A Different Brand of Justice

Having never read any Superman comics before, I had a very limited knowledge of Superman and assumed that he was kind of a boring, bland character that followed the law to a T. While he fulfilled this idea in many ways – little character development, no characteristics that lend themselves to relatability – he also defied my expectations with his violence, recklessness, and his unique way of showing villains the evil of their actions. I certainly didn’t expect that Superman would be the type of hero to throw villains in tar (32), string them up from electrical poles (13),  or drop them straight out of the sky (177).
 More intriguing though were the little skits that Superman puts on to show criminals the evil of their ways. I found them kind of funny, and certainly a unique way to make people step into the shoes of the people that they are hurting. However, I didn’t expect that they would be quite so dangerous for those involved, especially innocent bystanders. In Action Comics #2, when Superman tries to knock sense into the owner of the mine, he not only traps the owner inside the mine, but also innocent partygoers. Even worse, in Action Comics #4, Superman drugs Tommy Burke in order to take his place to stop the men hired by corrupt Coach Randall to attack players on the Cordell University football team. There’s no need to even involve the innocent kid, and Superman finds it acceptable to drug him and keep his prisoner. Later on in Action Comics #8, Superman tries to “put fear into” some delinquent kids by using some telephone wires as a tightrope. Even though he believes these kids to be good and finds that they are under the corrupt influence of an older man, he thinks it necessary to put them in harm’s way. Altogether, Superman’s reckless disregard for humans’ safety and health seems hard to reconcile with his apparently high esteem for the law.