Assignment 1

Supervillains: Do They Exist?


Superhero movies and comics have always been a niche part of pop culture. Powerful heroes flying around the world protecting 'normal' people who're helpless at the clutches of evil. The popularity of superheros has only increased over the years. They serve as an oasis free of worry. Their stories always end with the good guys winning, a sanctuary in the grim and macabre news that surrounds us. Lucky for us, we don't need superheroes outside of the fictional universes that they reside in because there are no supervillains to defend us against. But what if they did?

Trump's "The Art of the Deal" (Left) and
Luthor's "The Unauthorized Biography" (Right)
Lex Luthor, a rich businessman with a lifelong grudge against the alien that Superman is, shares striking similarity to the current President, Donald Trump. Trump may not seem to live up to the extravagance of a supervillain, but the categorization encompasses a wide array of characters. There are the foes of Spiderman, scientist's with visions of utopia or experiments gone mad for revenge. On the other hand, there's the evils that Batman fights, sinister criminals causing mayhem for perceived equality or even just for fun. Though the motives of Dr. Octavious or The Joker may seem cartoonishly exaggerated in the real world, a foe like Superman's archenemy is much more of a reality.

Donald Trump has recently tried to override the checks and balances in place that prevent the imbalance between the divisions of government. In an article from the Washington Post, Deanna Paul discusses his recent threats to place the country in a state of national emergency. This ploy to redirect funding and power is a cover to deliver on his campaign promise of a wall on the southern border. Not only does Paul show the statutes present that give substance to his threat, but she also offers future implications. The reallocation of 5.5B dollars and the seizure of land along the border creates worry for taxpayers and landowners. Presidents have issued National emergencies in the past, but reserved this power for real threats like the swine flu epidemic and the 9-11 terrorist incident.

Since Trump's declaration for the Presidency and through his time in office, his off-script courting of the limelight through social media makes it seem as if he using the Presidency as a publicity stunt. In Melissa Leon’s Daily Beast post, a detailed parallel is drawn between Lex Luthor's fake presidential campaign and Trump's actual one. They both built their platform on the fear, both filled with "xenophobia, militarism, misinformation, and outlandish promises neither can keep." Luthor never truly wanted the presidency, saying that he would be giving up power in the confines of the presidential office. Trump didn't have as much foresight on what would happen if he did win, however, saying in a Reuters interview, "I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier." Both the fictional character and the real-world tycoon wanted the publicity without limitation.

In one comic arc, where Luthor actually became president, he channeled all his power into bringing down Superman. This personal vendetta that drives himself and his presidency to the ground. If Trump continues to put his personal interests above the good of the nation, the two plotlines may converge; Trump too may lose his office in an untimely fashion.

An article written on Forbes finds Trump's rise to fame, as portrayed in the Netflix documentary "Trump: An American Dream", similar to the fall of a man into madness as seen in numerous supervillain origin stories. A strategic and ambitious businessman becomes "openly decadent, proudly immoral, [and] inherently deceitful." Trump started with an entrepreneurial outlook, but his vision soon only extended as far as himself.

Even if there are similarities in their approach to presidency, that wouldn't be enough to call someone a supervillain, right? Trump's presidency has been one received with unease. People are unsure what he'll say or who he'll anger next. But if we view him in the light of a supervillain, a method to his madness shines through the fog. His actions will always be those in his best interest, those that further his own goals. If anyone lashes out at him, his ego puts them in the crosshairs. Characterizing him begins to abate some of the worries that follow Trump's actions.

This Forbes article continues to mention that Trump is always honest with his intentions despite how disagreeable some of them may seem. Since day one, Trump has said he wanted to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Despite how ridiculous and impractical the claim seemed, throughout his presidency he has fought tooth and nail for it. There isn't ever a question on Trump's actions; if he says he'll do it, he'll damn well try. This overt honesty is central to all supervillains. There isn't ever a question on whether Lex Luthor is trying to defeat Superman. The question is rather how will he try. How will Trump try to build his wall next?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Writing About the Media

I discuss my biggest fault in approaching the class in my final assignment. I took that as an opportunity to reflect on some bottled up thoughts that I had, revisiting the core purpose of why I enjoy writing. Reflecting on the course itself and the process, I found this class to be a different form of writing that was in the middle of the analytical, research papers that I hate and the free, creative writing that I loved. We took our own thoughts and ideas but integrated them with outside research on the medium.  I found it to be quite a roller coaster for me. The first piece was the one that I was most distant from (in terms of content at least). I'm not very big on pop culture or news, so writing about it was out of my comfort zone. I had to spend extra time researching since I was so foreign to the current policies and news, only just grasping a level of understanding to be able to whip the piece together. What pulled me through that assignment was integrating it with somethi...
Read more

Assignment 4

Image
Final Assignment: Video Game Categorization Course: Video Games as a Medium Professor: Guna Yerrabolu This course is made for students who enjoy playing video games. It revolves around playing video games and then analyzing the experience, so it could still be suitable for students who don't really play video games. A lot of the questions I got revolved around the requirement for 10-15 games. As I presented in the Research Tips and Tricks, this assignment is still feasible if someone does research. The categories don't have to be broad. So if they research gameplay clips or other people's reviews, the assignment can still be completed since the categories that the student generates are of their own choosing. Information Throughout this course, we have observed how medium can shape the message that a video game is portraying. We spent a majority of the class looking at specific video games and analyzing different components that made or broke them. In this proce...
Read more

Final Assignment: The Looking Glass

A Reflection on the Student Condition I think to myself at least once a month what it would have been like to go through college and actually take classes for the content. Being a pre-med student, I have valued the grade more often than the message. It's probably a common symptom of the system since we have to keep our GPA at perfection throughout our college career to impress the medical schools. My writing minor was supposed to be my step out of the light, it was supposed to be the classes I took for me rather than for those medical schools. The assortment of classes I took through the minor were supposed to be not for the grade. That's what I told myself. But with every class, I always have that anxiety at the back of my mind. Even though these classes give a freedom that I don't find in any other classes, there are limitations. I used to hate writing for classes. I went to a math and science academy where every History and English class was filled with analytical,...
Read more