on the Vietcong, Stark is captured by a warlord named Wong-Chu in an ambush that leaves a piece of shrapnel lodged near his heart. With only a week to live, Stark is forced to manufacture weapons for Wong-Chu but instead builds the Iron Man armor, basically a giant pacemaker that just happens to be super strong and can fly. Stark uses the suit to best Wong-Chu in a wrestling match (Wong-Chu fights back by throwing a filing cabinet full of rocks at him) and then escapes to civilization.


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To the world, Tony Stark was the head of Stark Enterprises, a company that made high-tech weaponry, like rocket-powered roller skates, for the United States Army. Iron Man ostensibly served as his bodyguard and corporate mascot. But readers knew that Stark was secretly Iron Man and that in this identity he could take care of business—literally. Assuming that what was bad for Stark Enterprises was bad for America, Iron Man destroyed his competitors (who all turned out to be insane, anyway) and battled anyone who endangered his ability to land fat defense contracts. Lazy employees were fired and usually went on to become supervillains, retroactively validating Stark's human-resources acumen. Plus, he hated Commies.

Iron Man's early enemies were Communist evildoers such as the Red Barbarian, the Crimson Dynamo, the Black Widow, the Titanium Man, Boris Bullski, the Red Ghost and his Super Apes, and even Nikita Khrushchev himself. They were all a cowardly, weak, homicidal lot, defective and deviant products of the Communist state. Iron Man was also continually menaced by Asians. His nemesis is still the merciless Mandarin, constantly revived by tone-deaf writers who try, and fail, to drag him out of Fu Manchu's shadow—with his 10 fashionable power rings and his Chinese supremacist agenda, the Mandarin will always be an embarrassing Yellow Peril cliché. In one thrilling story, the anti-Asian and pro-business agendas of Iron Man collided when the Mandarin tried to destroy Stark Enterprises by unionizing its employees.

Throughout the series's history, Oriental enemies have reared their evil heads: the Yellow Claw, China's Radioactive Man, Fu Manchu himself. Japan fielded Samurai Steel, as well as the right-wing nationalist Monster Man, and even when the nation came up with its own superhero, Sunfire, he was really just a front to expand Japanese corporate interests in Vietnam. In a display of good taste, Marvel Comics published a very special Vietnam issue of Iron Man in 1975 dedicated to "peace" and featuring bright-yellow-skinned, bucktoothed Vietnamese soldiers.

If Iron Man sounds like your embarrassing uncle who drinks too much at Christmas and then rails against "Commies" and "coloreds," why is he still around? Perhaps because 1963 wasn't just the year we escalated our involvement in Vietnam but the year when Kennedy was assassinated. Comic-book readers found a father figure in Tony Stark. He was responsible but not stodgy. He could keep them safe, but he was hip to new technology. Also, within the Marvel comics universe, Iron Man has been treated with respect, unlike his peer Captain America. Over the past few years in the pages of Iron Man, the shielded hero has been appointed the secretary of defense and become the director of the comic-book-world version of the U.N. Captain America, on the other hand, has been arrested, shot, and, in a truly humiliating moment, forced to admit not only that he didn't know what MySpace was but that he didn't watch American Idol.

Even now, Iron Man represents Stan Lee's adolescent dog-eat-dog version of capitalism, the version that appeals to our "might makes right" monkey brains: Innovation is good; monopolies rock when we run them, suck when we don't; big corporations need CEOs rich enough to own space jets; and regulations should be a result of the CEOs' benevolence and wisdom, not imposed by outsiders. Tony Stark is a self-made man who believes that we can build ourselves out of trouble. He's one of America's romanticized lone inventors who, like Steve Jobs, solve problems by locking themselves away in secret workshops to emerge later with their paradigm-shifting inventions.

These days, the Iron Man comic book sells worse than not only the Hulk, Daredevil, Captain America, and Thor but the six different titles featuring Wolverine. So why an Iron Man movie? In a maneuver worthy of Tony Stark himself, Marvel Comics is producing Iron Man on its own after getting burned on licensing deals for the lucrative Spider-Man and X-Men franchises. Who's left in the stable? Captain America and Daredevil have already bombed on film, and the Hulk and Thor are in movies coming later this year, and so Iron Man it is. The Iron Man movie is a decision born of greed and pragmatism, a decision based on Marvel's best corporate interests. It's a purely capitalist decision, and according to Iron Man ethics, that makes it practically heroic.

 

[Anubis]

Why That Commie Bastard!

 

[Blader5489]

Zuh?

 

[hippie_hunter]

The way I see it:

Iron Man: pre-suck up John McCain styled Republican

Captian America: FDR/New Deal Democrat

Spider-Man: Democrat

Wolverine: apolitical, doesn't care

the Punisher: apolitical, sees them both as corrupt

Hulk: libertarian, Hulk just want to be left alone

 

[WolfCypher]

Spider-Man as a democrat...thats one more victory for us!

 

[Varient]

((((shudder))))

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Iron Man: Republican
Nick Fury: Republican
Xavier: Independent
Wolverine: Libertarian
Punisher: Libertarian
Johnny Blaze: Libertarian
Spiderman: Democrat
Bruce Banner/Hulk: Independent
Captain America: Democrat
Magneto: Socialist
Luke Cage: Democrat
Dr. Doom: Authoritarianist

 

[Varient]

Iron Man: Republican
Nick Fury: Republican
Xavier: Independent
Wolverine: Libertarian
Punisher: Libertarian
Johnny Blaze: Libertarian
Spiderman: Democrat
Bruce Banner/Hulk: Independent
Captain America: Democrat
Magneto: Socialist
Luke Cage: Democrat
Dr. Doom: Authoritarianist

Sorry,.. but Cage is a republican,.... he's a conservative one to boot.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Sorry,.. but Cage is a republican,.... he's a conservative one to boot.

And nick fury is actually his own political party along with chuck norris. His vote counts 30 million times as well.

 

[Varient]

Iron Man: Republican
Nick Fury: Republican
Xavier: Independent
Wolverine: Libertarian
Punisher: Libertarian
Johnny Blaze: Libertarian
Spiderman: Democrat
Bruce Banner/Hulk: Independent
Captain America: Democrat
Magneto: Socialist
Luke Cage: Democrat
Dr. Doom: Authoritarianist

Wolverine:
Western Arctic New Democratic Party is the unofficial political party in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The party is a quasi-official offshoot of the federal New Democratic Party.

Under current Northwest Territories law, no parties are currently recognized. However there is no law against claiming an affiliation while running, although no party names are printed on the ballot. Further, donations to a political party are not eligible for tax credits as they are for federal parties or parties in provinces.

The name "Western Arctic" refers to the federal Western Arctic New Democratic Party federal riding association, which has been running the unofficial party.

Aside from the traditional policies of the NDP, the party's main goal is to return Northwest Territories government back to a partisan legislature. Party politics were disbanded in 1905.

The party has run candidates in the 1999 and 2003 territorial elections. with signs and campaign material. In both elections, no NDP candidates were elected.

Aside from the NDP candidates, there have also been a couple others to claim to represent the Liberal Party.

 

[Anubis]

I'm willing to bet most superheroes don't even vote.

 

[Varient]

I'm willing to bet most superheroes don't even vote.

All things being equal - I agree.

[Pollster]"Name?"
[Spiderman] "Spiderman"
[Pollster](checking list) "Your registered name AND ID?"
[Spiderman] Flashes the middle finger and swings off.

 

[DoomJester]

It's really interesting because I took an American Studies class on comics, and we covered some super-hero comics. Not a lot of Marvel, we looked some at the Black Panther and the Fantastic Four though, and then we spent a lot of time on the Flash, Batman, and Super-man (relative to the other comic characters, but not to the class).

It was quite interesting. I learned a lot about literary criticism and also about the comic characters in general. For instance, the short run-down of the Fantastic Four was its representation of Cold War fears, nuclear technology fears, and its effect on the family unit. Which, after discussing in class I thought, "so obvious" but when reading FF, I never said "wow this shows how new nuclear technology affects the family unit."

I don't think you can look at Marvel or DC though, and say, all these characters represent X, so DC was largely conservative or liberal. I think a scatter-graph would show the characters are all over the place in terms of what they say about the economy, about the city, about ethnicity and what not. Especially, when you read about the lives of the original creators.

 

[Aristotle]

The social origins of a character like Iron Man or Batman run far deeper than a represenation of capitalism. They resonate with two very American, very Western ideas: 1) the white man as teacher and leader of the world, "rugged individualism," the Tarzan idea; 2) the wealthy man as protector of the poor.

The first idea is most well known in its Tarzan manifestation. A white man conquers the harsh jungle, much better than the natives ever had, and rules over it wisely and well. It tapped into a popular cultural belief at the time, which was that white people had a responsibility to spread their civilization all over the world (an idea that still pervades American foreign and corporate policy today.)

The second idea is one that goes all the way back to the feudal system. The wealthy were obliged to protect their serfs. Later, noblesse oblige dictated that the wealthy extend nominal charity and protection to the poor. This condescending attitude shaped how the wealthy behave in Western society, and has also played a major role in ensuring that the status quo of extreme disparity between rich and poor is maintained.

These are very apparent in Iron Man. He represents white wealthy America, and his very origin story took place in one of the most heinous historical examples of white wealthy America trying to spread its ideology. And, of course, like Batman and Zorro and many others before him, he easily fits into the concept of the wealthy protector of the weak and poor.

 

[Anubis]

I bet neither of them vote.

 

[bored]

Why has nobody taken the bate and affiliated Hulk with the Green Party? Why, I ask you?!

 

[Anubis]

Cuz Hulk could give **** all about the environment. Hulk Smash.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Why has nobody taken the bate and affiliated Hulk with the Green Party? Why, I ask you?!

Hulk's a libertarian. He just wants to be left alone

 

[Franklin Richards]

 

[SuGarRush]

Spider-Man : Democrat
Wolverine: Who cares?
Deadpool: Bea Arthur
Iron Man: Fiscal Conservative
The REAL Nick Fury: Conservative Republican
Dr. Strange: Liberal
Cyclops: Centered, with leftist leanings
Colossus: I have yet to meet someone who lived in a communist nation and votes Liberal


That's just off the top of my head.



People keep placing Cap in the Democrat category.

And I agree,

for 1942.

A 1942 Democrat is MUCH MUCH MUCH more conservative than a Democrat of today.

In fact, I would hazard to say that Cap would probably ally himself as a Republican in this day and age, simply because of the extreme leftist shift in political values in the last 50 years. Seriously, go back and examine trends and political stances.


(And before someone asks, No, I'm not a Republican, they are WAYYYY to Liberal for my tastes, I'm a Conservative, I don't ally with either party at this point.)

 

[ShadowBoxing]

Captain America: New Deal Democrat *(as described by Englehart)
Cyclops: By his own admission, never votes Republican and hates Ronald Reagan (Cyclops miniseries)
Wolverine: ...doesn't give a sh**, hates Government in general (you saw what they did to him right?)
Ultimate Nick Fury: By his own admission voted for Ralph Nader.
616 Nick Fury: Seems to have his own distinct set of morals influenced mainly by the fact that he knows what's really going on, and neither political party would understand things the way he does.
Iron Man: Painted as socially conservative in Civil War, perhaps borderline fascist. Definitely fiscally conservative.
DareDevil: One could argue that Matt Murdock represents a very conservative, Catholic side of Murdock, while DareDevil shows a very socially compassionate, rebelious streak within him. Remember this guy has a tendency to wear many hats, and could potentially be accused on being a sociopath. He disguised himself as his sighted brother "Mike", an obvious loner and libertarian. As a garage worker named "Battlin' Jack" who probably cared less for politics than anyone, and also as, of course, the law abiding Matt Murdock.
Deadpool: Wig Party
J. Jonah Jameson: As far back as Stan Lee's run on Amazing, he was protesting for the rights of African Americans, picketing social justice issues and even has taken on corrupt officials. In the "What if Captain America had been revived 20 years later", Jonah is among the few journalists still willing to take his starkly conservative Government to task, risking his own job and standing. Liberal.
Spider-Man: His age and general social status, also considering he is the quintessential New Yorker, seems to indicate he is liberal, or at least left leaning.
Reed Richards: Originally Reed seemed staunchly liberal. Freeing Hulk from trail, speaking out for the rights of mutants, and even risking himself to defend the right to allow Galactus, a walking tyrant, to avoid the Universe's version of the death penalty, facing that fate himself. Now however they have rewritten him to be almost a "political logicist" (or whatever), being informed by logic and math in political decisions rather than the big heart he was known for before.

*Captain America: It should also be noted that Cap has turned his back on his Government three consecutive times now. Once back in the 1960s as Nomad "The man without a country", once again as simply the Captain (in the 1980s) and again in Civil War most recently. He allies himself frequently with known liberals, some would even say downright socialists, such as Nomad II, Vagabond, Falcon and Black Widow. He seems very much suspicious of the power of his Government taking away the rights of the little guys and the citizens of the United States in general. As far as I can tell, he has absolutely no political leanings in regards to fiscal policy. His only jobs to speak of were artist for hire jobs (working for Marvel comics, illustrating the 616's version of the Captain America comic -- little conspicuous). He seems very content to lead a meagar existance, without the riches and plush surroundings the likes of Tony Stark.

Also consider the fact that John Walker, painted as a stark, stark, neo-conservative, (the comics took it even to the point where he would go beat up leftist groups near to death) was painted as a very contrasting figure to Steve Rogers.

 

[Kitsune]

Spider-Man as a democrat...thats one more victory for us!

Spider-Man has a braincell. He's independent. If he's registered with either party it's only so he can vote in the primaries.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Reed Richards: Originally Reed seemed staunching liberal. Freeing Hulk from trail, speaking out for the rights of mutants, and even risking himself to defend the right to allow Galactus, a walking tyrant, to avoid the Universe's version of the death penalty, facing that fate himself. Now however they have rewritten him to be almost a "political logicist" (or whatever), being informed by logic and math in political decisions rather than the big heart he was known for before.

One of the worst sweeping changes to a character's personality in recent memory, if you ask me.