Superman Renounces United States Citizenship?

What? Oh No! This sounds like bad news... Or not? 

From Comics Alliance:

After recently undertaking a journey to walk -- not fly -- across the United States in the "Grounded" storyline and reconnect with the country and everyday Americans, Superman appears to be taking another step that could have major implications for his national identity: in Action Comics #900...

...Superman announces that he is going to give up his U.S. citizenship. Despite very literally being an alien immigrant, Superman has long been seen as a patriotic symbol of "truth, justice, and the American way," from his embrace of traditional American ideals to the iconic red and blue of his costume. What it means to stand for the "American way" is an increasingly complicated thing, however, both in the real world and in superhero comics, whose storylines have increasingly seemed to mirror current events and deal with moral and political complexities rather than simple black and white morality.

Superman is from Krypton ya know










The key scene takes place in "The Incident," a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda. In it, Superman consults with the President's national security advisor, who is incensed that Superman appeared in Tehran to non-violently support the protesters demonstrating against the Iranian regime, no doubt an analogue for the recent real-life protests in the Middle East. However, since Superman is viewed as an American icon in the DC Universe as well as our own, the Iranian government has construed his actions as the will of the American President, and indeed, an act of war.

Superman replies that it was foolish to think that his actions would not reflect politically on the American government, and that he therefore plans to renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations the next day -- and to continue working as a superhero from a more global than national perspective. From a "realistic" standpoint it makes sense; it would indeed be impossible for a nigh-omnipotent being ideologically aligned with America to intercede against injustice beyond American borders without creating enormous political fallout for the U.S. government.

While this wouldn't be this first time a profoundly American comic book icon disassociated himself from his national identity -- remember when Captain America became Nomad? -- this could be a very significant turning point for Superman if its implications carry over into other storylines. Indeed, simply saying that "truth, justice and the American way [is] not enough anymore" is a pretty startling statement from the one man who has always represented those values the most.

It doesn't seem that he's abandoning those values, however, only trying to implement them on a larger scale and divorce himself from the political complexities of nationalism. Superman also says that he believes he has been thinking "too small," that the world is "too connected" for him to limit himself with a purely national identity. As an alien born on another planet, after all, he "can't help but see the bigger picture."

Do you think the shift to a more global role makes sense for Superman? If he really is going to renounce his U.S. citizenship in order to function as a more international figure, how do you think it will affect the character?

Instead Of TARP And Stimulus: What If The U.S. Had Paid Off Its Debt To China?

As a conservative, I am appalled at the way that our government has chosen to waste citizens tax dollars to bail out the car companies and the banks. I was also against the stimulus package passed by Congress in February. I believe that the government should not interfere in the free market. If a company makes bad decisions then that company should have to live with the consequences. Why should our tax dollars be used to help out a company that made bad decisions? If I made a bad decision and found myself in debt, would the government bail me out? I highly doubt it. Nor do I think that the government should. The stimulus money was meant to stimulate the economy and increase the number of jobs in the U.S. Most of the money in the stimulus package went to special interest groups and their projects and the money did not go toward shovel ready jobs. Some states didn’t even know how they were going to use their portion of stimulus dollars. The American people were told that shovel ready jobs were waiting to be completed and that the money was needed to hire workers, but that wasn't true. Are there more projects being completed in your area? I don’t see any big increases, if at all, with regard to shovel ready jobs in the Pittsburgh area.

In searching on the internet I found out on Wikianswers.com that as of April 6, 2008 the United States owes China $492 billion. Then, by coincidence today Stuart Varney from the Fox Business Network stated that China owns $763 billion of U.S. Treasury debt. That means that the United States owes at least that amount of money to China. The U.S. government has spent $787 billion on the Stimulus Bill and about $700 billion was on TARP. What if the U.S. had used the money we spent on both TARP and the Stimulus Bill and paid off our debt to China? Would that have been a good idea? Then the U.S. would not be beholden to China. Would that allow the U.S. to have more opportunities in the trading market? If the United States had paid off its debt to China then the U.S. could have started producing more made in the U.S.A. goods and exporting them. I believe that this could have created new jobs. I think that the U.S. should still trade with China but it seems to me that now the U.S. is mainly buying and importing cheap goods from China. It seems like the United States is not exporting nearly as many products as it was 40 or 50 years ago. Do you think that China would stop trading with the U.S. if we paid our debt to them? Would paying off the debt to China hurt the U.S. economy? I think it would benefit the U.S. if the United States paid off the debt that we owe China.