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?
i remember a while ago someone here suggesting a comic book or tv series where clark kent is also a really good investigate journalist and the cia keeps trying to give him their award for journalism and can't figure out why he's still alive
The story I'm thinking of would be more from Cheney's perspective so this would make a good subplot. It would be good comic relief as Superman would know exactly what's going on and maybe he plays it off with Clark Kent's regular bumbling aloofness so the CIA think he just keeps getting lucky
exactly, so the agents assigned to the task keep devising ever more complex and wacky assassination attempts set to yakety sax
meanwhile what does superman do when clark kent learns about the salt pit?
That's when he let's himself get captured and Superman 'incidentally' destroys the place whilst rescuing Clark Kent
superman giving the CIA the full
experience is a great concept ngl
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
It would be interesting to see governments/people deal with Superman existing. CIA blacksites would be lined with lead and filled with some noise cancelling technology. You'd have to have some kind of kryptonite-alloy missiles. But even then you'd need to figure out a way to cancel out his eye beams or cold breath or his various powers.
Or, he would need to be overloaded in a very similar method that Iran did to strike israel. If you send enough ordinance that Superman can't stop it all, you don't need to worry about whatever fancy materials to make it Superman-proof
I got sidetracked thinking about fun dynamics. The US would partner with Lex Luthor almost immediately given that he has the most experience fighting Superman and is himself a member of the bourgeois
All these logistics of being the US state as it currently operates with Superman around would be interesting.
I'd also want to include political elements. Like what if Superman spoke out against the invasion of Iraq and the genocide in Palestine? What would be the response to Superman treating the US like any other villain?
Eventually superman would have to acknowledge no state is capable of the violence he is, and he needs to take a more hands on approach if he wants to make the world a better place. Kind of like the end of Alan Moore's Marvelman run
Your literally describing the plot of red son, which is what if Superman landed in Soviet Russia instead of USA. He kills Stalin, fuck Superman.
I believe that's only in the animated version, in the comic he just fails to save him. The comic gets weird as hell tho, beyond just the typical complete misunderstanding of communism, capitalism, really anything about material reality or human nature.
I'd go further than red son and be less lib. Having the story set now rather than as an alternate universe period piece would make it more relevant as well
Just a reminder, the Injustice comic line confirmed that America in the DC universe also uses drone bombs and is fine with civilian casualties which means Superman was letting it happen (hilariously, the civilian casualties in the comic were five people, but because the average lib wouldn't care about just five murdered civilians, in the animated movie it's thirty). Only in the Injustice storyline did Superman intervene and stop it.
I would accept as canon that Superman is an inherently good guy but make it an arc of disillusion as he comes to see the empire for what it is.
Clark Kent starts speaking out against the war and loses his job for not towing the propaganda line.
His parents pumped him full of pro-america propaganda for the right reasons. You could do a lot in him leaving Smallville and seeing things aren't like he was told they would be.
Clark losing his job would be a great angle as well. You could explore the alternative media space by having him join a website or he becomes his own substack journalist
