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You are currently reading a thread in /co/ - Comics & Cartoons
You are currently reading a thread in /co/ - Comics & Cartoons
What are some Conservative Superheroes?
Bonus points for Non-Antiheroes
>>81316632
Donald Trump
>>81316657
The hell is this
Icon from Milestone
>>81316723
U.S.Agent, during Norman's rule of Thunderbolts
Batman is the obvious one. Sometimes people write him as a liberal progressive and it always feels out of character and such bullshit.
>>81316780
No that's Cagebolts. U.S.A.gent got crippled during Siege when Nuke attacked him with Odin's spear
Iron Man and Captain/Ms. Marvel.
The Question, originally.
Punisher and Batman, though it varies with writers.
>>81318411
>Punisher
>Conservative
Punisher is totally not a progressive liberal, but he's a bleeding heart with balls at this point.
I really don't think most conservatives would care about half the people he saves
>>81318750
He's really hard to pin down on the political spectrum, seeing as he holds criminal in pure contempt with no remorse over killing them, yet shows compassion to those wronged by them or those who are trapped by the system but haven't crossed the line.
>>81316662
My nubian comrade.
>>81316802
I could see Bats supporting a shit ton of Gotham Social programs though. Nothing really screams conservative. But honestly I'm having a hard time imagining conservative heroes in general. Even ignoring the hypocrisies Modern Mainstream Conservativism seems much like a political philosophy based on trying to keep the Government from impeding Individual's success through shit like gun grabbing and regulated business and maintaining a semblance of status quo like no abortions or changing definitions of shit like marriage and female. But Ultimately a Liberal hero just seems easier because being a nice guy Bleeding Heart is so much easier to make openly liberal and heroic. If a hero is conservative it seems like it'd be a backburner character trait or the basis of some crappy niche hero that Bill O'reilly would write.
>>/pol/
Carol Danvers a long time ago
>>81321168
IRL most cops and military serviceman are already conservatives, generally "tough on crime" and "law and order" are conservative "traits" in the realm of western politics. To the extent that translates into comics yeah it would be difficult to write a non-antihero that would fit that role unless you want to try and make the whole "superpower registration" thing an allegory for gun rights. I guess you could go for "for-profit" superheros like Booster Gold too.
If you want specific characters I'd guess the following guys would probably vote Republican if written in-character (if they bothered to vote at all)
Punisher
Judge Dredd (he can't vote at all but whatever)
Iron Man
Booster Gold
I'm sure you can think of others.
The Question would probably go libertarian or write in Ron Paul.
>>81324052
Question, as an extension of Ditko, is a dyed in the wool Randian, so he'd absolutely be a Libertarian.
DESU the only superhero that I genuinely like being labeled a particular political philosophy is Green Arrow being a Socialist. It fits the character and the Robin Hood allegory really well, and it comes from a place that works as an extension of his life experiences and not as the authors shoving their politics in for the fuck of it.
Also I'm pretty sure pre-n52 Wally West was officially a conservative.
>>81318411
Do you have it backwards?
Your top and bottom should be switched.
It's Iron Man and Captain/Ms. Marvel who vary by writer if they were libs or conservatives. Batman is always conservative. It just varies between writers if he's a Republican or a Fascist.
>>81324133
>Green Arrow is a socialist
>he's secretly a rich white guy
Yep it fits.
I think The Punisher is really hard to pin down simply because how his actions translate into the real world.
Chris Kyle, the guy who wrote American Sniper, is pretty open about him being inspired by The Punisher, his SEAL team even wore his logo on their uniform and one of his units can be seen reading Punisher MAX in the American Sniper movie.
In his book (which is supposed to be an autobiography), he writes about all of these Punisher-esque fantasies he's had in his life (which he passes off as true despite the fact that they're so outrageous and obviously lies) like sniping looters in New Orleans, killing a carjacker, and punching a politician in the face. These are all clearly things The Punisher would do. But conservatives don't know that. They just think Chris Kyle is a badass conservative war hero who can do no wrong.
Put a conservative in front of Daredevil Season 2 and tell them "Yeah, that guy inspired Chris Kyle" and they'd have a fucking fit about how that's a lie.
>>81324289
Maybe the older crowd, most younger conservatives (the "alt right" or whatever they're being called nowadays) love the Punisher and wouldn't find the fact that he inspired Kyle odd at all.
this guy
>>81324435
I highly doubt all younger conservatives are alt-right. The alt-right is nothing more than a meme filled with mid-20something losers who are starved for attention and will do and say anything to feel accomplished or accepted, so they turn to racism and misogyny where people will like you solely for using the n-word every other sentence.
I have a few die hard conservative friends who aren't very old (19-20) and they're fine as long as you don't bring up gay people or black people (alt-right are incredibly racist. Whereas younger conservatives are just KIND of racist).
Well, one of them did rape a girl. So I guess that's not very good.
Maybe Captain America and Iron Man.
>>81324654
Captain America, definitely not. He's a New Deal Democrat - Most of the modern Democratic Party is very conservative in comparison to his values.
>>81324544
Well there's different types of conservatives, the only types I could think that would be upset about finding out Chris Kyle was inspired by the Punisher would be the Ted Cruz moral guardian types.
As for the "alt-right" I've pretty much written it off as journalists referencing /pol/ while not wanting to admit they know what /pol/ is.
>>81324770
Socially Caps conservative, but economically definitely a new deal Democrat.
>>81324862
Depends on your idea of social conservativism. I don't see Cap being against gay rights or any of that kind of shit
>>81324862
>Socially Caps conservative
Where did you get that from?
>>81324955
>>81325093
I don't mean in a "gays are bad and racism's good" way, I just mean in the way your grandparents would be less open about discussing certain aspects about society and would keep to themselves on it. Just compare Henry Fonda's brand of New Deal liberalism with the 60's radicalist attitude about open drug use and free love that his kids exemplified in the culture of the time.
>>81325093
I think people confused a lot of 'old-fashioned' values that Cap has with conservatism because they forget fucking everything doesn't have to be political. He's a product of his time more than anything.
I tried but couldn't finish it, and I'm having some doubts about the placements I chose.
>>81324460
>who will you vote for, Hawkman?
>for dude with biggest military spending
>>81325302
Is this chart saying that Darkseid is greatest hero of them all? I knew there's reason why I wanted to die for that guy.
>>81325441
They're not meant to be heroes, specifically. Just cape characters. It's hard for a character to be an egoist and heroic at the same time.
>>81325471
>Namor
>Hal
>Superior Otto
>Booster
>Johnny Torch
>Guy Gardner
Do they fit?
>>81324133
>Also I'm pretty sure pre-n52 Wally West was officially a conservative.
Correct. In fact, he was explicitly referred to as such. Although I don't know how many of his subsequent writers kept that in mind when writing him.
Quantum.
>>81325302
Equating political liberalism and conservatism to altruism and egoism, respectively, is absolute bull crap.
The reason it's hard to pin down big conservative heroes is because the conservative mindset is very "Fuck you, I got mine" and everyone else can hang.
Liberals generally want things to be better for everyone, stick up for the underdog and the downtrodden,etc. which all kinda flies in the face of the typical conservative viewpoint of "I don't wanna help others if it's going to cost me anything"
>>81325832
Spoken like a shitheel Con.
>>81325750
Jesus fucking christ what is wrong with that guy?
He's bitching about how racist republicans are while screaming about how the black man should vote for the black president's party because he's black
>>81325874
Woody is idiot. Literally.
>>81325841
>the conservative mindset is very "Fuck you, I got mine" and everyone else can hang.
Lol, who taught you that, Reddit or Tumblr?
>>81325841
Pretty much it's hard to be a Conservative Hero rather than a Hero who happens to be conservative unless your enemy is "radical liberalism"
>>81326000
conservatives.
>>81325832
I never equated either to either. "Liberal" and "conservative" are terms that have been attached to lots of unrelated ideas (many of which are inconsistent with each other), so trying to graph either is impossible.
>>81325302
Non-cape version was easier to fill out.
>>81325874
>Jesus fucking christ what is wrong with that guy?
>He's bitching about how racist republicans are while screaming about how the black man should vote for the black president's party because he's black
Yeah, that attitude is really not all that uncommon among low thought liberals/democrats.
Not all of them, but it is not uncommon at all to hear those sorts of arguments whenever someone runs across a minority that leans GOP.
>>81326000
Living in North America since the Reagan era.
Who told you Conservatives are noble, selfless and giving? Fox News?
>>81325841
Well, this thread was nice while it lasted.
>>81326179
The thread's been running for hours and the best answer anyone could come up with was "Punisher"
It's nobody's fault the OP came to the table with a question that couldn't generate multiple examples.
>>81326167
Didn't say they were those either, just that they weren't "fuck you, got mine."
Conservatives are about fiscal responsibility/caution, personal responsibility over group or social responsibility, emphasizing states rights over federal rights, strong defense, and traditional values.
I'm a liberal, and frankly the sort of false image people have about what a conservative is with >>81326167
>>81325841
is just blatantly false and has a fundamental and often purposeful misunderstanding and misstatement of conservative principals.
You aren't describing what a conservative mindset is, you're describing what a strawman conservative mindset is, a strawman constructed by low info liberals and democrats.
Just because Tumblr or Reddit tells you conservatives are pretty much just Senator Armstrong minus the "Nanomachines, son.", doesn't mean it's true.
>>81326257
how do you make that a c superhero though
>>81326000
>Lol, who taught you that, Reddit or Tumblr?
The core conservative value is "everyone should help themselves, anyone who couldn't is lazy and deserve what they got". Helping other people is anti-conservative. You need to demand payment for helping people, because you don't want a moral hazard of people not earning a living or not willing to save themselves. You let the hungry starve and the weak beaten up, because it builds character and it weeds out those who should survive anyway. That's Conservatism.
>>81326284
A superhero that teaches people to take responsibility for themselves, believes strongly in self defense, to take charge isn't too hard.
Say you have a armed robbery, superhero saves the day, realizes it's a sketchy neighborhood and tells the guy who was held up to take charge, learn self defense or get a gun in case it happens again and they can't get to them in time.
A guy who teaches people to believe in themselves and they're in charge of their own destiny and they are their own masters.
Yeah, I don't think it'd be that hard to write.
And conservatives have a big law and order streak, so you can do all sorts of conflicts with that.
>>81326372
>Say you have a armed robbery, superhero saves the day, realizes it's a sketchy neighborhood and tells the guy who was held up to take charge, learn self defense or get a gun in case it happens again and they can't get to them in time.
And the next time the guy gets robbed again? Does the hero leave him to die because he didn't defend himself properly and he deserve it? Or does the hero save him anyway, while complaining that he shouldn't have to do this and that the guy is a parasite in society and that he really shouldn't save him?
>>81326370
"Conservative" values just mean older values.
You're thinking of individualism/egoism, which a lot of conservatives believe in but isn't inherent. Liberal/progressive/conservative/right/left are really terrible terms that don't describe political beliefs well at all.
Captain America was a conservative when he was written by Jim Shooter (in the Avengers), and it felt so weird and out of place, it was hilarious. Despite wearing a giant flag, Steve Rogers has almost always been a bit of a bleeding heart. Except in the Ultimate Universe, of course.
The Question was a fully paid up Objectivist when he was written by Ditko, but in the Denny O'neill run, he becomes more of a weird sort of zen philosopher, and starts leaning more left.
Speaking of O'neill, I guess in Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Hal Jordan is depicted as a conservative. However, I've seen many conservatives say they don't like this portrayal, because they see it as a story about a lib showing how the conservative ideology is wrong. That's not really what happens, but if you're easily triggered, it might not be for you.
When it comes to Batman, it's much harder to ascribe any kind of political ideology. Sure, he's a rich businessman (even worse, he inherited his wealth), which many might associate with being conservative, but he's a philanthropist, who spends a seriously large chunk of his money on helping the poor. Honestly, I just don't think there's really enough there to confidently say he's on either side of the political spectrum.
The best answer is Icon, from Milestone comics. He was deliberately written from the ground up to be a conservative superhero, unlike Marvel and DC, who just have political ideologies assigned to them depending on their writer.
>>81326372
>A superhero that teaches people to take responsibility for themselves
If they believed in that, wouldn't they not be superheroing (solving other people's problems) in the first place?
>>81326389
>"Conservative" values just mean older values.
I am using the term as it is currently used by Americans. Much like how in America "Liberal" means Satanism. What the word really means in a dictionary really has no relevance when we are talking about the United States.
>>81325750
I've been here for too long. This... this is real? Like someone actually made this and put it in something mainstream?
>>81326385
If the guy got self defense and/or a weapon, he could defend himself, but they could combine forces to take down a lawbreaker. You'd have a lot of it where it's about empowering individuals to take charge of their own circumstances, I don't see how you have a problem with trying to teach people to take charge, to be masters of themselves and protect themselves.
I mean, you want to keep strawmanning, I'm sure a liberal superhero would realize that the kid robbing the store comes from a poor family so he deserves to run off with the cash. Hell, if it's a black kid robbing a white guy, it's reparations. Thanks SuperLiberal-man.
>>81326433
>I am using the term as it is currently used by Americans.
Which is inconsistent as fuck and covers a bunch of unrelated beliefs that get lumped together to fit a two-party system.
>>81326409
>Hero saves someone
>gives some self defense tips and a Billy club
>slowly amasses citywide vigilante network
>>81326433
>Much like how in America "Liberal" means Satanism.
>>81326458
Batman Inc?
Didn't this pretty much play out at the end of TDKR as well?
>>81326408
>Icon
>written from the ground up to be a conservative superhero
Sounds cool, I'll check it ou-
>he's black
Welp, into the trash it goes.
>>81326408
I don't think your origins should ascribe your idealogy your actions should. So what if Bruce inherited money?
>>81326485
Did you stop reading at that sentence?
>>81326468
clearly he meant socialism
>>81326500
no i just think it's weird to count that towards conservativism. I mean there are a few liberal rich fucks. like McIntosh is practically full on Commie but is living off his dad's cash.
Pretty certain any of the rich businessmen heroes would be conservatives. Except maybe Iron Fist and Batman. Bruce is probably too busy being Batman to care about politics
>>81326552
I think Bruce's pessimism about human nature says a lot about where his political philosophies would lean.
>>81326408
I strongly suspect Batman has no real political leanings either way actually.
We know (and have seen in the comics) that he practices responsible business and donates large sums to multiple charities (I bet there's a shitload of hospital wings and libraries named after Thomas and Martha Wayne at this point), but ultimately that's all part of his "beard" so to speak and is secondary to his eternal war on crime much like everything else.
He likely still votes, but I'm guessing whenever he does he leans neither way and exhaustively researches all candidates and digs up all their ditty laundry for him to make note of before making a choice because his OCD won't let him even vote without prep time and planning.
Everything is second to Batman's personal crusade on crime, including his politics.
Or you know, his personal crusade against garishly dressed archfoes with cartoonish plots that have body counts since he never actually spends any time fighting organized crime or street crime or solving murders or even being a detective anymore.
>>81326552
Green Arrow
>>81326484
Icon isn't really the kind of conservative you're pretending to be anyway; he's conservative because he's like literally a century or two old (landed on Earth in the 19th century) and so "new" shit makes him uncomfortable.
Also, he's black (or at least appears that way since he's an alien) and way back when the Republican Party was founded by a guy who's name was "Lincoln" and had rather a lot to do with the emancipation of the ethnic group he looks like, which probably made his life a lot easier.
>>81316632
Barry Allen according to that one issue of Brave and the Bold
>>81326408
>philanthropy is anti-conservative
W E W
>>81326617
Wally West was one for awhile too.
Back during his hot-head NTT days he shot his mouth off a shitload and pointed out that he grew up in the Midwest.
>>81326640
Kinda feel like Supes would have been one too for the same reasons, although they've probably changed that up again
>>81321168
I could see it.
>Will protect abortion clinic patients from being assaulted, but also will protect the protesters.
>Will save LGBT(UVWXYZ) people but still be an activist against gay marriage/gender therapy, etc.
A conservative hero would disagree with some of the choices the people he protects makes, but he'd be equally aware how wrong it would be to force them to silence.
>>81326670
I mean isn't that the same attitude a liberal hero takes to saving people they disagree with?
>>81326664
Supes probably is one, but he also doesn't want to prosthelytize or challenge people's beliefs, he just wants to help people, let his actions speak louder than his words.
>>81326701
A good one, yes.
That's the thing; a good hero shouldn't leave someone behind over petty idealogical differences. A conservative hero could save Zoe Quin for all I care; he doesn't have to agree with her, but you're not a hero for only saving people you like when you have the capacity to save others.
>>81326664
Superman is liberal-ish, but like Batman I suspect he is more or less apolitical at heart; while other superheroes clearly lean one way or another, Clark and Bruce both hold themselves to ridiculous personal standards and higher callings that sort of prevent them from leaning too much one one direction or the other.
Bruce is too busy caring about stuff that "actually matters" from his POV and Clark is too busy saving EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE to worry about that shit. Their lives are sort of consumed by tasks and self-imposed duties that sort of preclude them wasting any time worrying about politics, the same way a soldier actively getting shot at every single day isn't worrying about who he's voting for and instead is preoccupied looking for solutions to slightly more immediate problems.
>>81326736
>Ollie: "So Bruce, who are you voting for? Probably Conservative right, a Fat Cat authotorian like you?"
>Bruce: "I have three open homicide cases, an active threat by Mister Freeze, Killer Croc has escaped from Blackgate, an investigation on a new smuggling route the Russian Mafia have opened up, and there's a good thirty-five percent chance on any given week the Joker might show up again and demand all my attention from all that other shit that takes up my time."
>Ollie: "Uh...I don't see what that-"
>Bruce: "What I am saying is; why the do you think I even have time to give a shit what idiot sits in the White House, Oliver? And better yet, why are you flying down to the Batcave and wasting my time asking about it? I thought this was a League emergency."
>Ollie:"...Dinah and me are fighting again so she kicked me out and I'm bored."
>Bruce: "So go hire a marriage councilor and stop bothering me."
>>81316632
Detective Chimp
>>81326820
>"Do you know how much power I'd have to give up to be President?"
Batman is liberal. All mainstream heroes basically have to be or else they're on the wrong side of history.
Hank Hall AKA Hawk is a conservative.
Donating money to charity doesn't make someone liberal. Lots of conservatives donate money to charity - their issue is taxes.
Conservatives would rather be freely allowed to give their money to charitable services of their choice (often churches, but lots of churches do run charitable efforts) than have the government take that money from them and decide where to spend it.
>>81329771
Hell, superheroing as most heroes do it is inherently conservative because they're not turning to the government to regulate them. The Avengers/JL are basically superpowered neighborhood watches, which conservatives cream themselves over.
>>81316662
He said "Conservative"
