Comics

The superhero genre emphasizes the idea that problems are solved by a single powerful individual rather than collective action. This is reactionary thinking.

Superheros often get their powers from genetic superiority. This is another right wing theme. Other superheroes get their power from being wealthy (iron man, batman) or being a nationalist (captain america, wonderwoman).

The supervillains are often portrayed as mentally ill or petty criminals or sometimes even activists.

Superheros never try to improve society, they only uphold the status quo. The most common plot of superheros is beating up petty criminals. The superhero plot revolves around stopping the villain and not actually trying to improve material conditions of working people. Superhero plots even sometimes value protecting property over human life.

The supervillains often try to change society. Villains are often portrayed in that they want to fix a problem, but are going about it in a wrong way.

With these 2 things in mind, we are given the narrative that trying to change the world is bad, but trying to prevent change is good.

I wouldn't say that they're right wing per se, but they're most certainly reactionary figures. They're inherently defenders of the status quo in most iterations of superhero stories, made to protect the existing order against the radical change represented by the villain.

There's an incredible article by David Graeber that dissects the nature of the superhero, you should definitely check it out: https://thenewinquiry.com/super-position/

Yes, superhero culture promotes the kind of exceptionalism and individualism that are antithetical to the socialist ideals.

The Soviet Union did not have any of this superhero comic book crap. Their heroes were often normal people who went above and beyond their duties to the society and achieving the impossible, in spite of their ordinary lives.

Beating up poor mentally ill people to protect the status quo is perfectly conservative. It is the western myth of the gun and eugenics combined.

The first issue of superman red sun is great though. Superman lands in the ussr as a baby and is raised soviet style. He overthrows all the world governments and brings in a general age of peace and prosperity. The rest of thr run goes downhill from there but I just stopped it there and had a very nice time.

They're definitely a right wing ideal, and in fact many of the most popular superheroes are fascists in colourful costumes.

The concept of a superhero is inherently liberal (as in liberalism, not the USian meaning of "liberal").

Well, Moore particularly is pretty cool I think.

On the politics of super heroes as a whole, there's definitely something to be criticized, I'd take it from Alan Moore himself in this interview. There's some more interesting criticism in the video I found it in, which is about comic book movies rather than comics themselves, but still criticizes the idea of the super hero.

My own take is that, while the role that super heroes usually take reinforces cultural hegemony and the status quo, it's still possible for them to embody proletarian ideology, they just need to shed the great man theory of history and lean into a social message of improving society through collective action. I don't know about any examples of that if I'm being honest.

Are comics inherently conservative? No. Are they forced to be conservative in its current incarnation? Yes.

By having a shared universe between heroes, comics running in perpetuity, and the setting being an alternative version of current earth, superheroes are forced to defend the status quo without introducing much change. If not, the framework wouldn't work when the same characters are used by dozens of different writers at the same time.

Others made the regular critiques like exceptional individualism but I wanna bring up another angle, beyond the literal superhero.

You can read superhero stories as myths, legends, and folklore for the modern world (and to be frank, the Western world). And the myth of a culture can be a retelling of their experience of their world. In this case it's explanatory, like creation stories, national epics, and cultural heroes. Just memorializing and celebrating what already exists

But sometimes it's more hopeful or even vengeful, like eschatological myth (end of the world prophecies). These express a change they want to see or hope to prevent in the future.

Superhero stories might seem like they are in the second category because they are promoting the regular world and regular people to the supernatural. But that's just the premise that puts it in the fiction genre. They aren't actually proposing humans become superhumans. Really they are more in the first category: they explain, justify, and celebrate what already exists.

Which is why superheroes are "defenders of the earth" or of specific nations, like Captain America. Otherwise they'd just be revolutionaries.

I remember playing with my younger cousin who lives in a 3rd world country. His little kid fantasies weren't about being the strongest guy and beating up bad guys. Rather he wanted to start a movement to establish a system where everyone had access to all the things they need (in his mind, snacks, sweets, and games)

Btw this is kinda why most superhero stories disappoint me. It's all a contrived conflict. It's already a symbolic story because it's fiction. But then you have heroes fighting villains out of the blue. For example Captain America fighting the made up Red Skull even though Hitler was still there. Or the Indian Brahmastra could have been about saving India but rather it was some cult vs another cult that didn't matter to any regular person in that world or the real one

Conservative or not, I just find the entire idea silly.

A community finds out that they have someone with supernatural powers living next to them. Their powers can uplift poverty and eliminate hunger or eliminate fascist wars. But coincidentally, the earth just so happens to be attacked by some Mega Aliens from the Zeboid dimension. That, or some mad scientist just so happens to inject himself with Evil Serum and also gain super powers. Thus humanity’s problems become more grandiose or individualized.

Im not deep into Marvel lore but I understood the X-Men for example as a progressive force. Like they are fighting for change and a better world. Mind you im not that into their comics that was just my surface level reading of them.

I wouldn't say so.

https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/135pl71/is_there_any_right_wing_comic_author_or_comic/

They are inherently unegalitarian, so yes.

It makes sense, because superheroes as a genre suck