For the longest time, writers have had a fascination with what happens when Superman goes bad. A rather popular website was started partially on the basis of chronicling many of these poorly thought-out moments that were conceived in the older days of comic books - back when no one ever thought of calling the best of them 'graphic novels', because the only thing novel about them was their novelty.
Words don't express just how gauche this is.
- Courtesy of Superdickery.com -
There are a lot of reasons for this. Humans have long had a fascination for the concept of falling into evil. The most famous examples are Lucifer in Christianity and Iblis in Islam, but virtually every demon in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism could also be seen as manifestations of this trope; reincarnation means that virtually all fell into those forms for their misdeeds. A large part of the appeal of the modern show Breaking Bad is owed to its unique conceit of entirely being about the protagonist's fall into unsympathetic evil, from banal and sympathetic directions.
We also have a fascination with moral opposites, ranging from the Anti-Christ, to the Star Trek Mirror Universe, Luke and Anakin, and the recent canonization of The Good Romney, Mitt's dad. Opposites may not necessarily attract, but they are certainly attractive to our eyes.
With Superman as one of the most recognizable and iconic symbols of good in the history of the world, it should come at no surprise that there has been an awful lot of exploration of what should happen if he went bad. Multiple critically-acclaimed pieces of work have been performed on this conceit; The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller revolves in large part around Superman as a government stooge; Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar is about the Man of Steel being raised by the historical man of steel, Josef Stalin (no really, that's what his made-up last name means); and DC's Infinite Crisis had as its Big Bad Evil Guy an immature and insane alternate reality Superboy, driven mad by an imperfect world.
DKR is actually the only time I can recall Miller not doing this to a woman.
- Courtesy of Shortpacked.com -
Frequently, I run into people who believe this represents the only interesting aspect of the character; I had a long discussion with a very anti-authoritarian friend in the Green Party wherein he frequently labeled Superman as fascist. Batman, he contended, was a better example to live by. To him, Superman is at best unnatural and boring. It's certainly a fact that Batman is - by far - the more marketable hero.
But is it the Clark Kents of the world that we need to be afraid of and the Bruce Waynes that we need to be idolizing?
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