Superman Story In Truth & Justice #4

[Alpha]

Like I said, the reason why I think he would be all about promoting the nuclear family isn't just about where he grew up, it's about how he grew up. The classic mother and father roles are the fundamentals of his outlook on life. These are two people that picked him up and chose to

Even if he didn't live on a farm (which is something that was made explicit in 1948 in Superman 53, though other writers ignored it at times), he was always from a small town in Kansas (right?), which means he was much more likely to grow up in a conservative region. To be clear, I think Clark would be agnostic. He might still practice christian traditions but I don't believe he has any certainty about the existence of god. Not only because of his scientifical mind, but also because while his parents at first might've thought he was a messiah sent by god, the fact that he never heard any voices or receive any visions means that he wasn't at all like Jesus or Moses or any messiah. And why would a christian, or really any abrahamic god create a messiah without granting him any superior knowledge? Clark might still wonder if there is some other force guiding the world, but I don't think he believes in an abrahamic god. So I'm not implying that he is fully social conservative.

As a journalist, and someone fascinated by the outside world, he probably grew a much more sophisticated view of society and philosophy and politics than the people in his town. But profound traditions like marriage aren't as easy to dismiss if you grew up in a nurturing environment in which you were dependent (Clark literally knew the Kents were the only people he could trust to take care of him despite his secret). Even a Clark an agnostic and pro choice Clark would probably have an inherent bias towards promoting a nuclear family, because of his own childhood fears and the source of all his sense of safety, which was the nuclear family of Martha and Jonathan.

Again, I can't imagine Clark explicitly saying gay couples shouldn't be allowed to get married, but I think he would have such a strong reservation that he would be incapable of resisting.

I think a nuanced view of the character, recognizing his realistic flaws (subjective) turn him into an even more interesting character. Specially because I don't think Superman would always do the "correct thing".

[Alpha]

As for gay people I point to his feelings with regards to Maggie Sawyer. He’s never had any problems with her sexuality whatsoever and they had Byrne Post Crisis Superman of all people, who was a Republican, feel that it was unjust that Sawyer was discriminated against:

Political positions aren't a spectrum, they are a mosaic. Most of the time there is a correlation, but a character with an experience as unusual as Superman wouldn't fit into traditional patterns.

[Vordan]

Sorry but I just see that characterization as the kiss of death for the character. People aren’t going to pay money for a homophobic white conservative protagonist from Kansas (unless you’re Comicsgate). Hell the DKR took the piss out of “good ol’ farmboy Clark” way back in the 1980s. Could make for an interesting Elseworld, that’s a deconstruction of the character I would check out, but for the main guy? No.

[Frontier]

Yep this story is definitely going to make some folks mad. But for me it’s very satisfying to see my personal politics embodied bu Supes.

I can’t agree at all frankly, and putting my personal beliefs aside I’ll try to explain why using the actual comics. People typically get far too hung up on the rural background aspect that they forget the other parts: He’s a reporter in a major metropolitan city, and since the Daily Planet picks fights with billionaires and big megacorps I doubt it’s right-leaning. He knows his planet died because the leaders failed to heed his father, the chief scientist, warnings about the apocalypse which would doubtless echo in the back of his mind with regards to stuff like climate change. He’s against the death penalty, a natural outgrowth of his qualms about killing:


As for gay people I point to his feelings with regards to Maggie Sawyer. He’s never had any problems with her sexuality whatsoever and they had Byrne Post Crisis Superman of all people, who was a Republican, feel that it was unjust that Sawyer was discriminated against:


Portraying any hero as against homosexual couples nowadays would render a character nuclear. The only conservative heroes at the Big 2 tend to be dicks at best, like U.S.Agent, or are just flat out evil. Saying Superman is socially conservative would basically be surrendering him to the people who just want to write him as a fascist dictator. Hell look at Chris Reeve! That dude was portrayed as basically the embodiment of the 1950s coming into the troubled 1970s to remind us of better times, and that dude was still anti-nuclear. Captain America is guy from the 1930s yet doesn’t harbor any prejudices at all even though that’s not really realistic. The original intent of Siegel and Shuster was that Superman was a progressive champion of tomorrow, and that is ultimately the interpretation I respect. There was a time when Clark wasn’t a farmboy from Kansas and there may come a day when we need to return to that interpretation for him to appeal to the next generation.

I mean really if we followed this line of logic that says because he was raised in Kansas he’d be conservative down the rabbit hole, Clark would definitely be a MAGA supporter. He’d definitely believe in QAnon. Kansas overwhelmingly is Trump country, and that’s where this line of logic leads us. But where does that leave the character? Nowhere but to be the villain. Just like how Batman and Green Arrow and Ted Kord are “good” billionaires who somehow run their companies ethically without hurting their profits, Clark has all the good and none of the bad. That’s why he’s a hero.

Edit: Also I’ll throw in this personal detail: I grew up near Plano, IL. Yeah the one Zack Snyder used for Smallville in Man of Steel. My parents are conservative, but I’m not. I’m friends with a guy who grew up in rural Missouri, same deal, his hometown is very right wing but he isn’t. So where you grew up doesn’t necessarily dictate your beliefs for the rest of your adult life, especially after college.

Was Bryrne's Superman really explicitly Republican?

[Vordan]

Was Bryrne's Superman really explicitly Republican?

Dunno if Clark ever came out and said he was, and the Triangle Era ended up walking that back somewhat in favor of making him a centrist, but Byrne definitely talked about writing him as a “compassionate Republican”. It was the 80s after all, it was hip to be square

[Robanker]

Count me as another satisfied that Clark is honing in to a more left political stance. I'm pretty sure conservatives would have me lynched if they saw how I write Clark at times when I'm goofing off.

But it's who he was created to be. To avoid getting myself banned, I'll add that I grew up raised on conservative politics by a man who is the definition of centrist. I live in California and a particularly left-leaning section of it. We're one of the bluest centers in the union. You still see tons of deep-right Q Anon guys here. Geography does not define one's politics. Yes, it does indicate a trend, but individuals can fork hard right when everyone else is going left. The Kents have always been portrayed as decent folk who raised their son to step in when he sees oppression or people getting trampled.

Pretty sure he'd have gone to the Capitol building and slapped every one of those insurgents on Jan. 6th. I'll never understand when someone tries to pass off Superman as some conservative or symbol of the status quo. He's almost uniformly considered dull when he tows that line and he was literally created to fight injustice from the domestic all the way to governmental level. It's all in Action Comics #1. Byrne may have thought of Clark as a conservative but that's no more correct than thinking he's just some centrist who has no opinions whereas Superbro is the only one who cares about the little guy.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Superman is the Man of Tomorrow. Conservatives are, almost by definition, people fixated on yesterday. So, no, the idea of Clark Kent being socially conservative doesn’t make much sense.

However, the idea of the Kent’s being more conservative than they are usually portrayed by liberal writers makes sense, but, even then, you’re going to have fans freaking out as we saw when Zack Snyder tried to depict the Kents as people more representative of a pair of rural famers from the staunchly Republican state of Kansas.

[Alpha]

I agree, Clark wouldn't logically be economically conservative and there would be various social issues where he would disagree with conservative values, such as abortion, religion, probably the death penalty and maybe gun control? Not sure. But I don't think you should underestimate his inherent bias towards a nuclear family.

That said, Clark's bias doesn't mean he would actually fight against same sex marriage, nor that he would necessarily be uncomfortable with same sex couples. Although cmon, he probably wouldn't have met a out of the closet gay man until he left the small town and much be in contact with one who displays his own affection with his boyfriend. So I'm sure once he started living in the big city it would have been an adjustment to see a man kiss another man.

As far as Superman's biases making him be rejected by most people and supported by all the wrong people, it's true. And I'm not saying I need this to be shown in a definite matter, I just personally see it in a different view and don't mind for comics books to never show this. It's not like I think that explain why people would be against same Sex marriage.

Oh, and by 2021 I don't think Clark would still be worried about same sex marriage. I'm just saying that he wouldn't be out protesting for it in 2013. He would probably just stay at home and let the rest of the world decide.

[HsssH]

Maybe lets not get into stereotypes that every conservative hates gay people and supported Jan. 6 events.

[Alpha]

And who exactly is doing that? I implied that being against same sex marriage is a conservative belief, whereas being pro gay marriage is progressive (at this point it's just reality). This doesn't mean that you have to be against a gay marriage to be a conservative, or that people who are mostly progressive can't also be against gay marriage. It just means that the belief itself is something that can only be categorized as conservative

[Jcogginsa]

There are still liberals in Kansas, just not very many of them.

I simply can't imagine Superman as a conservative of any kind. While not all conservatives are evil, the conservative brand in America is dominated by evil people. It's too toxic for Superman to ever be interested in.

Was Bryrne's Superman really explicitly Republican?

IIRC, there was an alt future where he ran for president as a Republican (though all of his stated policy positions were more democratic leaning)

[Alpha]

There are still liberals in Kansas, just not very many of them.

I simply can't imagine Superman as a conservative of any kind. While not all conservatives are evil, the conservative brand in America is dominated by evil people. It's too toxic for Superman to ever be interested in.

Again, I'm not talking about him being an over all conservative, just on a few issues, like family and the electoral college

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Again, I'm not talking about him being an over all conservative, just on a few issues, like family and the electoral college

Why on Earth would Superman be in favor of the electoral college? Because it grants Kansas a disproportionate degree of power in American politics? Being in favor of the electoral college stopped being a conservative view decades ago. Currently, the only people who favor it are Republicans, because, without it, they'd have no chance of ever electing someone from their party to the Presidency ever again...unless the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot on the scale of nominating a reality show host.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I think a nuanced view of the character, recognizing his realistic flaws (subjective) turn him into an even more interesting character. Specially because I don't think Superman would always do the "correct thing".

I see what you're saying, but it would be a betrayal of too much of who the character is for a good deal of his fans. Yeah, there's the contingent of Superman fans who are just into the idea of being a steroided-up muscle-bound sun god stronger than anyone else, but also able to fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes, but I think the overwhelming majority of Superman fans are most attracted to the idea that this is a guy who possesses a ludicrous degree of power, but only uses that power for the betterment of the people around him because he's motivated by a sense of empathy and altruism that is virtually unheard of in the real world.

Frankly, those qualities are pretty antithetical to the social conservatism you're talking about because it means that Clark is so unable to empathize with people who weren't raised in the same kind of family as he was that he would be okay with them to be treated as lesser than others for no other reason than their sexual orientation or any number of other factors. That's simply not who Superman is, or what he's meant to represent.

This isn't to say that a conservative viewpoint must inherently be cruel or selfish, but it's largely defined by the notion that society shouldn't change too quickly because these changes might not be an improvement. That's a necessary argument to be made, particularly as our technology has allowed our culture to accelerate at a pace that is unprecedented in our entire history. However, I just don't think a character like Superman would be the kind of character best suited to represent that point of view, beyond his usual shtick of harkening back to a kinder, gentler era wherein our culture was a lot less cynical and snarky.

[Alpha]

Why on Earth would Superman be in favor of the electoral college? Because it grants Kansas a disproportionate degree of power in American politics? Being in favor of the electoral college stopped being a conservative view decades ago. Currently, the only people who favor it are Republicans, because, without it, they'd have no chance of ever electing someone from their party to the Presidency ever again...unless the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot on the scale of nominating a reality show host.

I mean yes that's exactly the reason why he would be in favor. He probably believes that it's not just about equality of numbers but also equality of experiences. I disagree with this, but I totally think him growing up in a small town or a farm in Kansas would see his parents as at a disadvantage, regardless of his own status as a superhuman, and the electoral college as a way to compensate for that disadvantage.