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[-] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago

I recall a funny thing I read on twitter a while back; someone was saying their DM sprung a story on them and over time got frustrated with the players only to cancel the game because he got upset with the players' choices. He'd apparently intended on telling a fantasy version of the birth of Israel and thought the players would side with the zionists. I recall another story that this retelling got someone to share but I can't for the life of me remember what it was unfortunately.

Also ironically Superman would most likely side with Israel in the DC universe; Superman is little more than a shill for the US government and alternate retellings of the DC universe seem to indicate his leanings. During the injustice storyline Superman 'fixes' the Israel-Palestine 'conflict' by telling them that if they didn't fix their issues that he'd fix it himself as if the problem is an arbitrary one that just needs both sides to come to the table (enlightened centrism strikes again). In that same storyline he also stops a drone sent by the US military from killing five civilians (it was sent because there was one target in the area; painfully the movie ups the civilian count to 30 because the average person today is so monstrously brain broken that five civilians isn't considered unacceptable, but 30 might), which means the same crimes happening in the real world are happening in the DC universe and Superman lets it happen. Additionally at one point wonder woman finally takes the gloves off and helps refugees in (Sudan?) kill their oppressors and....okay, fantastic, now go to a country we're at war with and do the same (for heck's sake you're not even American, why should you value US military and be fine with overlooking their crimes?). In a different alternate universe story that takes place further into the future, the government tells superheroes that either they become government employees or they retire, and Superman immediately sides with the US government and enforces their will (literally cutting off green arrow's arm because he refused to bend to the government's will).

I haven't watched this movie but it's easy to expect Superman to be little more than an extension of the government's will; if Superman was real he'd be in Gaza murdering Hamas soldiers and just being very, very concerned about war crimes he sees taking place without actually realizing what the heck is going on or actually realizing he's fighting for the wrong side. I remember reading the plot of the new movie that says Superman fights for truth, justice and the HUMAN way, where originally it's truth, justice and the AMERICAN way (which like.....pick one: either truth and justice, or the American way). Superman may originally have started out as pro-worker, but he's been shifted to be little more than an enforcer of US foreign policy.

[-] wolfinthewoods@hexbear.net 25 points 2 months ago

I am a big Superman fan and I can't tell you how wrong this take is. Yes, certain comics portray Superman as friend and believer in the "American Way" and as sometimes ally of the US military. However, those takes are far from the normal status quo. Of course you get particularly liberal-minded writers who frequently use that take. However, those writers are the exception rather than the rule. Hell, the most famous instance of Superman being a government shill came from Frank Miller in The Dark Knight which is such a poor take on Superman as to be parody. Miller famously hates Superman and found a way to character assassinate him and have Batman beat the shit out of him (laughable). Frequently the US government and Superman are at odds with each other and Superman regularly defies them even going so far as to directly stop their actions.

Superman got his start as someone that opposed societal oppression in all it's forms. In one golden age story Superman literally tears down a dilapidated tenement building being run by a slumlord who was extorting his tenants and refusing repairs, finding proper housing for the folks and forcing the slumlord to sell to the city to build something suitable. In another story Superman poses as a miner and goes undercover to expose a ruthless businessman exploiting his workers at the mine.

If Superman existed in the real world he definitely would be horrified at the actions of Israel and I have no doubt he'd step in. That's actually a big point in the movie as he causes an international incident by stepping into stop troops from murdering civilians in a nation that is an obvious stand-in for Israel (it even had it's own completely obvious pastiche of Netanyahu who meets a grisly fate at the end). At the end of the day these are American comics, by writers of various political and social backgrounds that will sometimes use Superman as a tool of patriotism and fundamentally misrepresent the essence of the character. It's going to happen from time to time (pretty sure I just read an issue of Action Comics recently that made me cringe with the writer's sucking-off of the military).

[-] OptimusSubprime@hexbear.net 10 points 2 months ago

Sorry to be off topic here, but there is a current version of Superman that takes him totally back to his roots of opposition to societal oppression: https://readallcomics.com/category/absolute-superman/

A Krypton stratified by strict class division (the 'S' stands for the worker class, the lowest class on Krypton). Kal-El actually grew up with his birth parents - Kal is about 10 -12 years old when Krypton explodes. Jor-El and Lara both class traitors, exiled from the science class to the worker class and fight for their fellow workers. Once Kal-El reaches Earth he barely spends time with the Kents, while helping workers around the world.

So far, Absolute Superman has been a trip to read.

[-] wolfinthewoods@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

Yes! It's a fantastic series. I especially liked that they had Kal going around the globe and helping out various worker struggles in secret at the beginning of the series. It's my favorite current Superman book right now. I just finished reading the latest issue earlier today. I'm excited to see where they'll take it.

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this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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