The prospect that Superman might go before the United Nations and renounce his American citizenship, which was raised in a short story “The Incident” by David Goyer that was included in Action Comics #900 (see “The American Way Is Not Enough Anymore”) has generated more publicity for The Man of Steel than any event since DC Comics “killed” him off in 1992. Since the story broke on Friday it spread like wildfire across the Internet, was picked up by the Associated Press, carried by nearly every major newspaper, made the highly competitive network evening news shows, and became something of a “cause celebre” on cable news.
Conservative commentators like former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee of Fox News found the idea that Superman would renounce his citizenship “disturbing,” and “part of a bigger trend of Americans apologizing for being Americans.” GOP Activist Angie Meyer told Fox News “Besides being riddled with a blatant lack of patriotism, and respect for our country, Superman’s current creators are belittling the United States as a whole. By denouncing his citizenship, Superman becomes an eerie metaphor for the current economic and power status the country holds worldwide.”
In a statement to The New York Post, DC Comics co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio indicated that Superman will always be a red-blooded American at heart: “Superman is a visitor from a distant planet who has long embraced American values. As a character and an icon, he embodies the best of the American Way.”
The conservative Weekly Standard called Superman’s renunciation of his American citizenship “about the dumbest thing DC Comics could do,” an observation that would appear to be supported by an outpouring of invective against DC Comics that swept across the Internet particularly on right-leaning blogs.
But just as DC managed to revive Superman from the dead, so it would appear to be possible to have him reverse his apparent decision to give up his American citizenship. The fact that “The Incident” was a back-up story and not part of the on-going Superman storyline complicates the situation even further.
The idea that this is some sort of ploy to "internationalize" Superman for the upcoming movie doesn't really hold water even though David Goyer, who wrote "The Incident" is also a screenwriter involved with The Man of Steel. It is actually a relatively simple matter to eliminate nationalistic elements of Superman's character from the movies--just look at the Superman films that have been made so far, It's not as if The Man of Steel has the same sort of nationalistic baggage that Captain America does, and which will necessitate changes in the release prints of the Captain America movie in a number of foreign markets.
Perhaps Stan Lee, the ultimate veteran of the comics industry, put it best in a series of comments on Twitter: (1) “If ‘tis merely a ploy to bring The Man of Steel to the attention of the world, it hath surely met with great success.” (2) “If ‘tis a political and philosophical statement of great depth and significance, we can but wait and see how sayeth the fans.” And perhaps most pointedly, (3) “As for me, I wonder—cannot one embrace a laudable one-world philosophy without renouncing one’s own land of the free?”
The idea that this is some sort of ploy to "internationalize" Superman for the upcoming movie doesn't really hold water even though David Goyer, who wrote "The Incident" is also a screenwriter involved with The Man of Steel. It is actually a relatively simple matter to eliminate nationalistic elements of Superman's character from the movies--just look at the Superman films that have been made so far, It's not as if The Man of Steel has the same sort of nationalistic baggage that Captain America does, and which will necessitate changes in the release prints of the Captain America movie in a number of foreign markets.
Perhaps Stan Lee, the ultimate veteran of the comics industry, put it best in a series of comments on Twitter: (1) “If ‘tis merely a ploy to bring The Man of Steel to the attention of the world, it hath surely met with great success.” (2) “If ‘tis a political and philosophical statement of great depth and significance, we can but wait and see how sayeth the fans.” And perhaps most pointedly, (3) “As for me, I wonder—cannot one embrace a laudable one-world philosophy without renouncing one’s own land of the free?”
