Pinned
"No One is an Alien! Except All of the Aliens.": How Superman Media, Writers, and Fans Endorse Assimilation
Note: I've discussed this topic before in a bit of detail here, here, and here, but I'm taking this opportunity to hammer out the common threads between these posts using explicit textual evidence. I am fully amenable to correction or further discussion, especially as it pertains to more recent comics. This essay/meta strictly contains textual analysis of the Superman media and presumes the audience has a working knowledge or concern about Superman, xenophobia, assimilation, and cultural socialization in adoption. The audience is 1) encouraged to do their own research and 2) remember that this contains no strictly academic sources.
Introduction
A prevalent problem within Superman fandom — writers, long-timers, and "normies" alike — is the failure to recognize when the tropes and proclivities viewed as an essential staple of Superman lore implicitly promote assimilation and xenophobia. Putting aside those who deny the fact of Superman being an immigrant, many people will pay lip service to the immigrant narrative but in fact regularly embrace interpretations which undermine the full exploration of his relationship with his Kryptonian heritage. This includes, most especially, any version of Superman that makes the forsaking of Krypton seem like a moral imperative or the logical narrative conclusion. Even the iterations which do not actively demonize Krypton — i.e., depict just about all non-Earth-raised Kryptonians as dangerously ignorant, draconic, warmongering, or incapable of empathy or complex emotion — are nevertheless fine with minimizing its presence outside of mentioning it as fodder for easy conflict (or conflict resolution). The result has been an image of Krypton which encourages both Superman and the audience to distance themselves from Krypton, if not reject it outright. Instead, Superman is encouraged by the narrative to retreat into the arms of the cozy conservative Americana of Smallville, which is then defended and excused by Krypton's prior lack of relevance and/or consistent evilness. To the extent either of those claims are actually true, they are a product of authorial and editorial decisions which minimized Krypton's positive impact and narrative importance from the outset, with the intention of eschewing Superman’s immigrant identity.
