From Samson to Superman, Gilgamesh to Thor, and Batman to the Watchmen, superhero stories have been told in countless ways for over a millennium. Across all these stories, certain themes endure.
Even alternate universes, where superheroes lose their way, remain grounded in our shared understanding of what a superhero should do: help people, save people, and make the world safer.
• Superheroes live by a code, like “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.”
• They are anchored in a worldview like “with great power there must also come — great responsibility.”
A superhero’s values are rarely questioned; it’s the politics that get messy.
Complex Reality Meets Simple Narratives
In comics, villains are cartoonishly evil, while superheroes are unrealistically good. This makes it easy for readers to know who to root for.
But in the complex real world—of geopolitics, macroeconomics, and moral dilemmas—things are harder to paint in black and white. Complexity sets the stage for bad actors to promote overly simple narratives as solutions.
The easiest way to spot these bad actors? Listen to their focus: is it a what or a who?
• When they focus on what is causing the problem, they acknowledge that the issue is complex and harder to fix.
• When they focus on who is causing the problem, they simplify it by blaming a person or group, making the solution seem easy.
If you look back through history, most great leaps forward came from addressing a shared problem—the what—that required cooperation and collaboration. Conversely, periods of human suffering have often come from leaders blaming a who, mobilizing people to use violence against a common enemy.
Choosing Between Dangerous Paths
With another high-stakes election upon us, I’ve been thinking about how a superhero might approach our choices.
In my view, a superhero’s politics are straightforward:
• Superheroes don’t threaten, harm, or kill innocent people. They protect them.
• They defend people’s rights; they don’t take them away.
• They don’t seek conflict, but they don’t run from it.
So, how would a superhero choose between two flawed options? It’s a matter of strategy:
1. Follow your conscience.
2. Take the smaller loss to escape immediate danger and continue the fight on better terms.
The only strategy a superhero wouldn’t take is voting for someone openly fascist, racist, and convicted felon, with plans to strip away people’s rights, and commit acts of violence against those who disagree with him.
No matter the outcome, it’s a better time than ever to start organizing. Superheroes need to stick together.
Stay safe tomorrow. See you on the other side.
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