Fifty-eight-year-old actor Dean Cain played Superman from 1993-1997 in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." If one were to examine his complete body of work, the story arc would be a steady descent from being the lead actor on a relatively successful show once in his life to a sort of reliable B-List draw whose political views further and further right over the years (he voted twice for Clinton, once for Gore, and three times for Trump).
Cain -- among other conservative cranks -- is upset because James Cain's new "Superman" movie emphasizes his status as an alien immigrant to the United States:
. . .
Here's a case in in point, one of the early appearances of Luthor (not yet named "Lex," but already bald) in Action Comice #47 (April 1942). The story was "Powerstone," written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. You can find a complete digital version of the issue here.
In the course of the his skirmishing with Superman through the early pages, Luthor needs an influx of cash to pursue his quest for the Powerstone that would give him strength to rival the hero's own. So he uses millionaire Brett Calhoun as the front man to lure in the richest men in Metropolis, one of whom will supposedly receive half of his fortune ($3 million) ...
Luthor, no surprise, plans to seize the $100K each man presented at the door, and then hold them all for ransom.
But that's not what's so compelling about the story. That part comes as Siegel and artist John Sikela (ghosting for Joe Shuster) devote a rare full-page, text-heavy spread to the claims of the eight "richest men" in Matropolis.
Take a moment to read each of these men's "claim" speech, and get back to me on whether or note Superman was a "woke" comic book or not.
Wealth-bashing has so rarely reached such a pinnacle in American comics that I'm half-surprised that Zohran Mamdani hasn't appropriated this as a campaign poster.
Just in case you still have doubts, Siegel and Sikela threw in this scene at the end, after Superman has defeated Luthor and the craven rich guys -- not happy with being saved from kidnapping and ransom -- demand that somebody make good on the $3 million somebody promised to give away.
That's when Lois Lane delivers the "woke" line to conclude the story:
"Job creators" my ass.
America's biggest and best-selling superhero comic in the early days of World War II presented rich people as immoral, anonymous con men obsessed with accumulating as much money as possible because they were ... greedy thugs.
Suck it, MAGA.
The original Superman was a progressive.
And as the Supreme Court keeps telling us, the only valid interpretation of fucking anything is ... originalism.
UPDATE: In case you find somebody wanting to argue this is a one-shot, that Siegel's writing was not consistently liberal/progressive, consider this page from the very next issue: Action Comics #48 (May 1942) in which Clark Kent begins crusading to have the city government of Metropolis take responsibility for supervising used car sales to protect the public.
Holy Mamdani, Batman!
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