Desire for power and demonstration of dominance has been the impetus of human history since the beginning of time. People want to conquer territory and be the very best, they want to be someone others are jealous of. In Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son, Millar demonstrates this desire for power and the consequences of these actions. The comic takes place during the Cold War and tells the tale of what would happen if Superman had landed in the Soviet Union instead of Smallville, Kansas. The comic takes place in the Superman elseworld, where different stories or events occur to pre-existing characters, which are not related to the DC canon universe. While it is not explicitly stated in the comic, Superman demonstrates the values of the Soviet …show more content…
In Red Son, the United States economy is in shambles as their effort to rival Superman prove fruitless. Lex Luthor is given a “ludicrous” amount of money for his anti-Superman program which proves to be a failure time and time again. Each new idea of Luthor seems good in practice but is always met with a strong rebuttal from Superman. Halfway through the comic, Luthor is at attempt 307 in his attempts to beat Superman, showing the grotesque number of attempts and resources that went into Luthor’s failed program. With government spending focused on the anti-Superman program the United States becomes unruly, there are riots in California, the White House gets bombed, and Texas and Detroit talk of independence. This section of the comic relates closely with the start of the Iraq war, which started just a year before the comics release. The United States entered the war due to the possibility of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, and the massive government spending on both nuclear weapons and the war caused public uproar globally. According to the BBC, “73% of the global population disapproved of U.S. handling of the Iraq War” (BBC), which could explain this comic’s negative outlook on war and weaponry. Much like the government spending of nuclear weapons and war, the United States’ government in the comic spends a ridiculous amount into a program with minimal pay-off. Nuclear economics professor Stephen I. Schwartz believes there is a point where government spending in nuclear arms becomes superfluous in his article, “The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons”. In the article, Schwartz explains that the United States spending in nuclear arms is a way to demonstrate power, he explains that countries believe that if they have the most powerful weapons that other countries will agree to demands. Schwartz believes “at a minimum hundreds of
Society favors the outlaw hero because we relate with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the child like talents that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have. Superman’s image has remained unchanged over the years. A blue suit accompanied by boots, a belt and cape have always been the Superman style, along with the Superman emblem on his chest. Superman’s real name is Kal-El, a descendant of the Kryptonian family of the house of El, with his father known as Jor-El and mother Lara. Krypton was discovered to be in the last seconds of life due to the coming supernova of its sun by Kal-El’s father. The other members of Krypton did not believe Jor-El could not tell others of his answers and examinations. Jor-El promised that neither he nor his wife would leave and with every last possible choice eliminated, Jor-El would send his newborn son to the planet Earth. Kal-El then crash landed into the care of Jonathan and Martha Kent, two farmers in Kansas. He then adopted the Kent family name,...
Immanuel Kant’s accounts is most plausible in this case. The choices Superman makes are always done out of perfect duty. The concept of categorical imperative, follows along with the majority of the actions Superman takes. Superman’s decision making is done out of good will which is a “good in itself.” Some might say that Aristotle’s accounts is most plausible in this case. Everything about Aristotle’s ethical theories points to Superman performs virtuous acts which leads to a life of happiness. Lex’s actions not only harms others, but also harms his chances of cultivating a virtuous character. The drawback of Aristotle’s theory in Superman’s case is Superman’s longevity. Aristotle’s theory, makes it so that one can only obtain happiness at the end of their lives; there is no telling what the future holds, Superman might not always take the correct actions. In the case of Mill’s theory, one can see that neither of Superman’s identities seek out higher pleasures; one only sees him live his life day by day; either stopping the bad guys or writing articles about bad guys. So out of the three theories Kant’s is most plausible for this
In a country like the United States of America, with a history of every individual having an equal opportunity to reach their dreams, it becomes harder and harder to grasp the reality that equal opportunity is diminishing as the years go on. The book Our Kids by Robert Putnam illustrates this reality and compares life during the 1950’s and today’s society and how it has gradually gotten to a point of inequality. In particular, he goes into two touching stories, one that shows the changes in the communities we live in and another that illustrates the change of family structure. In the end he shows how both stories contribute to the American dream slipping away from our hands.
The film uses a number of themes showing our less admirable responses to the Cold War period of the 50's and 60's. This time period was one of fear in which nuclear annihilation was ever-present in the minds of Americans and Russians. Kubrick chronicles the time period with its playing up of the arms race gaps by creating "Doomsday Device Gaps" and "Mine Shaft Gaps" to ridicule the two superpowers ever-increasing competition to have the most of everything. This constant drive to ensure that we had just as much destructive capability as the Russians drove both countries into huge amounts of debt. A large part of the national debt can be attributed to military over-spending. This competition to have to most weapons also gave us the capability to destroy the world many times over.
In the story Kingdom Come, the superheroes of old such as Superman, Green Lantern, and the Flash are living in a type of self imposed exile after a disastrous nuclear accident in Kansas state. When Superman and the other heroes come back to stop the new breed of heroes, meta-humans, who are doing more harm than good, the threat of the end of the Earth looms overhead. The climax of the graphic novel comes when the Gulag, the prison built to house the non-cooperating meta-humans, has been destroyed. As the old superheroes clash with the escaped meta-humans, Superman battles Captain Marvel who has been brainwashed by Lex Luthor and has turned against his former allies and friends.
Presently, the United States places a high value on its military power and often boasts of its strength in the news. Not only does
In the Historical fiction, “The Red Badge of Courage”, written by Stephen Crane; a young man try’s to find courage in himself in the time of war. After watching your commander die in war, would you stay and fight or return home and be a coward? Enlisting Himself into war Henry, to be more than the common man to prove worthyness and bravery. With the sergeant dead will Henry lead his men to victory, or withdraw his men in war. Not being the only are faced with the decision Jim and Wilson Henry’s platoons will have the same decision.
Superhero comic books post World War Two began to rapidly decline because the enemy within all of the storylines were Nazis and with the Nazi defeat, there was no enemy left. This left a void to be filled with many superhero comic books in the late 1940s and early 1950s moving towards anti-communism and the defeating of the Soviet Union. However, they had marginal success in this period, since the youth of America understood the soviets had gained the nuclear bomb, which meant the Soviets could not be defeated in one swoop, securing their survival. By the early 1950s, however, the Cold War was warming up, with China becoming Red, and war in Korea. Politicians, like Joseph McCarthy, used anti-communist
The core of American myth is Superman consists of a few basic facts that remain unchanged throughout the infinitely varied ways in which the myth is told – facts with which everyone is familiar, however marginal their knowledge of the story. Superman is an orphan rocketed to Earth when his native planet Krypton explodes; he lands near Smallville and is adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who inculcate in him their American middle-class ethic; as an adult he migrates to Metropolis there he defends America – no, the world! no, the universe – from all evil and harm while playing a romantic game in which, as Clark Kent, he hopelessly pursues Superman, who remains aloof until such time as Lois proves worthy of him by falling in live with his feigned identity as a weakling. That’s it. (Engle, 678).
The country^s taxes pay for the system, but some people may not want the money they pay to be used for violent reasons. While we are making the strongest weapons we could, the nation can do better things that will help not only us but the world. Too many weapons will cause us to get greedy and too powerful. Many other countries despise us. Countries like Russia, China, and even small ones like North Korea are powerful and the US doesn^t have really good relations with them.
Okay now before all you fanboys start raising your pitchforks and torches let me explain cause from here i'm sure you guessed number 1 by now. Superman was borned on the planet known as Krypton literally seconds after being born the planet was going to explode so Jor-El and Lara sent him off to space in a capsule landing on Earth on a farm owned by Martha and Jonathan Kent who took him in as there own son who they named Clark Kent. The rest is history the crying baby turned into the Superhero known as Superman he has every power in the book including heat vision, ice breath, incredible strength, and he can fly! He's saved the earth countless times from the most dangerous foes in comics history examples being Darksied who is a GOD, Doomsday who was made for the sole purpose of KILLING Superman lost his life in that battle the list goes on forever the Earth is forever in Superman's gratitude. Still haven't lowered your pitchforks and torches?
Morgenthau goes onto his third method of analysis which is reviewing a state’s usable and unusable power. The most popular example of this is the possession of nuclear weaponry. Nuclear capabilities and that threat of their use is a form of useable power for states like the US and Russia but not for states with underdeveloped nu...
Superman is stuck in an endless loop. His duty calling, he is constantly needed in Metropolis to defeat villains, and keep the peace. Yet, no one ever tries to put themselves in his place. Everyone is just content with the fact they’re safe. They don’t wonder what he feels, while saving the town.
Unlike Captain Marvel, this gives the viewers the opportunity to truly examine Clark Kents alter ego in Superman. We establish, the real transformation from Clark Kent as a quite, shy newspaper journalist to that of strong confident heroic man. Superman is born with his powers, and unlike Captain Marvel and Iron Man, he uses his powers purely for justice without killing anyone. Society during the 1970's needed an idol that represented humanity at it's best. Making the right decision, even if it didn't seem like it. For example, taking Lex Luthor to prison without killing him. Superman is suggested as starting the trend of the "cookie-cutter musclemen"(Maria Hart, April 2016) which represent modern day superhero's including Iron Man. These charaters look physically strong, unlike Captain Marvel, Superman truly fits the name of being
Scott D. Sagan, the author of chapter two of “More Will Be Worse”, looks back on the deep political hostilities, numerous crises, and a prolonged arms race in of the cold war, and questions “Why should we expect that the experience of future nuclear powers will be any different?” The author talks about counter arguments among scholars on the subject that the world is better off without nuclear weapons. In this chapter a scholar named Kenneth Waltz argues that “The further spread of nuclear weapons may well be a stabilizing factor in international relations.” He believes that the spread of nuclear weapons will have a positive implications in which the likely-hood of war decreases and deterrent and defensive capabilities increase. Although there