#Krypton gender utopia when

[jesncin]

Idk queer kryptonian have always intrigued me, never being mentioned in canon, but they should do something about them in canon with Jon being out and all... I can easily imagine Crush (Xiomara Rojas, lesbain daughter of Lobo) asking Kara about Krypton's gay scene sgsjksks

I don't know about canon, but we can certainly have fun takes in AUs about it haha. I know it's because Krypton as a concept is made by us, human beings with very rigid gender norms via the western gender binary and what not, so Krypton generally tends to be imagined in a very "like us, but futuristic" way- but I think it's much more fun to imagine an alien species with a whole different set of rules over how gender and sexuality function in society. An entirely different framework alien (hah) to us. Like think less gay couples or a gender neutral bathroom and more a society that never considered a binary to begin with. What would that world look like, and how would characters like Jon or even Conner react learning about this?

Canon will probably never do this because this would imply a nuanced understanding of the intersection between culture and queer identity and well! Haha.

[fazedlight]

Krypton vs. Gallifrey on Homophobia

In my mind, Krypton is a fascist state:

Quashes disagreement (eg the knowledge of Krypton's doom)

Controls sex and reproduction; eugenics (Matrix)

Required algorithm approval for marriage (until the Matricomp became sentient oops)

Prison where all the prisoners get tortured by phantoms

Has a caste (Guild) system

Facism loves bigotry. It's an easy way to maintain control, if powerless people are too busy fighting each other to realize that their government has betrayed them. Patriarchy is particularly convenient - often bundling sexism/homophobia/transphobia. Krypton already has rules around gender categories (consider: the names Kara Zor-El vs. Kal-El), so I think it's a reasonable interpretation that homophobia could be among those rules.

(I occasionally see the idea that Krypton would be beyond bias, but I don't think technological advancement means moral advancement - sometimes, technology just automates bias.)

Gallifrey, on the other hand, seems to be described as far more democratic. While there's certainly room for it to fall into "all utopias are actually dystopias" (Timeless Child 👀?), it doesn't fit the same type of overt fascism to me. Likewise, I'm not sure it makes sense for homophobia to be a type of bias they have - Gallifreyans (like Coluans and Martians) aren't rooted in their bodies or gender expressions or anything else used by patriarchy to enact that sort of bias.

I think the Doctor (and the Master, etc) basically try to translate themselves into something that is legible in the human world, for ease of communication. But gender probably just... seems like a weird construct to them. Making decisions (like marriage) based on gender or similar attributes seems like a fool's errand, when those attributes can be completely different 12 times in their lives. Homophobia in that sort of world doesn't make sense to me.

I guess that's where I'm coming from, when it comes to homophobia and technologically-advanced societies. The faults in a society will depend on multiple factors, and I don't think we can evaluate it based purely on how futuristic they seem.

But these are just my headcanons - glued together from chaotically inconsistent canons! - so take them with a grain of salt.

[jesncin]

Unimaginable Utopia vs the believable Colonized World

"Why can't we make Krypton, Superman's home planet, flawed or evil instead of a utopia (as it was traditionally portrayed)?"

Much of the justification for an evil or flawed Krypton is that it "adds depth" or "makes it believable/ interesting" when Krypton isn't a utopia. Because utopias, in a lot of people's minds, are unimaginable. We can imagine aliens, distant planets, magic, superpowers, but utopia without suffering is "ridiculous".

I have been gripped by this Little Joel video on Omelas: How We Talk About Utopia for ages now because I think it succinctly wraps up everything I feel about the topic. Omelas and Krypton are both fictional worlds (in the case of Omelas, explicitly a fiction within the short story fiction where the author herself encourages you to imagine utopia with her as a thought experiment), yet in the demand to make these fantastical worlds more "believable", suffering (regardless of how nonsensical) needs to be added in order to "make sense of the good that exists". The idea of utopia without suffering is unimaginable.

For Krypton, this means any sort of interpretation from "Kryptonians are colonizers now" or "Kryptonians are evil aliens who hate Earth, plot twist!" or "Kryptonians have a class system that punishes progressive thought" or "Kryptonians are racist, sexist, ableist, etc."! Somehow this fictional alien world has to look a lot more like our flawed world in order to be "believable". But that's not the full picture. Many real world societies in themselves are hard to believe, especially in the American mindset.

["From A Native Daughter" by Haunani-Kay Trask excerpts]

People are shocked to learn of societies outside of the West with more broad systems for gender, or that queerness existed at all in indigenous cultures around the world without the influence of white people. Societies outside of a patriarchal or capitalistic system? Is that really possible?

["From A Native Daughter" by Haunani-Kay Trask excerpts]

I'm not here to paint all these cultures as perfect or necessarily enlightened before colonialism set them back. But I am saying that the way many of these societies were built were so unimaginable to colonizers that they had to lie and label these worlds as barbaric or worse-than-they-were as a means of "civilizing them" through colonization. Projecting familiar European structures on them, regardless of accuracy. "These indigenous genderqueer roles are perverse, they must fit our binary two gender system!" And now all of these cultures are set back, and we'll never really know what they'd have looked like had they been allowed to develop and grow without colonizers intervening. Many have bought into the European structures enforced on them. Because that's believable.

(American Missionaries in the 1800s abolishing the genderqueer practices of the Māhū, from Kumu Hina documentary)

The basic premise of Superman is that he was born on a utopian planet, but sent to Earth as a baby when said planet faced world-wide destruction. He is raised by his adopted American parents and culture. Superman is by all technicalities, an undocumented immigrant.

So why do I think utopia is important to Superman mythos? Isn't there an argument to be made for portraying a refugee allegory when Superman leaves a bigoted Krypton to find safety in a flawed Earth? Because any other alien character in DC's roster could do that. Martian Manhunter used to be written as coming from a utopian Mars, but I personally think that him fleeing from a bigoted one works better for his themes. What makes Superman different? What makes him unique from all these alien migrants?

Because being the Man of Tomorrow, an ideal to strive for, is inherit to the best Superman stories. Part of what makes his rivalry with Lex Luthor so compelling is that Lex Luthor has bought into the flawed Omelas premise. He's been raised to believe that power without stepping on someone else is impossible. So when he sees Superman, he's frustrated that this alien man flaunts power without malice. It's unimaginable to Lex that someone can be powerful and selfless. It's even become a meta discussion for fans that someone as kind as Superman is unbelievable. "Too good to be true".

When you remove utopia from Superman's backstory, this contrast is lost. Superman just becomes an exception from an evil planet. A miraculous white savior, assimilated into American culture to be our hero.

(the infamous, xenophobic John Byrne panel)

Nowadays, people want to shake up the formula. It's a trendy twist to make Krypton a planet of colonizers. Or maybe a morally grey one. Or a feudal, classist, and bigoted one.

Superman is no longer a guy from a native utopia who hopes to bring our flawed world into a better tomorrow like the one he came from. He's now just magically the best guy from the shitty planet. Sometimes he's like that because his Kryptonian parents happen to be activists (Absolute Superman). Other times, Superman is good because he was raised by upstanding American citizens. He's not like those other aliens; barbaric, feudal, bigoted. Superman's good because he's assimilated into being an American. And he will spread that American goodness throughout the galaxy to bring them into the American Way- oh wait that's the less progressive line, I mean- "A Better Tomorrow".

Think for a moment about Superman as an immigrant allegory and how that parallels real human experiences for a second. What does it mean to change Superman's home planet to be something "more believable"? To add elements of American/western bigotry into these distant sci-fi worlds? Why make Kryptonians evil colonizers like yourselves? Why make a Superman that disavows his Utopian Kryptonian roots? Why make a Superman that assures us he is more human than alien? It's because our modern imaginations are limited by colonial constructs. New writers think they're twisting the Superman formula, but they manage to bring it backwards to xenophobic directions.

"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain."

-Those Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin

[jesncin]

I just saw the non-concrete concept for like Zod not being a General but instead a cult leader in your continuity and it sounds genuinely intriguing tbh. Like that's a good way of showcasing that, yes Krypton is a utopia that has made it far, but their ideals aren't a monolith among each other.

thank you! I'm glad you think so! I know a lot of people's mindset nowadays for Krypton is "it's more interesting if it's a flawed planet like ours" and I just thoroughly disagree! There's plenty of ways to make a utopian planet interesting and flawed (which it always was, hence its explosion) without making it a carbon copy of Earth's problems.

Superman is inherently sci fi! Speculative fiction! I think part of my frustration with the majority white audience and creatives of Superman is that they want to chisel away the parts of him they find less relatable (immigrant, diaspora) and make him something that reflects themselves more (white colonizer guilt, white savior). I'm always fascinated when I research indigenous cultures, because they had entirely different frameworks for community, spiritualism, gender, before being threatened by colonialism.

I need people to imagine what reclaiming utopia in the face of Earth's problems means, that's why Superman's the Man of Tomorrow. He came from something better-and that better place can house terrible people like Zod.

[jesncin]

Hello! I'm not sure if you read the Actions Comics #1074, but I wanted to get this thought out of my head. Spoilers ahead!

Clark got sent back in time when Krypton has yet to be destroyed. After saving a stranger from a malfunctioning flying bot, he was sent to Krypton Hospital and, after he was given treatment, a meal, and new set of clothes, he immediately went to place Lara and Jor-El were.

I couldn't help but think his sudden visit to Lara and Joe-El reminded me of how in some Asian countries, you could just walk into your neighbor's home, usually without a prior notice, and just...eat with them, talk with them, and other activities. I remember someone talking about how in their country, they would go to their neighbor's home so much and help them with chores like laundry, they knew the days when that neighbor does which chores and always got meal going there.

In my country, the Philippines, my grandpa's neighbors would just appear with no notice, and give my grandparents company!

Indeed, Clark did send some sort of message about his visit to that Lara received, but he immediately left from the Krypton Hospital to the place of Lara and Jor-El's, and even though the Science Council is conceited, the communal spirit must be so strong for Lara to just accept this stranger's sudden and quick request for a meeting, even though she doesn't know them.

just...something about community and how people just helping each other because they want to, which bring about an easier life and also a joyful one

Anyway! What comics have you recently read? I think Absolute Superman is out now! Have you read Absolute Superman? What do you think about it?

I gave said Action Comics issue a quick read!

It's definitely not intentional in the story, but it does serve as a nice jumping off point to thinking of Krypton as having a type of collectivist communal mindset for treating thy neighbors. Part of what fascinates me about Kryptonian worldbuilding is exploring what the idea of a doomed utopia could be like. I'd personally love to see writers pull inspiration from cultural philosophies like Gotong Royong or Bayanihan, along with challenging human structures of gender, class and spirituality. An indigenous-inspired Krypton would be phenomenal.

But as long as DC Comics continues to be a reflection of a white dominant industry, we're not going to get anything like that soon. The Action Comics story is charming enough, I like seeing Clark try out Kryptonian clothes and mention that he has a language barrier, but the white imagination can only go so far without having lived it.

I have read Absolute Superman! My feelings about it are actually pretty similar. I'm glad I wasn't excited for AbsoSupes because it sounded boring from the promos, and turns out, it (the first issue at least) was indeed dull. Something Absolute Superman shares in common with Absolute Batman is that it doesn't stand on its own. These takes rely on being contrarian (what they call "subversive") to their source material. If I didn't know anything about Superman, I'd honestly think this was a pretty generic alien superhero story.

I notice most of the people enjoying AbsoSupes are praising it because they've done 80 years of Superman homework to get all its references and recognize what it's twisting. But I think an over-reliance on expecting your audience to do reading pre-requisites to even like a story at all is weak. Absolute Wonder Woman on the other hand, is an outstanding, mythic take on the character- no homework required, just genuinely compelling characterization and storytelling.

(spoilers for Absolute Superman #1)

To bring this back to my feelings on Krypton, Superman writers and DC as a company; I think stuff like Man Of Steel, that Krypton tv show, MAWS and Absolute Superman reflect the very limits of the white imagination. New Superman writers are no longer invested in exploring Superman's origin planet as a utopia, because that's not something white people can relate to or fathom. Instead, they'd rather Krypton be a direct reflection of Earth's problems.

Kryptonians are now colonizers, classist and bigoted. Krypton is no longer the land of the future sending down their one hope to guide the imperfect people of Earth into a better tomorrow. There's no appealing contrast between Earth and Krypton anymore, and because of that- Kal El becomes an exception from Planet Colonizer. He's just some decent guy from the other equally shitty country. It's not that you can't make an interesting hero from that, but I've certainly seen that guy many times before. It's nothing new.

Kal now doesn't have a cast system and wanders around on his own, I've seen how that kind of character struggles because I've read Martian Manhunter stories. Kal talks to his suit because he's Iron Man now I guess. Kal was actually more grown up when he was on Krypton instead of a baby, so... just like Supergirl is in canon- well that's not new either. Lois Lane is a government agent here, because why have characters who occupy unique jobs like being a librarian or a journalist when you can make them yet another cop or agent? When the biggest personal experience integrated into Kal your Absolute Superman writer boasts about is how he's the first writer who is actually from Kansas to write Superman, this is what you get.