Superman, Spiderman, Batman: The Enemies of Coyote
In the beginning, Coyote created the universe. Or so many of the old native stories go…
The Joker, Batman’s archnemesis, a madman, born from an accident at Batman’s hand, reborn as he emerged from a soup of industrial chemicals in a Factory vat…
What does Coyote represent, anyway? Some say chance. Some say transformation. The Trickster, who tricks even himself at times. A Fool? A Sage?
The schizophrenic Green Goblin, throws bombs left and right, creating chaos and fear, as Spiderman desperately tries to stop him…
What do many in our culture see, when they picture the living world before the emergence of humans, the world newly made, by Coyote. The jungles, teeming with life. Not a human in sight. What does that look like to modern eyes?
Chaos.
The Riddler giggles and cackles, another mad plan coming together as Batman struggles to solve the newest riddle against the clock…
How does our modern civilization feel about Chaos? To what work would we put our superheroes, if we had them? And what mask would we put on Chaos, to demonize it, to make it an acceptable enemy.
…They called me MAD at the University, but I’ll show them, I’ll show them all! -Anonymous Mad Scientist
Well. We’d call it crazy, wouldn’t we?
Mwahahahah! Nobody can stop me now! Hahahahah! -Anonymous Supervillain
And truly, when our superheroes don’t have these colorful and insane archvillains to fight, they have to satisfy themselves as glorified cops and EMTs: stopping bank robbers, purse snatchers, putting out fires. But what about corporate polluters? What about enslaved workers at sweatshops? What about inethical and illegal logging practices? Fishkills from oil slicks? Well, we don’t employ them for those things. Their real work lies somewhere else.
Our superheroes don’t serve the world of life. They serve the prison that we all live in. They protect civilization [if you have any doubts about the prison-nature of civilization, I recommend you follow that line of inquiry, starting with the book Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn]. Of course, some of their archvillains can seem no more than glorified bank robbers. But we all can observe our superheroes reaching their pinnacle when a worthy enemy comes to threaten the integrity of the prison they guard…
Yes, my pretties, yes! Attack! Oh, my beautiful rodent army, no one can stop you! Kill, kill! -Anonymous Supervillain
…Magneto returned to his attempts at global conquest, being opposed time and again by the X-Men and a number of other heroes. In his most audacious attempt to conquer the world he threatened the governments of the world with earthquakes and volcanic activity…
Always our greatest enemy, insolent in her defiance, never submitting to our control, Mother Nature. She attacks our crops with insects, our cities with rodents, throwing hurricanes and floods our way. But Mother Nature…we like her when she behaves. So let’s blame Coyote. He never behaves.
The Green Goblin, poisoned by his own scientific experiment…the Hulk, chased and hounded, his powers the result of military research…the Joker and his chemical soup…the Riddler, victim of his own machine…
Our villains and our superheroes quite often seem born from the same womb: the arrogance of modern science. Its arrogance to study whatever it wishes, though the tools may injure and scar. To go wherever it wants, though it may threaten our lives, our children’s lives, our grandchildren’s lives.
So, if any of this does describe the stories we tell our ourselves, what do we do with this knowledge?
Well, we can start by firing our superheroes. Or putting them to new and better work. We can start by writing new stories, knowing full well what we do: that these new stories amount to nothing less than a vision of the world, and our place in it. What do we want that place to look like? Do we want it to make a future with great-grandchildren possible?
For we know one thing. As our superheroes zoom from one earthquake to another, from one robbery to another, stopping counterfeiters and mass-poisoners and mad arsonists, great-grandchildren really fall low on the list of priorities. With all this Chaos to control and stop, who has time for thinking of a seventh generation?
September 22nd, 2005 at 12:27 am
Interesting. What would you say, though, to the fact that the ur-superhero of the 20th century, Superman, had his start pre-WWII as the defender of the working man, the battler of coporations and fascists? True, his post war, mid-century incarnation defended the status quo, but that was not his original purpose. I heard a fellow on NPR the other day talk about this - I had read your article above before and so thought of you as he discussed Superman’s origins. I tihnk Batman may have been similarly conceived. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4851397
This article by Arie Kaplan, “HOW THE JEWS CREATED THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY Part I: The Golden Age (1933-1955)” draws parallels between Superman and the Jewish myth of the Golem. Interesting stuff! http://www.reformjudaismmag.net/03fall/comics.shtml
“The Golem was very much the precursor of the super-hero in that in every society there’s a need for mythological characters, wish fulfillment. And the wish fulfillment in the Jewish case of the hero would be someone who could protect us. This kind of storytelling seems to dominate in Jewish culture.”
–Will Eisner
September 22nd, 2005 at 8:58 pm
I think that’s awesome Abby. That would definitely explain why someone would even create something that, at least on the surface, appears unnecessary and anachronistic: the superhero. We have our heroes, many of which are military or political ones. George Washington, General Patton, etc. And we have science fiction heroes, and fantasy heroes. So who needs the mythological beastie of the modern age known as ” the superhero”?
That being said, this culture is good at coopting notions that seem antithetical to its values, so the superheroes’ turn towards establishment ends may be sad but not surprising.
Frank Miller (Sin City, Daredevil, the Dark Knight) began writing a new kind of Batman in the last 20 years, one who began fighting corporate/media power, so its seems the tide can turn more than once.