2 - Superhero Narratives between Seriality and Political Meaning

Summary

In his classic essay on “The Myth of Superman,” Umberto Eco suggests that the narrative appeals and ideological messages of early Superman comics are intricately linked to an “iterative scheme” for the serial production of essentially similar stories (19). A key ingredient of this scheme is the larger-than- life protagonist who is “equipped with powers superior to those of the common man,” but nonetheless remains within “the reach of the reader's self-identification” (14). Superman's powers of superhuman strength, incredible speed, near invulnerability, flight, and heat vision, so Eco notes, are balanced by his alter ego Clark Kent, the “fearful, timid, not overly intelligent, awkward, near-sighted, and submissive” journalist (14). This duality renders Superman/Clark Kent an appealing fantasy that can accommodate the readers’ “hope that one day, from the slough of [one’s] actual personality, a superman can spring forth who is capable of redeeming years of mediocre existence” (15). But the figure of the omnipotent hero also allows for the telling of a potentially endless series of action-packed adventures. Superman, as Eco notes, is akin to a “mythological character” or “archetype” like Hercules (15), a figure whom “nothing can impede” (16) and who is impervious to the passing of time or the dangers that threaten the lives of mere mortals. Accordingly, Superman comics can put their hero through countless dramatic events and suspenseful confrontations with villains that are (more or less) easily overcome by the protagonist. At the end of each adventure, Superman's interventions return the world to an orderly status quo that is virtually identical to the one that existed before. Subsequently, the next installment can start “from a sort of virtual beginning, ignoring where the preceding event left off “ (19). As result, Superman stories “develop in a kind of oneiric climate [ … ] where what has happened before and what has happened after appears extremely hazy,” where protagonists and supporting characters do not age and where villains like Lex Luthor are bound to return, no matter how often they are defeated (“The Myth” 17). Likewise, Superman's powers –which would in theory allow him to “take over the government, defeat the army, or alter the equilibrium of planetary politics” (22) –are never used to effect lasting political change.