On Superman

Many people are complaining about the recent events in the Superman storyline. For those who are unaware, in the comics Superman personally intervened in Iran, the Iranian government assumed he was acting not as Superman, man of Steel, but Superman, agent of the US Government, and responded accordingly to what they viewed as a declaration of war. In response to this, Superman does the only course of action he, in his position, can take. So long as he is there as a symbol of the American way, there are those who would use him in order to harm his homeland, the people he loves. Due to his immense stature and capability, he could not be that symbol, that it is foolish for him to pretend that his actions would not reflect on his home and those he love.

In order to enable him to protect the home he loves, he has to walk away from it, renouncing his citizenship.

I have heard more people complain, equating it to GI Joe pissing on the Army uniform in one post I saw. Instead, I salute it. DC Comics is addressing a real issue in the world through their comic metaphor, and that narrow minded people don't get it and think that him doing this was unAmerican or an attempt to make being American shameful.

Superman did what he had to do, in order to be a proud American. Due to his status, he became a symbol of America to the world in the DC universe, and in this Universe too I may add. But he also saw how dangerous it had become, that people were looking to him to be America, to lead America and to set it's policies, to personify it's policies. In order to protect America from Kal El, the man, he had to divorce Superman from the country itself.

If such a being as Superman existed in this world, much the same would happen. Imagine in a Watchmen world what would happen, the fallout if Dr Manhattan did as Superman did. Iran would immediatel­y declare war on the US and attack our troops in Iraq and Afghanista­n out of the assumption that if Superman was against them, the US was against them.

This makes Superman in my eye not less American, but more American. This is what being American means, putting the good of your friends, family, neighbors ahead of your own. This is the country of We the People. He is now, more than ever, the symbol of everything that is right about America, what is worth fighting for in America.