It’s been over a decade since I quit reading X-Men, but Wolverine and Nightcrawler used to get into political debates. Wolverine tended to be conservative, Nightcrawler tended to be liberal. Storm occasionally voiced opinions that were left of Wolverine.
Then again, some city-slicker writers have tried to turn Wolverine into an environmentalist and an animal-rights activist. In my opinion, these stories are rather out-of-character.
Some commentators have described Superman as “the ultimate New Deal Democrat”, coming down from on high to bestow justice on the less fortunate.
Well, I’m guessing Judge Dredd could be seen as pretty conservative as he believes in small government formed by those who keep the law, which is adhered to on a zero-tolerance basis
Professor Xavier and Mageneto are both stongly left of Center- and both Strongly Anti- Nazi. Both have very strong views on Human rights, although Magnetos views on human rights have been usurped by his views on mutant superiority. He seems to think all humans are created equal- but that mutants are better than those equal humans.
Professor Xavier was often used as metaphor for Martine Luther King JR, with Magento being the Malcom X (hah!) stand in.
Nightcrawler is liberal- to a point. He is also a devout Catholic, and sometimes his views on personal liberty conflict with his religous beliefs. But the he hangs out with a woman who used to be worshiped as a goddess, and who calls upon a goddess for aid.
One reason that many superheroes, at least in the Marvel universe, have a bit of a left leaning philosphy has to do with the civil rights metaphors that are so strong in the mutant stories. Thier just haven’t been that many right wing civil rights leaders.
DC on the other hand never seemed to really be that big on diversity as early as marvel was. Although you did have the odd (occassionaly token) character.
Black Panther seemed to be pretty radical left, as you might imagine- but not nearly so much as the name might imply.
Galactus feels very strongly about both environmental issues and the conservation of existing food supplies, although his views have been known to change radically. He was formerly an “Earth Firster” (or more appropriately an “Earth Nexter”), but his most recent stated position is “Earth Last.”
He’s also encountered several demons, and is, in fact, friends with a man who’s sharing his body with one.
There’s a bit in a JLA story, it may have been the second White Martians story, where Batman says ‘I don’t believe in ghosts’ (or something of that nature, my copy isn’t convenient to check just now), and Nightwing points out he’s met Deadman. Of course, if I’m remembering correctly, and it was the White Martians story, it turns out Batman was right about it not being ghosts doing the possessing, but the point remains, he’s had more than one encounter with Deadman and still denies ghosts exist.
Hm. I saw Clark Kent as a liberal Methodist for a long time, but I’ve come to think of him as maybe Reformed Jewish.
Batman as Episcopalian sounds right, but the Scottish ancestry could point to Presbyterian.
Luthor Jewish???
Oh, yeah, this thread is about political views.
In Mike Collins’ version of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, he introduced a British costumed hero called the Crusader (not one mentioned before; see here) who resented the high-profile incursion of foreigners into the British consciousness, particularly, of course, foreign superheroes on British soil—like Thunderbolt, an American.
Actually, that sounds much like Mr. A, the self-published version of the Question. (Two-fisted vigilante as daytime “self-help” talk-show host would be comparable.) Same kind of thing, but the Question probably hit people more & spoke in smaller paragraphs. (And Denny O’Neil’s 1980’s Question wasn’t Ditko’s. Denny’s was more taciturn, & more leftish, if I’m not mistaken.)
In that case, the “Rand didn’t go far enough!” sounds suspiciously like it came from that Frank Miller project, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, with the mockeries of DC heroes. So it doesn’t count either. (Whether you regard it as misinterpretation or pure spoof.)
As for Batman’s theology, I used to play an “atheist” ranger in Dungeons & Dragons. Less about whether personal gods exist than, “I don’t believe in them, don’t truck with them, don’t trust them, don’t worship them.” He worshipped nature in an impersonal sense. Bats may be in that vein. Having met multiple supernatural entities, he may feel less respect for any one personal “god.” YMMV.
At that point Superman, J’onn…I think the Thanagarian Hawks were around…The Oans…
And…at about the same time (in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #82), Green Arrow dismissed the idea of Amazons, despite relatively recently hanging around with Wonder Woman. In fact, of the 3 things he was dismissing in that breath (other dimentions, medusas and Amazons), the Amazons were the ones who got the ‘for Pete sake!’
Some of the treatment of Batman in JLA is a joke. See, in Batman’s own book, large obvious magic & sci-fi is inappropriate. There is the idea that Batman should exist in a world where even he is thought to be an urban legend, or at least where super-heroes & aliens don’t normally exist, & weird supernatural stuff is underground & secret. This is a minority viewpoint, but a significant one, in that it’s more or less the Denny O’Neil approach.
So people make a joke of it when Bats appears in JLA, which isn’t quite in the universe of his own book.
In one of his Discworld novels, Pterry wrote something to the effect that witches don’t believe in gods – not because they doubt their existence, but because they know too much about them. “It’s like believing in the postman.”
Something like that, I think. He just plain doesn’t much like the God of the DCU, and he’s told the Spectre as much during one of their meetings (in an issue of Batman from, like, 1998 or something). Essentially, he said that he thought the DCU God was a jerk and didn’t have any interest in worshiping or believing in him.
As for Wonder Woman, we also know that she’s a vegetarian, but we don’t know if that’s a personal thing or if she thinks everyone should be that way (although IIRC she keeps a strictly vegetarian menu at her embassy).
I’d go for that, but I’d be careful not to call it atheism. Atheists don’t dislike or are angry at God, they don’t think He exists. Batman *knows *God exists, but is essentially angry at Him.
Skeptics and humanists (and dogmatic theists of all stripes!) don’t fare well in a universe where every type of nonsense exists and is evident to anyone paying any attention at all to world events. Frankly, it takes almost as much suspense of disbelief to think that society doesn’t collapse in the wake of The Spectre and Dr. Fate operating publicly as it does to believe a man could fly.
I like Superman as Jewish since it fits the “immigrant American dream” thing he’s going on. It doesn’t quite fit the small town midwest “salt of the Earth” stereotype to have made it to the canon. If I were to be made king of DC, I’d seriously think about changing that.
Come to think of it, Batman may have been Presbyterian. It was one of those sects I associate with upper-class WASPs. Presbyterian hellfire better suits Bats’ personality, I think.
Yeah, I don’t see Luthor as Jewish either. But that’s the only one I recall really clearly . I don’t know where that came from (not anti-semitism, Maggin is himself Jewish, and added a “Thank Goodness!” when he clarified that Luthor doesn’t practice. Now Lex Luthor, there’s someone arrogant enough to dismiss the abundant evidence for divinities in the DCU, with enough of a humanistic (well, narcissitic pretending to be humanistic) streak to justify it too.
But back to politics…
Captain America is often described as a New Deal Liberal (but not necessarily a modern liberal or especially loyal to the Democrats). So is Superman.
Amanda Waller led the Suicide Squad, a group of mostly captured supervillains sent on secret mission by the government in exchange for pardons. She’s a crusading liberal, but has fallen into the “government can do whatever it pleases, so long as the ends justify the means” meme, common on both sides.
There was several Soviet heroes and quasi-heroes, liek Black Widow, Rocket Red, and Red Star.
Oh, yeah, I forgot this! A self-described “Boll Weevil”!
Which is weird, since he seems to have been from NY.
Actually, the most political super-heroes were probably the characters in Will Shetterly’s *Captain Confederacy *comics. They were quasi-official agents of the various countries in a very disunited alternate-history North America.
And then there’s Magnus, Robot Fighter, who had an ethic of human self-reliance…
