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The Kryptonians did not send their best (they did)
(hexbear.net)
A clean shaven white guy goody two-shoes who speaks perfect english, bulletproof and have literal superpower and save the planet on regular basis against other illegal aliens apparently still just a stinky illegal alien in the eyes of chuds
It's funny to think of Superman as a "model immigrant" in terms of his being a foreigner to the US. He's one of the good ones for being raised in Middle America and adopting US customs. Which reminds me that one of the more interesting Superman stories is called Red Son, it's an alternate history where baby Kal El lands in Soviet Ukraine instead of Kansas and is raised by communists. The US and Chile are the last capitalist holdouts on that universe, lmao
One of the punchlines of that story is that President Luthor eventually institutes a planned economy to fight back against Superman...so by the end of the story the conflict isn't even about capitalism versus socialism but whether or not the dominant ideology will be socialism with superman characteristic, or socialism with Luthor characteristics.
Nono, Luthor instutes a special Third way that isn't capitalism or communism, and it magically makes everything a million billion times better than either system, thus proving that we shouldn't do a communism because it will cause humanity to stagnate with silly things like "healthcare and housing for all" instead we need a system that lets the very best people rise to the top and then one day just decide to fix everything forever. It looking like a planned economy and having a true meritocracy with the best and brightest representatives in charge is because communism is bad and doesn't try to do that.
Still mad about that ending tbh, and Luthor's character in general in it, he's stupidly overpowered and pretty much just the author's Mary Sue character who magically fixes everything and stops those evil commies because he's So Smart.
I'd much rather see a version of it where the author actually knew anything about the USSR and socialism and communism, and what sort of underhanded fucked up shit the US gets up to. A communist superman being raised to see the best in humanity vs a Lex Luthor who will do everything in his power as a rich capitalist to exploit that, actively using Superman's empathy as a weapon against him, that sounds a lot better than the story we got. Still one of the better superman stories though.
Wait...did you read the comic or watch the shitty animated adaptation?
I read the comic, I don't think I could really stomach the adaptation. I already made that mistake with The Killing Joke. Not going to make it again.
Good instinct, adaptation is infinitely worse. I was gonna say: the movie is trash and blatantly anti Stalin and USSR but I think you're being a bit too harsh of the comic because I remember it actually being quite sympathetic.
I just didn't like all the shit like Superman lobotomising people and the system being presented as unsettling and terrifying, you know, terrifying that everyone has a job and everyone gets a good night's sleep. The comic emphasises vague ideas of "freedom" over actually living decent lives. It starts strong, but gets worse as it goes along in my opinion, and the ending makes me gag.