I’m curious about what you think of that quote so I’m just going to ask y’all about it

35 comments

  3. They’re both opposite extremes of the spectrum. Peacemaker and Homelander, imo, go over the top, but then again so did Superman and Cap in their original runs.

  4. No, not at all.

    Superman/Captain America are a representation of the American ideal, whereas Homelander/Peacemaker represents the fears of what an unchecked power *could* be.

    Cap was literally wartime propaganda, Homelander is a satirical take on the superhero/comic book fantasy that was created by an antisocial pervert.

  5. Superman has always represented the ideal, altruistic person, not necessarily the country as a whole. Superman is supposed to represent the best humans can be. Selfless, moral, just, protector of the weak, enemy only to those who are truly evil. He only uses his powers for the good of humanity and the society he lives in. If he represents the United States, he represents the best the United States *can be*, not what it actually was at any point in its existence.

    So, I would argue that Superman never represented the United States but rather represented an ideal to strive for.

    On the other side of that coin, I don’t think Homelander represents the United States either. Homelander is the antithesis to Superman – he is everything Superman is not. He’s greedy, paranoid, evil, uses his powers for his own personal gain, has no morals, has no sense of justice outside of destroying those he feels crossed him. They are two opposite ends of the spectrum, and I wouldn’t say the United States is on either end with them. For Homelander to represent the United States, the US would need to be ruling the world with the iron grip of authoritarianism, doing it because it knows no one else can stop it.

    The truth is that most people fall between those two extremes. Very few people out there are completely good or completely evil, and I think that’s true of the United States too – the country has done some great things throughout the years and some truly awful things.

    In short, the United States is Batman. Kind of an asshole, scary and creepy at times, doesn’t really take anyone else telling them what to do, has more money than god, shows up in a pinch with fancy gadgets and hardware suited for most problems.

  9. This isn’t a “saying” and I’d really like to know who you’re supposedly quoting here.

    Captain America and Superman represent idealistic and nearly flawless models of the American spirit (or, rather, what a comic book creator thought the American spirit might look like as manifested within a superhero).

    Homelander represents a tragically flawed character to the point of no redemption. He’s quite literally a parody of Captain America and Superman, an exaggerated character whose flaws are just as prevalent as Cap’s or Superman’s strengths.

    To look at either side of this unrealistic spectrum and say “This side represents America more” is, quite frankly, fucking stupid. And I think anyone asking this question or saying this “quote” has a deep fundamental misunderstanding of these superheroes *and* America itself.

  10. No. Neither are accurate at all. Basing your world view on comics is probably not a healthy idea, no matter which of those viewpoints you tend to lean towards.

  13. >Captain America

    Sounds like someone isn’t up to date on their Captain America lore

    Captain America represents what America *can* and *strives* to be. He doesn’t represent the federal government or even the military of the United States. He represents the long and still happing fight America has had to properly embody our founding values of equality, liberty, and justice.

    Even if you haven’t read the comics, Marvel Studies makes that pretty clear in Captain America: Winter Solider and even more so in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with Sam Wilson vs John Walker.

  17. You have to understand these characters were all written with some kind of intention with cap being around for 8 decades so his character has changed alot.

    My best go to for heroes representing America would be cap and Ironman representing the liberal and conservative aspects of America respectively.

    Homelander doesn’t represent America as much as he represents corporate comodification of national symbols. Peacemaker from what I’ve seen is a paradody of America’s darker aspects but not representing of America as a whole.

  21. Wha…

    We’ve got Captain America who’s the good ole boy that can sit there and carry on the good fight all day.

    We’ve got Superman who fights for the American Way of Life.

    Then you try and compare them with the children that are homelander and peacemaker?

    *sad*

  24. I think Capt America represents what most Americans want America to be. He is kind of the “striving for a more perfect Union” guy.

    Peacemaker and Homelander are for the loud minority of ignorant and petty hate types

  26. Those are intentional parodies of otger fictional characters. Its not that deep. And people dont say that, stop spreading nonsense.

    There is a pair of tropes called “America the Beautiful” and opposite “Murica the Boorish”, Captain America and Superman is the former, Honelander and Peacemaker the other.

    As with most things in life, it lies somewhere in the middle.

    How demoralized are you to say such a thing if you are American or an ally of America?

    No one else even comes close.

  27. It depends on what you mean by a representing the US.

    If you’re talking about the corporate and government and police side of things that’s one.

    But a country is the people. Majority of us are just working and doing the best we can to keep the lights on, family safe, food on the table. And scraping enough luxuries together to make life worth living.

    A lot of us are just getting by.

    So I’d say America is like Batman after Bane broke his back.

    We are absolutely going to keep fighting. And we’re going to keep getting up. But we’re getting very tired. And our body is sore. And there’s a lot of disillusionment at that level that I think Batman towards the later years would really fit.

    But that’s my opinion.

  28. Where is that a saying? Who’s saying it? It’s very passive-voice.

    I mean, if it’s just more random-ass “So long as they’re wrong” AmericaBad stuff, I’m going to ignore it. If there’ s some kind of thought behind it, I might hear it out before deciding if I agreed or not.

    as it is, it’s just an internet bumper-sticker that someone pointed out on a passing car and said “how about *that*?” about.

    Frankly if *no-one* is being quoted, and it’s just OP hiding behind “people are saying”, then I’ll address it when they do.

    Anyway, I’m an *Astro City* guy. I find *The Boys* almost cowardly in its level of nihilism.

  29. No, fictional television shows and films are indeed fictional. The characters aren’t accurate representations of Americans, nor the US as a whole. Fictional characters are not representative of societies.

  30. None of them accurately represent the US, because the idea of a super hero representing the day-to-day lives of the average American is ridiculous.

  31. I agree that people should stop using movies and TV shows to gather all their assumptions about how Americans actually live.

  32. You can’t represent a nation with a single character without that character being super inconsistent. Homelander and Captain America both represent different aspects of the idea of America.

    Homelander represents the nationalist, the superior, the powerful, and Cap represents the patriotic, the free, and the just

  33. That isn’t a saying, because no one but you says it.

    Homelander is a nazi-fucking genocidal maniac and Peacemaker is a violent maniac. The answer is a hard no. I don’t think Superman represents the US either, he represents an ideal to strive for.

    So that leaves Captain America. Can’t really argue against him. He represents America.

  35. If you’re being one dimensional, shallow and cynical than yeah I can see people saying that. The total truth is that he would be a mix of the two, Homelander and or Peacekeeper and Superman

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