BATMAN V SUPERMAN: Superman as an archetype

Image via Warner Bros.

A look at Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) through the Jungian lens.

‘The Superman’, a white male boy scout in a bright blue suit and red cape, Clark Kent/Kal-El is the perfect embodiment of the ‘hero’ archetype. Flaws included.

Taking place in Act Two of the film, the scene ‘Must There Be a Superman?’ prompts the viewer with the question of dealing and being responsible for a super-being that defies the laws of all known science thus far, breaking whatever geopolitical laws we have in our human world. Here, Superman is represented as both God-like and Hero, all flawed and un-perfect at that. The hero archetype bleeds into the Superman figure being represented as a God, especially when linked with themes of morality that the film as a whole deals with with.

At the beginning of the scene, Superman descends from the flaming red skies unto mortals, he is treated like a royal deity and a “messianic figure” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016), as the weakened masses clamour around him. He is like a God to them, his heroic actions see him as a saviour figure- this is done because humans have projected their idealised figure onto him. But, he is not a supreme being and creator, but more of the ‘saviour’ who is idealised as a God.

From the look on his face and how Henry Cavill plays him, it’s clear our hero does not feel like he warrants his admiration. He feels unwarranted admiration as we close up on his face to reveal a look of ‘do I deserve this admiration?’, questioning himself and his actions. The hero strives to do good and follow whats right and strong in his heart, but in our real heavily globalised and political world, to do right and act along ones good heart can be interpreted by different minds. His journey consists of suffering and sacrifice, especially for the greater good. He wonders what he has done to receive praise, by only following what he thinks is good. The hero, the Superman in this scene, must literally carry the weak and stranded on his back, like Jesus’ Cross, through icy cold terrain in order to do what he thinks is correct, even through others may disagree. In this scene we are shown a montage of Superman disobeying geopolitical law to be met with criticism, all to save people who clearly cannot be saved: We see him save a girl from a burning factory in Mexico, carry a shipping tanker across the Arctic, hold up a faulty Russian missile and save a family in distress amidst a flood. It’s clear he does what he does in order to save, help and protect. The hero must engage in struggle to fulfil his burden, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders because he can and must. These themes of greater good, courage and bravery in the face of death are shown throughout the film, most importantly when Superman sacrifices himself at the hands of Doomsday to prevent further destruction.

It is the heroes purpose to fashion the moral good and represent the “triumph of the human spirit” (Stephen F. Austin University, Dr G. Blalock 1997, pg. 1) against all odds that surround him. Because of this, he is seen as a celestial force that protects all humans regardless of colour, creed or class, giving us something to “strive towards” (Man of Steel 2013).

Throughout this scene, Superman is mixed in with heavy dark blues, smokey yellows and pale greens, all which present us with an earnest and serious feeling that Superman himself must be experiencing. The colours from director Zack Snyder are reminiscent of Carravagio paintings, where the dark shadows wrap themselves around the frame, taking over the space, to engulf some sort of anguish or fear. Superman is clearly the one who is feeling conflicted in throughout this scene, his physical expressions show a clear understanding of his duty to save in the face of uncertainty. The characters in Carravagio paintings consisted of Roman Catholic biblical figures, painted with a Baroque style to emphasise their importance and revered divinity as higher citizens/beings. This is another reason why, based on image alone, one could argue that Superman is painted as a romanticised biblical hero akin to Michelangelo's David.

The ‘super’ human represents the desire of man to be more than what he is. These characters bind systematic values, relationships and behaviours that we as humans wish to strive towards and to uphold as the idealised true goodness to which we should live in. Short of this would be “Truth, Justice and the American Way” (Superman 1978). This was said pre-Bush, of course.

Donald Kalsched and Alan Jones of the C.G Jung Foundation write in an introduction to Jungian psychology that the the hero is burdened with “guilt, fear and conflicts within the personality” ( C.G Jung Foundation 2017, pg. 1). At the end of the scene we are witness to Clark Kent at his weakest, riddled with guilt and uncertainty at where his place is in the world. He is driven by his inability fit in to the real world to because of his godlike powers that set him apart from everything else, yet he is still tied to the human world. Clark resides in his human mother for help, a simple Midwestern woman, who protects him when he feels lonely and unsure of himself. Even through he is apart he is part of an alien race, he still retains a human side that allows him to be feel anxiety in dark times. We can relate to the hero as he is not all perfect and suffers like us, because of this, we gain sympathy for him to rise up again and become liberated from his suffering.

Yet, the hero is fully unable to be apart of two worlds and because of this “inherits a dual nature” ( C.G Jung Foundation 2017, pg. 1). He must find a way to act two please all sides in all matters, both political and human ( one can argue all human acts are political) and because of the heroes strong ego and nature, he engages with constant conflict within himself on how he should act. Superman questions himself from his actions all throughout the film, wondering if he should not interfere between “state level interventions” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016) at the cost of pleasing political actors. But he knows this would result in truckloads of dead bodies at the hands of these same political actors who tell him to go away.

The hero is caught at the crossroads and is deeply flawed because he wants to do the right thing, but sometimes cannot. We watch as Superman is inherently projected as this God figure instead of the “ guy truing to do the right thing” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016). It’s the very nature of Jungian psychologic wherein the image of the self is projected onto someone that strives to do the right thing and is seen as a theological figure for this. Because we as humans must fit things into respective boxes based on morality and where they fit in that line of good and bad. It’s not that easy to differentiate who is inherently good and evil, but we do it anyway because we need someone to hate and someone to love. Superman, here, is what we want him to be. Not who he may be.

For some he a liability that we need to destroy and a theological saviour to others. Political and social actors place Superman into an archetypical category of ‘good’ and or ‘could be bad if not kept in check’. Humans have unconsciously placed Superman as the hero because they wish him to be that. We see how modern Television pundits politicise him as an all powerful all dangerous autocrat like Hitler or Stalin with the power to wipe out the human race- relating to the primitive human fear of being oppressed and ruled by forces which we cannot control. By Act Three, Lex Luthor brings Superman to met him at his LexCorp helipad to coerce him into killing Batman. Lex Luthor discusses his hatred for Superman, at the hand of abuse from his world-renowned tycoon father, he tells him that “if God is all powerful then He cannot be all good, if God is good then He cannot be all powerful” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016). Again touching on the theme of morality. Lex’s view of Superman answers to theodicy, wherein Lex questions the power of all the ‘all powerful’ and focuses on the human fear of power gone corrupt.

This shows the Jungian collective unconscious at work, wherein from human birth we are formed with an ingrained “level of unconscious” ( Simply Psychology 2017, pg. 1). The collective unconscious results from ancestral evolution and shared/universal human perceptions throughout all time. This is why we as humans have anxieties regarding the dark, bugs and human moral evils, as these fears have been innately ingrained in us throughout evolution. Lex’s fear of corrupt power and moral abuse stems from our innate fear of right v. wrong. To Lex, Superman's moral code is disrupted because of his omnipotent nature and he fixates him as a Devil figure instead of a God-like hero. This reflects the idea of Jung’s shadow where there the evil, guilt ridden, immoral, true and “repressed” ( Academy Of Ideas 2017, pg. 1) nature of man is represented. Lex believes Superman to be this Shadow figure, a “fraud” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016) and “demon” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016) that does not live up to his so-called holy virtue and good natured spirit. Luthor aims to demonise our hero, by showing the world who Superman really is, therefore unleashing the Shadow that has been repressed by Superman to he world, his ‘true self’ that Luthor believes. The plan was for Superman to fight and kill The Batman as the world watched, in order to fully corrupt Superman and the worlds view of him as totally good. And he does, sort of, Superman engages in fisticuffs with Batman, only resulting in both of them making peace to stop the common enemy, Luthor.

Threading together Act 2’s ‘Must There Be A Superman?’ and Act 3’s Luthor-Superman Helipad talk, we’re met with a shifted morality in our hero. Act 2 Superman showed a Superman that felt undeserving of his role as saviour, but pushed on because he believed he had to, despite some painting him in negative light. Act 3 Helipad Superman showed us someone who is about to unleash a ‘repressed’ evil side of him, a side that Luthor guilt trips Superman into believing that “no one stays good in this world” (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016).

We’re met with a character and narrative shift, a Superman that has developed throughout the course of the film. Luthor's challenging of the archetypical hero Superman to expose him failed, and only made Superman's character arc stronger. When the hero sacrifices himself to save others from the hands of Doomsday, he is cementing his morality to put everyone else above him and show the heroes moral re-birth by sacrifice. Here, the heroes true morality is shown.

Bibliography

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Man of Steel 2013, Film, Legendary Pictures/DC Entertainment, United StatesSuperman 1978, Film, Warner Bros, United States

D. Kalsched, A. Jones 2016, Myth and Psyche, the C.G Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc., retrieved 27th of September 2017, http://www.cgjungny.org/d/d_mythpsyche.html

S Mcleod 2014, Carl Jung, Simply Psychology, retrieved 29th of September 2017, https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html

Academy of Ideas 2017, Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Hidden Power Of The Dark Side, Academy of Ideas, retrieved 27th of September 2017, https://academyofideas.com/2015/12/carl-jung-and-the-shadow-the-hidden-power-of-our-dark-side/