How does the embodiment of Actually Existing America get any work done when the embodiment of America As A Concept is flying around outside with super hearing?
How does the embodiment of Actually Existing America get any work done when the embodiment of America As A Concept is flying around outside with super hearing?
the Batman vs Superman by Frank Miller had Superman as effectively being a military asset following the orders of the commander in chief / Ronald Reagan. Frank Miller is pretty fucked up in the dome, so it's kinda fash v fash.
the setup: Batman was old/kinda-retired but Gotham became even more dangerous/violent crime, so Batman starts doing his vigilante thing again, which bothers the political leaders for making them seem ineffective to the public. then he publicly murders some baddies, and the Prez decides he needs to be brought down and orders superman to arrest him for murder.
superman is OP AF but it's made him lazy/confident, and Batman could see this coming, so he has this entire strategy worked out, taking advantage of Superman's "honorable" way of doing shit and Superman's desire to bring Batman to justice, instead of just straight up killing him. also, he is Mr. gadgets and gizmos and traps designed just to hurt and confoud/frustrate superman. to batman, if he can get superman to use cruelty, torture or just kill him from frustration, he's proved his point.
anyway, it's an interesting, if problematic AF read. it also paints superman as basically an amoral douche for just following orders of the US president and resolving himself to never question them. like just out there constantly protecting America from the consequences of its empire.
The Dark Knight Returns is pretty much a libertarian power fantasy. Batman even allies himself with Green Arrow, even though he is a leftist, because they both hate the goverment lol
I've read Dark Knight Returns a few times. I thought they had something over Superman, which was how they were able to turn him into an appendage of the state, it wasn't by choice.
There was also the whole scene of superman with the nuke, butI think he could have stopped that before it got off the ground