In a 2016 interview with reporters, then-President Barack Obama cited the villainous “Joker” character in the movie “Batman” as comparing it to ISIS, who — as the former US president described it — “is a The people who bring chaos to the imaginary Gotham City, like ISIS, although Gotham City is orderly, everyone has their own land, and then the Joker comes and sets the whole city on fire, and ISIS is the Joker, This group has the ability to set fires to entire regions and that’s why we have to fight it.
Former US President Barack Obama knows very well which class he belongs to, he defends America’s foreign policy and domestic policy in the fight against terrorism, he and his administration and his party are pure images of Batman, a troubled superhero , which is battling the endlessly evil clown.
Obama also knows that some of the superheroes created by DC Comics writers and illustrators have become the labels of the production company “Walt Disney”. Go to war, join Americans in mourning their misfortune, and support the feminist movement.
Superheroes.. A modern alternative to the Descendants of the Gods myth
For example, Superman would not have lived another century after generations of children who dreamed of becoming superheroes, not woven from the depths of America’s turbulent history, had it not been for the superhuman powers that made “Pope Francis” a major meeting at the Vatican last year By accepting the gift of the Spider-Man mask, Spider-Man will not be able to penetrate the hearts of the American people and other peoples.
Since their inception in the early days of World War II, superheroes have been part of mainstream culture, also known as pop culture that caters to large and dominant audiences, in fact, stories of superheroes such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have become modern legends, replacing Ancient myths and epics about the heroic deeds of figures descended from the gods.
Since then, DC Comics’ masked heroes have conquered all homes and hearts, evoking the power of women after their husbands and sons were drafted into war in the late 1930s, and after the war, superhero movies have become Soft power, transforming the United States of America into a heroic nation that creates only the struggle against evil, and promotes evil with forces driven by the principles of justice.
“He’s great, bigger than life, he’s American.” Depressed Man
In April 1938, the character of Superman was born, a man in a blue jumpsuit with a red letter “S” on his chest, Superman was originally one of his creator’s personal expressions.
“Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two young men from Cleveland,” Grant Morrison, writer of DC Comics’ Superman stories, told Forbes magazine Their families are Jewish immigrants, so Superman is an alien immigrant hero who came to America from another planet.”
Grant Morrison added, “Superman was born during what was known as the Great Depression, when there were a lot of people who immigrated to the United States and they struggled to adapt, and they faced economic problems, political problems, and social obstacles.” Immigrants live in communities in megacities that are bigger than anything they’ve ever seen before, and I think that’s where the legend comes in, someone strong enough and fast enough to be in a city like New York that has apparently become a “metropolis” “City Jobs.
As for Superman’s character, for Morrison, it embodies the personality of an immigrant who defends dreams and hopes, and has spoken out about it, saying Superman is not only the strong man the creator aspires to be, but also against what they experience in life. Injustice, so, superman is one of the first characters to fight corrupt officials, government officials, and mayors, in superman’s story, every person in power seems to be corrupt, and superman is the intervenor in it all, so , he was designed to be a Depression-era Superman.
The Great Depression, which began in 1929, hit the U.S. hard, throwing a large part of the population into crisis, until Americans no longer seemed to be the masters of their own destiny, and President “Franklin Roosevelt” was tasked with fulfilling his promise to Americans that they Emerging from a crisis stronger, the government will protect the people, and Superman has the same mission and commitment, and since then he has become not only the first superhero, but the most influential person, as As historian William Savage describes it, researcher Tom de Hafian sees it as a pure sense of American cultural heritage and intellectuals, who says, “He embodies our values, celebrates our birthday and cherish our heritage,” he was the superman of our time, he was big, bigger than life, he was American.
The Vietnam War… Attempts to restore the hearts of unyielding idols
Superman has long been considered a very boring character because he is more of a “scout”, leaning towards the values of the American right rather than the left held by Superman character creators, and he appears to be a cop character, or father figure, so, in the historical period of superman character development, the screenwriter seems to have started to abandon his paternalism little by little, so the superhero has experienced political and social fluctuations mainly related to Americans There are ups and downs, but after each crisis, Superman still appears in a movie or a series of comics.
In the late 1970s, the United States was plagued by political turmoil. The protagonist of the so-called “Watergate Incident” was US President “Richard Nixon”. The Vietnam War was an axe that broke the indomitable national superstition. Therefore, Superman seems to be reminding Americans that they will always be a super legend, and that the legend has not given up the social responsibility set out in the first version of the film, which continues to this day, to protect the city’s inhabitants from the evil people trying to control it.
But the influence of the Eighties was evident in the relationship between Superman and his girlfriend, journalist “Louis Lane”, who initially emerged as a woman with a successful, confident, modern personality, just like the woman of the Forties, just as With the revival of the feminist movement, the United States needs to push women out of the house to replace men in factories and on duty after conscription during World War II.
But then, in the film “Superman,” directed in the early ’80s, “Louis Lane” was transformed from a tough liberal journalist to a passive woman eager to start a family, and by giving up her own career to rearrange your priorities. According to American feminist writer Susan Faludi, the reversal of one of Superman’s main characters is a hostile response to the feminist character of the 1970s.
‘Superman Returns’…Legality of Espionage in the War on Terror
After 9/11, the 2006 film “Superman Returns” seemed to coincide with that event, when, in the context of Bush Jr.’s war on terror, the issue of snooping on private life surfaced.
In The Dark Knight, released only two years after Superman Returns, researcher Jane Saminan, titled “Superman on the Screen: The Political Ideology of Tomorrow,” when Batman uses his abilities to spy on all He faced a moral dilemma when communicating in Gotham City. However, when Superman uses his superhuman hearing ability to eavesdrop on the conversations of his personal girlfriend, he doesn’t face this moral dilemma, he finds that there is nothing wrong with spying on her home and her life, it seems that the movie “Superman Returns” The issues of spying on citizens and invasion of privacy are separated, as an acceptable reason, in stark contrast to Batman’s distrust of economic and political elites in the movie The Dark Knight.
The power of superheroes is unlimited. They are immortal heroes in the hearts of Americans. They have even become symbols of American pride. However, superheroes can sometimes quickly become a source of dissatisfaction during certain periods of American division, And these periods are often associated with social movements on the streets, which is exactly what happened in the 2011 film The Dark Knight, which was criticized for its poor portrayal of the protest movement and its link to terrorist groups. The criticism, at the time, sparked dozens of protests on the streets of New York.
“The Temptation of the Innocent” .. The Scientific Strike That Changed Superman’s Course
In 2013, Superman returned in the movie “Iron Man”, but Superman’s character traits seemed to be different from the heroes we were used to before, so his expression became more bleak, idealism was replaced by pragmatism, just like Americans Like the people enslaved by bank accounts and internet sites, the character turns out to be a new image of the unconscious psychological reality of American society.
Researcher Jane Saminan said that by studying Superman films in the American cultural landscape, character fluctuations can be explained as intellectual expressions, with Superman films released between 1978-2013 succeeding and others failing, which to some extent It has to do with both genders and progressive attitudes, once these two factors are present in any version, the movie takes the movie box office share, and while reaping the greatest success, the man appears strong and protective of everyone, including his girlfriend
This is what Jane Saminan concluded in her research, and in 1954 the psychologist “Frederick Weatheram” concluded in his book “The Temptation of the Innocent” that reinforced the The organic link between progressive attitudes and failure, he mentioned, that superheroes corrupt society and superman make his own laws, which has a bad effect on children because superman reinforces their pathological inferiority complex, the psychologist added Say, for example, that Batman is a gay man in a relationship with his soulmate.
Weatheram made a splash, and these words were enough to make American families censor Superman comics for fear of their children, so, in the era of President Ronald Reagan, Superman seemed more solid and illustrated the need to vigorously defend the institution of the family. The so-called American Social Principles.
“Batman” .. the superhero who fought Nazism and the Axis powers
Another character who appeared in 1939, at the height of the global spread of the Nazis, was Batman, an American soldier with superhuman powers who fought the Nazis before America entered the war and carried out a clear propaganda mission. Even appearing in a similar shot to another superman “Captain America” punching and kicking “Adolf Hitler”, one of the weapons that American public opinion used to prepare their country for war, the character disappeared and returned In the early 1960s, the United States fought the Vietnam War.
In 1943, director Lambert Heller directed the first Batman movie, at the height of World War II, so after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Batman and his friends appeared as secret agents, tracking a group of people. Dedicated to the Japanese criminal who destabilized Gotham City, the film is based on the 1939 comic book series of this supernatural character.
The new Superman took on a propaganda mission to help America fight the Axis powers, and the Batman series, like other popular fiction, preached hostility to the Axis powers, reaching racist and cynical about the race and color of Asia to the point of.
In fact, Batman’s propaganda role didn’t stop at being hostile to the Nazis and their allies, but walked into the homes of soldiers packing their bags and heading to the battlefield as comfort to their wives and children.
Batman lived through some of the most intense events America and the world have ever experienced from east to west, from World War II to the Cold War, events that shaped the stories of superheroes, including that of Batman, whose political and social roles were very clear in that era .
But Batman’s character was also heavily criticized by psychologist “Frederick Weatheram,” who deciphered the superhero’s character and his relationships with those close to him, saying it was again a reference to American values One hit, “Batman’s story may spur gay fantasies in kids.” The psychologist talks about the dubious relationship between Batman and his friend “Robin,” which may explain the emergence of a female character close to Superman The reason, because the appearance of female characters will erase the homosexual image of Superman promoted by “Wetham”.
‘Ras Allegour’… the new political foe of America’s superhero
In 1966, “Leslie Martinson” directed the film “Batman: The Movie”, which was completely inspired by the series released in 1943, so the film relies on all the characters in the superhero series, which Things are easy to read and significant, and the 1989 version, directed by “Tim Burton,” is about the psychological and ethical aspects of justice and kindness imposed by the context of the whole of Western society before entering a new barbaric age.
In “Burton in Burton”, Burton describes the change in Batman’s character this way: The entire film and the legend surrounding the character is completely a duel between weirdos, between two people in trouble. battle.
Burton added that the Joker is an impressive character because he has complete freedom, each character works outside the law of society, is considered an obsessive-compulsive and outcast, and is free to do whatever he wants. The film discusses the dark side of freedom here.
Before the movie “Batman Begins,” Batman’s comic book series created an enemy named “Ras Allegour,” a villainous character who appeared in 1971 by Julius A. Created by Schwartz, “Ras Allegour” is a character from a Chinese nomadic tribe born in North Africa. Christopher Nolan, director of the “Dark Knight” trilogy, explains “Ras Allegour”. The emergence of the character, whose name is interpreted in Arabic as two potential enemies of the United States, possibly alluding to Libya and China, together as villains that Superman faces.
It seems like Batman is actually doing politics, somehow selling the position of the United States of America to some countries, and so is Superman.
The arena of local politics… a superhero confrontation between two parties
The New Yorker clearly defines the direction from the eye colors of the two superheroes, Superman and Batman, and says that Superman and Batman have supernatural powers in their eyes, Superman’s eyes are red, and Batman’s eyes are red. It’s blue, in fact, Superman seems to be the hero of the Republican Party, while Batman is on the side of the Democrats.
However, the movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice presents a clear idea that if politicians do not get their work done in an efficient and sensitive manner, there will be a desire to find independent superheroes, which is mainly reflected in the The film is in the act of indecision towards politicians.
Superheroes live in their own time and it is impossible to separate them from their social and political background, and as a result, they often fluctuate from one image to another that may be the opposite of what came before, from mission to mission, spiders Man appeared in 1962, supernatural due to the bite of a radiation-contaminated spider, an era ignited by the Cold War and the nuclear arms race.
Comic Charter .. Binding the Reins of Superheroes
After examining the far-reaching effects of superheroes, and after the book “The Temptation of the Innocents” became a hit, the Comics Charter was created in 1954, the reins for politicians to tame these characters, and the charter contained guidelines aimed at restoring the principles of American society. Chapters, some of which stipulate: All characters must be portrayed in socially acceptable attire, women must be portrayed truthfully, without exaggeration of any physical features, and divorce is not allowed to be treated in a humorous manner, or presented as desirable Yes, respect for parents, moral and honorable behavior must be strengthened, and love and romance stories must be handled to emphasize the value of the family and the sanctity of marriage.
Restrictions set out in the charter include condemnation of superheroes, particularly “Wonder Woman,” created in the 1940s by feminist psychiatrist William Moulton Marston, who was his wife and lover reflect that he lives in the same house with them.
‘Wonder Woman’… the failure of gay superheroes
“William Moulton Marston” created Wonder Woman from the essence of his progressive attitude towards women, and expressed it in a press interview in the early forties, saying that the future belongs to women, Women will lead the world.
In the early 1940s, the superhero “Wonder Woman” from Amazonia appeared. The creator of Supergirl refused to make his heroine’s features too feminine, or to become the ideal image of women in men’s imagination, and “Wonder Woman” “The series has been accused of promoting homosexuality, just like Batman, Superman and his mutant friends.
Superheroes are trapped by the psychologist Bertham movement, which led to a charter restricting the comic themes that underlie superhero movies, these heroes are forced to marry, and the writers of these superhero stories are forced to spread conservative values , and ban certain topics.
And the story of “Old Woman” was buried until she woke up after the liberation wave that swept the western countries in the late 1960s, she became the image of a strong and free woman, but not like the movies “Superman”, “Batman” , as successful as Spider-Man, these three heroes outlived other superheroes, and their commercial films went on to conquer movie theaters, the minds of children, and even the minds of Arabs.