O Herói do proletariado: a guerra fria nos quadrinhos do Superman soviético

Abstract

The following dissertation analyzes the universe constructed by Mark Millar in the comic book Superman – Red Son (Superman: entre a foice e o martelo, in Brazilian Portuguese), as well as the representations built by the author and the publisher – DC Comics – about the historical period of the Cold War (1945-1991) and the conflicting geopolitical relations between the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Therefore, the research aims to problematize the representations built about the historical period of the Cold War, as well as to analyze the way in which the USA of the character Lex Luthor and the Soviet Union of Batman and Superman are represented, paying attention to how Soviet politics and society are constructed narratively in the comics, considering that the social place of production of the comics is, originally, the United States of America. The work demonstrates that from his literature and political perceptions as a leftist author, Mark Millar elaborates an Orwellian representation of the Soviet Superman. Based on texts from dystopian fiction literature, the Scottish author represents the Soviet Union as a totalitarian dystopia, while its main character, Superman, acquires antihero characteristics as he approaches the bureaucratic functions of the communist State. The discuss of the source, also understood as an object, will occur from the use of concepts such as tragedy, utopia, dystopia, representation and totalitarianism, dialoguing with classic authors of dystopian fiction literature, such as George Orwell and Yevgeny Zamyatin. Among the collected materials are the original comics, published in the USA in three volumes in 2003; the american New Edition, published in 2014; the Versão Definitiva, published in Brazil by Panini Comics in 2017; the Action Comics No. 1, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, published by DC, in the USA, in 1938; written texts and interviews granted by Mark Millar; in addition to texts written by Brazilian analysts about the character studied. Most of these materials are in digital format on the internet. The analytical perspective of the sources compared present elements in the first appearance of the man of steel, in 1938, with those built by Millar in Red Son. Starting from written texts and interviews granted by the author, the work focused on an attempt to understand the way Mark Millar thought about his production. Finally, Arendt's concepts were used to understand the representations built in Red Son's comics and how these representations approach the perception that places the USSR as a totalitarian dystopia. This research expect to expand the possibilities of studying comics as sources and objects for History, as well as contributing to the studies of representations and historiography about the Cold War.