Superhero Fascism?

The antidemocratic threat of Übermensch politics

“When fascism comes to America,” Sinclair Lewis wrote in 1935, “it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”  It’s also a claim that can be traced to Dr. Fredric Wertham’s critique of the superhero: these superpowered vigilantes are a thinly-veiled celebration of fascist values.  Lawrence & Jewett put an updated twist on this harsh critique when they posit the Superhero Monomyth as a dominant trope in American entertainment and technomythic politics, one which perpetuates a messianic faith in political saviors and violent vigilante crusaders.  As they develop their argument, a few questions for reflection:

1. In “Lethal Patriots Break the Rhythm,” what modifications to the American Superhero Monomyth are identified as particularly corrosive? How does a corrupted community and sexual segmentation rationalize aggressive masculinity on behalf of a feminized public? What examples, fictional and factual, are offered as illustrations?
   
2. In “STAR TREK‘s Humanistic Militarism,” what specific procedural problems of the narrative undermine the utopian egalitarianism of Gene Roddenberry’s vision? How does a militarized hierarchy encourage deferred democracy?
3. What connections do you see between these critiques and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight? How does a dystopian scene create narrative demands for other Fantasy Themes of characters and action?
4. What mythic paradoxes or narrative practices might complicate such a unilateral critique of Superhero stories? That is, what narrative elements prevent the charismatic superhero from becoming a fascistic leader?

One way to think through this last question is to consider examples from one of the enduring comic book narrative tropes, the alternate reality doppelgänger.  One treatment was an episode in the Superman animated series, “Brave New Metropolis.”  Below is a clip from a Justice League episode “A Better World” and then there is the new DVD movie “Crisis on Two Earths.” Can evil result from a fanatical zeal to impose a singular vision of moral ‘good’?  We’ll pick up on some of these themes next week when we discuss Alan Moore’s The Watchmen.