Brad Pike writes that Superman and Lex Luthor represent America’s disdain for science:
Superman, meanwhile, is ultra masculine, as evidenced by his full head of hair, strong, and belief in relatively abstract concepts like Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Whatever Luthor builds, he destroys. Whatever Luthor wants, he opposes. Like a bully on the playground, Superman represents the idea of Might is Right, that strength is more important than intelligence, and so it’s no wonder really that he’s frequently hoisted as a symbol of America. It seems to me that the popularity of the conflict between these two characters comes from a cultural narrative that is told over and over.
Here in America, science can’t be trusted. We can see this in the controversy in the early 2000s over whether creationism/ intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution which culminated, thank God, in a 2005 court ruling banning the teaching of intelligent design in schools. We can see this again as Americans’ concern about global warming continues to drop thanks to less and less news coverage. In fact, nearly half (48%) of Americans don’t believe in global warming at all. This comes in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus that, yes, if we don’t stop flooding the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, parts of the planet will become fucking uninhabitable in just a few decades. Even when the survival of our species is at stake, Americans choose to look, not to scientists, but to their most trusted experts to interpret such matters—talk show hosts. Perhaps it’s their meticulous grooming or their reinforcement of viewers’ preconceived notions about the world.
Calling shenanigans on this. Superman is anything but a moron–a constant thread in the rivalry between Superman and Luthor is that the former often beats the latter by outsmarting him. Not only that, but for all Luthor’s scientific potential, the Fortress of Solitude is filled with otherworldy scientific triumphs, the heirloom of the planet Krypton, where scientific knowledge was considered the ultimate virtue. I mean the destruction of Krypton is literally the result of Kryptonians refusing to listen to Superman’s scientist father’s warning of an imminent geological catastrophe. If that origin hadn’t been conceived decades before global warming, it would sound like a thinly veiled allegory for global warming.
If Superman were a “buff moron,” that would be one thing. Instead in his spare time, he sits in his lab creating machines that can “communicate with the future,” tending to an intergalactic zoo full of endangered alien species, and developing genetically tailored serums that can grant humans superpowers in the short term. Superman is every bit the scientific genius as Luthor. The reason he hasn’t personally spearheaded human advancement to a Kryptonian level is because of his own version of the Prime Directive–such a level of interference would harm humanity’s natural development. It’s Luthor’s violent, fanatical objectivism that makes him a villain, not his scientific aptitude. Part of what LexCorp does is water down Luthor’s development of miracle cures for terrible diseases into lifetime treatments he can make more money producing. Superman is a one-man superpowered public safety non-profit. Of course they’re enemies. As a Randian, Luthor can’t possibly conceive of the possibility of that Superman’s altruism doesn’t concealing some sinister ulterior motive.
Superman is indicative of another American ideal–the idea that you can have it all, be the high school quarterback and still win the science fair. Combined with his alien origin and childhood in Kansas, what you really have here is an elaborate assimilationist fantasy concocted by two Jewish guys from Clevaland. Luthor of course, is a reminder that no matter how assimilated you get, no matter how many gifts you give your adopted country, someone will always be around to point out that you’re a Jew a foreigner. If you really want a conservative-ish superhero, you really have to look towards the catastrophic failure of government in Gotham City that lead to a wealthy orphan declaring a one-man war on crime.
