An Everyman Inside of a Superman: A Cluster Analysis of Action Comics #1
by Rebekah Hayes | Xchanges 18.1/2, Spring 2024
Contents
Synthesis
As this research about Superman suggests, his debut holds a wide array of rhetorical arguments. At the same time, though, they all symbolize the need for systemic change to support those with less social power. Rather than reinforcing systems, Superman was the opposition to the existing norms. Through the symbolism of the green car, readers see the economically privileged taking advantage of those without the benefit of money, calling to mind collapsing industries devastating people’s livelihoods. Just as automobiles represented alienation, this also seems to manifest in the form of barriers, doors Superman must overcome, that separate the citizen from other citizens and representatives. These barriers, like the car, must be removed to achieve justice for those who might be unseen and to reconnect society.
As a product of his time, Superman challenged the barriers and empowered groups preventing the average person from intervening in their world, from stopping spousal abuse to taking control back from the wealthy and politically powerful. Superman’s dominance over Butch’s economic privilege, Greer’s political manipulation, and the government, builds on his destruction of barriers and attack on economic privilege; Superman opposes and takes control from those who misuse their privileges. Butch should not have control and those like Clark Kent, who understands what it means to be perceived as weak and is an everyman inside of a superman, deserve to have that power. Superman ultimately has dominance over the corrupt and his opposition is meant to correct the systems already in place.
While it is alarming to view the visual of Superman paralleling the role of the abusive husband, it could be read as precisely the kind of warning that must accompany a character who is assuming the power of the things he opposes. Because “power corrupts,” simply accepting Superman’s perfection would be negligent rhetoric on the part of his creators. Superman uses unparalleled physically embodied power to confront forms of power that are often invisible. By creating the symbol of Superman, it seems Siegel and Schuster have created a visible embodiment to confront those intangible inequities that their 1938 economy and political world was experiencing. By investing these powers in an alien and not a man, this embodiment is able to rise above the faults of humanity and use his power for positive change. However, when Superman acts against rigid barriers and existing disparities it still appears terrifying to endow anyone with such dominance. Yet, acting against economic, physical, and political abuse seems to require possessing greater power. After all, it is not Clark Kent who confronts these foes; it is Superman. Regardless of his moments of apparent danger, Superman’s powerful interactions bringing change to his world seem to argue for anyone to do something to confront injustice and corruption. Whether it is his powerful protection of the woman on death row or his terrifying actions against Greer, Superman’s rhetoric shows that the America of Action Comics #1 needs someone to push against accepted corruptions and social standards.