A lot of people dismiss Superman as being “too powerful” or “unrelatable.” They’ll say Batman is more relatable because he doesn’t have superpowers. But seriously, how many of us can actually relate to being a billionaire playboy with unlimited resources? In contrast, Superman grew up in small-town, working-class America. He is as much Clark Kent as he is Superman.
People call him a “boy scout,” as if that’s a flaw. But that misses the point. The fact that he has the power to rule the world and chooses not to, is what makes him extraordinary. He sets an ideal for people to strive for.
Yes, in the hands of a bad writer he can become a walking deus ex machina. But in the hands of a good writer, Superman becomes the core of some of the most powerful and iconic stories in comics. His greatness doesn’t come from what he can do, it comes from the choices he makes.
That is probably because Batman doesn’t pay taxes, Bruce Wayne does.
And Bruce Wayne is known for spending tons of the Wayne foundation on helping the poor and criminalized. Tons of charities, schools, orphanages, homeless shelters, … are funded by them.
And if Bruce gets tax breaks because of that, it is because that is how the law works, not because he wants them.
Bruce is far from the average Billionaire you get in our dimension.
I love Batman (currently replaying the Rocksteady games for the 3rd time) and I grew up with him and cannot really relate to Superman since I am not a farm boy.
But it is very easy to see how Batman is in fact a fascist-capitalist fantasy.
A rich man who takes things in his own hands on a whim, infiltrating public order tech, hoarding personal data on virtually everyone in Gotham (at least) if not resorting to real-time surveillance by infiltrating personal devices (in The Dark Knight).
The idea that he “does good” by deciding a subset of all possible activities on which to spend his money and never spends himself on releasing that decision power to the public is exactly what brought the US where they are and what they hate viscerally about the EU (even if the sliding is real here as well).
Superman
A lot of people dismiss Superman as being “too powerful” or “unrelatable.” They’ll say Batman is more relatable because he doesn’t have superpowers. But seriously, how many of us can actually relate to being a billionaire playboy with unlimited resources? In contrast, Superman grew up in small-town, working-class America. He is as much Clark Kent as he is Superman.
People call him a “boy scout,” as if that’s a flaw. But that misses the point. The fact that he has the power to rule the world and chooses not to, is what makes him extraordinary. He sets an ideal for people to strive for.
Yes, in the hands of a bad writer he can become a walking deus ex machina. But in the hands of a good writer, Superman becomes the core of some of the most powerful and iconic stories in comics. His greatness doesn’t come from what he can do, it comes from the choices he makes.
Superman probably pays more in taxes than Batman.
That is probably because Batman doesn’t pay taxes, Bruce Wayne does.
And Bruce Wayne is known for spending tons of the Wayne foundation on helping the poor and criminalized. Tons of charities, schools, orphanages, homeless shelters, … are funded by them.
And if Bruce gets tax breaks because of that, it is because that is how the law works, not because he wants them.
Bruce is far from the average Billionaire you get in our dimension.
I love Batman (currently replaying the Rocksteady games for the 3rd time) and I grew up with him and cannot really relate to Superman since I am not a farm boy. But it is very easy to see how Batman is in fact a fascist-capitalist fantasy.
A rich man who takes things in his own hands on a whim, infiltrating public order tech, hoarding personal data on virtually everyone in Gotham (at least) if not resorting to real-time surveillance by infiltrating personal devices (in The Dark Knight).
The idea that he “does good” by deciding a subset of all possible activities on which to spend his money and never spends himself on releasing that decision power to the public is exactly what brought the US where they are and what they hate viscerally about the EU (even if the sliding is real here as well).