The World Between Superman and Spider-Man

Superman is known as the Man of Steel, dressed in a tight-fitting suit and a red and blue cape, a figure who takes things seriously and bears on his shoulders, like a policeman, the responsibility of saving the world. This is the man embodied by David Corenswet in his modern Hollywood incarnation: he stops villains and intervenes to save lives threatened by wars, fires, or drowning. This American film also gives rise to another figure of Superman: a character who constantly intervenes in world affairs without stopping to consider the consequences of intervening in other countries’ conflicts. Such a geopolitical approach may seem ill-suited to the values of superheroes. Yet this is what U.S. President Donald Trump appears to suggest through his spectacular moves to reshape the world, in a metaphorical evocation of the villainous figure alluded to by the film’s director in the “MAGA,” without naming it, through the businessman character or others such as Lex Luthor. It is, in other words, a new version of America in an evil world ruled by predatory capitalism, an image of arrogant businessmen reminiscent of Gordon Gekko in the film “Wall Street.”

The character of Superman was created 87 years ago to fight independent employers and the Nazis during World War II, and then, in the 1950s, to stand alongside Americans during the Cold War. Each version reflected the threats and concerns dominating American society at the time. Today, Superman leaps to the aid of everything Trump loathes, with Superman himself portrayed as an immigrant from a poor background, while those who object to this image are considered racist when they speak of migrants and “their desire to destroy America.” Every Superman has been a symbol of change, in a world that needs someone to save it in its most turbulent moments, which reflect an era of state capitalism in its vast environment. An even more American version reminds the world of what it can become at its worst, through one of America’s most emblematic heroes, while reflecting the temptations and contradictions of an age engaged in an excessive American search for what it means to be a great power.

In reality, Trump presents himself as a version that echoes the original text, yet he brings forth forms of political action far removed from the classical mold, restoring to the international stage the model of an era dominated by state capitalism, the exploitation of global resources, and power politics in geopolitical conflicts. These are contemporary reflections of a political scene represented by the pact Faust made with the devil. At the same time, Trump relinquishes neither luxury nor the spectacular dimension of using visual and symbolic arts to introduce change into his political action. He thus appears as a mixture of aspirations to control and hegemony, together with all the political and social deviations that follow, as he inflames the issue of migration worldwide and revives social, nationalist, and racist conflicts. He plays with everything: international rules as well as diplomatic conventions. He recognizes no limits to his deals or his influence when imposing and manipulating tariffs. Nor does he restrain his audacity in refusing to acknowledge the global energy crisis in the war over the Strait of Hormuz or the dangers of climate change, despite the massive fires, hurricanes, and floods sweeping across the world.

And, just as a horror writer might imagine it, the regime in Tehran was weaker than at any point in its 47-year history before the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on February 28, 2026. It was on the verge of falling without a war, through a gamble on the dynamics of unraveling internal balances and bringing conflicts among different domestic groups and forces to the surface. Fortune then smiled on Donald Trump, notably in Venezuela, even though he had mocked neoconservative visions of regime change and the construction of democratic societies, particularly when he says: “All I want is freedom for the Iranian people.” He declares war in order to eliminate the nuclear threat and prevail over the regional chaos caused by hardliners, promising Iranians that they will finally be freed from the theocratic regime. But the experience of a global Superman is anything but conventional amid the boundless ambition of new admirers among online audiences, eager to exert influence without fearing a descent into political and financial chaos across the world. He seeks to redistribute wealth in a way that lacks any perspective of justice and equality, within an international economic system dominated by the GAFAM giants, while paying insufficient attention to other geopolitical dimensions: poverty, unemployment, and hunger affecting millions of children around the world as a result of his wars.

He knows how to impose tariffs, compel leaders and presidents around the world to support his agenda and dance with him, impose sanctions, and know when to retreat after entering arenas of conflict. He then proclaims himself the man deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, granting himself the power to extinguish fires and wars without verifying whether there are any signs that they are actually ending, while presenting himself as fully versed in matters of war and in imposing peace by force.

The result is a crisis reshaping the Middle East in ways likely to have long-term consequences for Washington, as regional leaders adapt to a new reality rather than simply submit to it. They consider what exists now better than nothing, amid doubts about the reliability of the United States and suspicions that Israel is a destabilizing force, while this imaginary Superman asks Americans and the world to reward him as he seeks another presidential term.

In return, this accumulation of anxiety and division generates unstable dynamics across the world that deepen existing crises. Such confidence cannot be placed in a single man leading the world when he acts through a sweeping deal that does not truly represent two-thirds of the planet, while never ceasing to talk or entertain, and never ceasing to quarrel with others. He attacks international efforts undertaken at the United Nations and speaks disparagingly of the officials of its legal institutions. He excels at shaping the terms of negotiations, his speeches, meetings, and travels in order to contain others, with the exception of digital loyalists who practice “post-irony” toward other societies. The American Superman thus grants himself all this confidence before he has even earned it.

For the state of the world remains bound up with the difficulties facing political systems and with a non-democratic, pre-emptive phenomenon that applies its concepts to capitalism and technology, weakening state institutions and paralyzing them.

All that defenders of political realism do is little more than submit, to the detriment of the real world, particularly with regard to international politics itself and existing international treaties. The world falls into the trap of believing that results can be achieved through personal and improvised deals rather than through a multilateral order based on shared and stable rules. This is precisely where the danger lies: that humanity may lose its political bearings, while states become trapped within their domestic policies for the benefit of a new feudal system governing the world according to a reactionary philosophy hostile to democracy, under the influence of the political views of technology investors, including Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. This helps shape the current culture of Silicon Valley and the White House instead of defending pluralism and democracy.

And if people come to believe that governments should be run by techno-capitalist corporations or by artificial intelligence, or that human society operates according to a logic of singularity, then these ideas become real through the consequences of the failure of declared strategies. They no longer even need America’s adversaries to act against it. All this may follow if this new Superman succeeds, a Superman different from the one we once knew, with Trump’s tendencies toward the darker side of wars and everything that follows: plunging the world and its economies into the unknown.

Yet there is still time for cinematic entertainment to avert the worst, before people follow their favorites and promote them in an attempt to bring them back into the center of public attention. Then comes Spider-Man, in the form of a swarm of 1,500 drones crossing the sky above Gwangan Bridge, while his film continues its strong run at the U.S. and Canadian box offices, overtaking Superman under the glare of the spotlights. In short, Trump himself has opened Pandora’s box. This is a new catastrophe in a war waged in the name of global peace imposed by force, without any genuine strategy, where every film leads to another American film.

For all to watch.