Unmasking Superman, pt 1: Why the “Man of Steel” Should Offend Every Freedom Loving American
“There is nothing more un-American than a “Man of Steel” who is a walking, breathing breach of the fourth Amendment; a drone with a pulse who sees all, keeping watch over the helpless herd and whose main impetus to frustrate his adversaries is sheer and utter brute force. He dons no cape – but an iron curtain. In the age of the Superman, the most needful thing for any freedom lover is a fistful of Kryptonite!” – The Parson
Is Superman really the perfect embodiment of the “American Way”? Has Clark Kent masked his true identity while mainlining fascism to the American people? Why would two young Jewish boys from Cleveland on the threshold of the Third Reich birth a saga of a “man of steel”?
It’s time to peek beyond the cape.
WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
Riddle me this, Superfans: Who is Superman’s father?
No, it is not Jor-El or Jonathan Kent? Nor is it Jerry Siegel or Joe Shuster. The father of Superman is Friedrich Nietzsche.
If you search the phrase “Man of Steel” at Rotten Tomatoes, the top two results will be Warner Bros. upcoming movie about Superman and a 2006 History Channel documentary on Joseph Stalin. This is not a coincidence. Clark Kent and Uncle Joe are both worthy personifications of Nietzsche’s tyrannical wet-dream. In the beginning, this was the plan.
Superman first appeared as a short story entitled “The Reign of the Superman” in a fanzine – Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization #3.
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first conceived of Superman as a villain – bald and telepathic with a penchant for world domination. Siegel would disclose in a 1983 interview that this first conception was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s outline of the Übermensch (Superman).
Even in FDR’s America, capitalism still reigned and to sell their character, Siegel and Shuster would refashion Superman into the bespectacled hero with leading man looks, a cape and super abilities.
An orphaned alien, corn-fed with good old fashioned “American values,” Superman, now Clark Kent, would act as a shepherd to the lost sheep of humanity — leaping tall buildings, impervious to bullets, and employing x-ray vision and a gamut of other world capacity. And of course he’d hide his identity with a pair of glasses and a press pass.
THE HERO JOURNALIST:
Of course nothing screams “American Hero” like the mention of a “journalist,” – a vocation that ranks with Americans somewhere between venereal warts and chain-saw enemas.
Imagine David Gregory as an alien from another planet hiding behind the White House press badge to preserve both his secret identity and “truth, justice and the American way”? No, really, imagine it. Imagine it without milk coming out of your nose and the uncontrollable convulsions of common sense and stark realism. Sure, and Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric and George Snuffleupagus are all members of the Justice League! The only thing worse than Siegel’s choice of a journalist, would’ve been to pen Clark Kent as an IRS employee.
Reporters, who according to their own polling are 80% godless and by about the same percentage Obama supporters, fit quite nicely with a leftists understanding of the journalist: a being less interested in purveying truth and accurately reporting the facts and more inclined to “changing the world.”
HOW TO JUDGE SUPERHEROES:
Let’s forego the geek dilemma over “Can you be a Superhero if you don’t have super-powers?” and cut right to the quick: judging a superhero or any myth for that matter is best done by peeling back the cape and looking at the underlying worldview. Would you be surprised to find out that Siegel and Shuster were two left-leaning cheerleaders of FDR’s New Deal who first penned their fascist Frankenstein as a social activist to fight for social justice?
Even his superpowers, upon closer inspection, are at swords point with the “American Way.” As a matter of fact, if you asked the American people what they think of full body x-rays at the airport, drones over our cities and government eavesdropping of citizens sans a warrant or judges approval, they respond with about the same enthusiasm as a man facing a colonoscopy from Freddie Krueger.
Would Americans be more accepting of the nude x-ray if we sprayed an “S” on its outer shell; would they welcome the drone if we robed it in a scarlet cape?
And I guess fathers, husbands, and boyfriends are to be just fine with a “hero” who can see their daughters, wives, mothers or girlfriends naked. We can be content with the fact that he only thinks of Lois Lane in that way. Really, just trust him.