I’ve always read that Superman is what the U.S. would like to be: an immigrant raised on rural values who stands out for his qualities and protects the people by standing up to a powerful oligarch. Meanwhile, Batman is what they really are: a quasi-fascist nepo baby who uses force to drive away people who clearly need psychiatric care, so the powerful can go on with their lives undisturbed.
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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A bunch of Batman villains are just leftist tropes.
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Catwoman, the feminist bitch who just wants your money
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Penguin, the gross immigrant whose disability reflects his twisted soul
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Poison Ivy, the Eco-Terrorist
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Two-Face, the typical big city crooked politician
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Bane, the Mexican wrestler drug abuser
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Scarecrow, the post-modernist head shrinker
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Joker, the debauched fruity anarchist
They're all just things conservatives from the 80s are afraid of
Apparently it's really hard to be a writer for Superman too.
His powers are closer to god-like than almost any other character. He can fly, he has super hearing, he's almost indestructible, his eyes can both shoot beams and see through things like they were X-rays, he can run or fly at incredible speed, he can blow on things to either freeze them or generate hurricane force winds. His only real weaknesses are a rock that's incredibly rare and the lack of the yellow sun, and a mere sun shade isn't enough to stop that.
In addition to this massive set of powers, you have his attitude. He's not just "good", but almost completely pure hearted. He's always willing to respond to a cry for help. He always does the right thing. He almost never gets angry or frustrated. He never exploits his massive advantages for any personal gain.
The problem is that the writers now have to come up with why a good god allows bad things to happen. Why are there wars? He could dismantle any army in the world, but he chooses not to. Does he just allow wildfires to happen? Why? Whenever he's in Metropolis he's constantly saving everybody from everything that goes wrong. Not just supervillains but out of control cars, collapsing highway overpasses, crashing planes, etc. So, what happens when he takes some me-time and goes to his fortress of solitude? Does he just allow the various bad things that can happen in Metropolis to happen while he's away on vacation? And why does he protect Metropolis? Are the lives of people in Metropolis worth more than the people in any other big city in the world? Since he doesn't need to sleep, is he out patrolling for 8 hours every night, making sure nothing happens, if not, why not?
"Lois, you know how I always tell the truth?"
"Yes, Clark".
"Well, while we were having sex, I heard 17,363 people across the planet die".
The problem is that the writers now have to come up with why a good god allows bad things to happen. Why are there wars? He could dismantle any army in the world, but he chooses not to.
This is one area where the recent Superman movie is really good at addressing that gap. The conversation he has with Lois was absolutely excellent writing.
You have to attack his heart (go after his mom/louis) since you can't really attack him directly. Maybe try to set him up to attack his reputation? And put him with ethical dilemmas where his powers don't help as much.
That's why I love watchmen. Dr. Manhatten is basically a God, so it's like, how could anyone hope to defeat a God? With a remote apparently.
Who's Louis? His best friend?
Whoops, must have been autocorrect I didn't catch lol
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” -Lord Acton
I think the cause and effect is basically reversed now that we don't really do monarchy any more. With inherited power, there's a chance that a good person becomes king, and then you see corruption from the power.
But nowadays power mostly comes from money and/or political influence, and it's difficult to accumulate enough of either to secure any significant power without being corrupt. Sure, you can try, but you're at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who are willing to use unethical means.
I think that was the original intent for superheroes in general. They were "heroes". They stood up for people who didn't have the power to stand up for themselves. We've kind of lost that part...
"Get me pictures of Spider-Man!"
The earnestness and pain in his voice when Clark said “People were going to die” in the new Superman movie. That was the moment when I knew I was onboard and post helped me put in words.
Superman is what it would take for the powerful to do things right.
In the new film, at the end, when the cops take Lex into custody, they are not doing it because Lex committed crimes. They're doing it because Superman could fucking destroy them if they don't. If Superman wasn't super strong and invulnerable, they would have told him to get lost.
Superman is a fantasy not because he's good and powerful. He's fantasy because the powerful are not accountable to anyone in real life.
Superman is way more powerful than any living person in the real world. He has the power to take unilateral action and even armies can’t stop him.
The powerful people in this world do have power, and can do a lot of things, but they have very little unilateral power. Even a dictator like Putin can’t take Ukraine despite being completely obsessed with it. Most other people (politicians, billionaires) have far less unilateral power than Putin. They can only do things when they get others to agree with them.
That’s really the problem with humanity in general and it’s the real reason Superman is a fantasy: it’s a fantasy of unilateral power. The ability to just solve some problems and not have to deal with people opposing you on everything.
You seem to have some comforting fantasies of your own!
Yes, but to the point of the picture, Putin with that much power would be one of the most evil, destructive motherfuckers around.
A fundamental concept that Zack Snyder completely failed to understand.
"What if a rich man cared?"
No that's batman
But does he? Instead of giving money to charity, he spends it on toys that he uses to beat up poor people. It's a weird type of caring.
It's more "in addition to" than "instead of". In the comics, the Wayne foundation sponsors orphanages, welfare and job programs, homeless shelters, and clinics
You can tell it's fictional by the way a billionaire is good for society
Only in a fantasy world would you ever see billionaires using their money to become heros.
Was going to say...
Batman is a fantasy of a billionaire who isn't a pedophile
Holy shit!
One Punch Man did it better.
At least before the new season...