The Adventures of Overman: Nietzsche’s Übermensch and the U.S.-American Comic-Book Superhero

Abstract

This dissertation explores the resonance between Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) philosophical discourse and U.S.-American superhero comics. Its five chapters examine the evolving relationship between superheroes in their narrative development and the changing understanding of Nietzsche’s moral and political thought. Starting with the introduction of Superman in 1938, the first chapter shows how early critics of superheroes frequently pointed to Nietzsche’s pronouncements on strength and power as evidence that comic books were ideological vehicles for European fascism. The second chapter considers the narrative conflict between superheroes and supervillains, finding that various superhuman antagonists offer a revealing perspective on Nietzsche’s critique of Western moral sentiments. The third chapter addresses Nietzsche’s racial rhetoric in light of the notion of genetic mutation in such comic books as The Uncanny X-Men in the 1960s and 70s. Nietzsche’s explicit role in more recent superhero comics such as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen is the subject of the fourth chapter, which shifts attention from Nietzsche’s social thought to his diagnosis of nihilism and the death of God. The fifth chapter uses the development of Wonder Woman to reflect on the complexities of Nietzsche’s understanding of sex-gender. The dissertation thus reconstructs the growing intellectual sophistication of superhero comics during the second half of the twentieth century, and the increasing nuance with which such Nietzschean ideas as the Übermensch, the “will to power,” and moral valuation “beyond good and evil” are understood. Applying a Nietzschean lens proves to be a powerful tool in analyzing and critiquing superhero comics, while superheroes in turn prove to be illuminating visualizations of Nietzschean insights and concerns. The study demonstrates that U.S.-American superhero comics and the works of scholarly and popular criticism that they have engendered form a definite and largely unexplored aspect of Nietzsche’s reception history and philosophical legacy.