Television | Comics
Evil Supermen: Homelander, Omni-Man, and Our Relationship with Power
Superman is a power fantasy, and our re-imagining of him in evil forms shows our world’s changing relationship to people in power.
It’s easy to look at Superman today and make fun of him. The “Big Blue Boyscout” is an aberration in the era of satire, tongue-in-cheek Marvel flicks, and deconstructionist takes on the superhero genre. That’s probably why we have so many “Evil Supermen”: Homelander, Omni-Man, Brightburn, and to a lesser extent characters like Hyperion, Hancock, and the like.
I think our relationship with Superman’s power is reflective of the abuse of power we see in our society. Everything from cops beating people in the streets in riot gear, to regular and flagrant corporate crimes, to governmental atrocities committed for personal enrichment. Because of this we’ve invented dark, twisted, horrible versions of Superman, our biggest shared cultural power fantasy embodied in a character, to examine this.
The Dark Age of Comics
