Opinion: The Woke Left is Taking Over Comics

Absolute Batman, published by DC Comics, is an ongoing comic book series about Batman, Bruce Wayne, in an alternate universe where he isn’t the “billionaire playboy philanthropist” we all know. In this series, Bruce Wayne grew up with a single mother, Martha Wayne, who works as a social worker, after his father, Thomas Wayne, who was a teacher, was killed on a school trip to the zoo.

This series, already quite popular at its release, has since gone viral after its controversial annual issue, where Absolute Batman is shown beating up white supremacists who were terrorizing and planning to burn down an encampment of people who had immigrated into the town they were in. This comic book release, along with the release of ‘Superman’ over the summer, has seemingly sparked a lot of conversation about how superheroes have gone “woke,” and let me just say that Superhero —or Anti-hero —wokeness is not a new concept from the woke left. 

As someone who has been a lifetime Batman fan collecting comics for the past couple of years, Batman, along with many other heroes, excluding those from satirical series like The Boys, operates in some capacity to maintain social justice. The main inherently “woke” idea that superheroes follow is their devotion to protecting and saving anyone in the face of danger, whether it be supernatural threats, government corruption, or corporate malice (sometimes occurring simultaneously). 

One of my favorite examples to use when discussing “wokeness” in comic media is the Batman Animated series, S1 Ep12 “Appointment in Crime Alley,” where Batman has to stop a big-time CEO, Roland Daggett, from burning down the impoverished area they refer to as “Crime Alley” to build on his business venture. In doing so, Daggett would’ve been killing and displacing many of the residents that lived there without any plans to support them afterwards. This series came out in the 90s, but ever since Batman’s origin in 1939, he has been a vigilante devoted to fighting corruption within the political system and the police department in Gotham City. 

Superman, on the other hand, Batman’s far less brooding colleague, has always been devoted to protecting the greater good and pursuing similar battles against political corruption and racial injustice. Superman himself is an immigrant from the planet Krypton, which was destroyed when he was a baby, and he has proudly asserted his identity as a Kryptonian while also using his unique abilities to help others. While I’m not as savvy on Superman comics and series, a lot of his earlier comics from the 1940s depict him as a violent socialist, defending individuals against maltreatment by any means. In fact, you could argue that in comparison to previous Superman movies, like ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Batman v. Superman,’ the recent Superman movie depicts him in a far less aggressive light. 

When it comes to satirical series like ‘The Boys,’ some heroes themselves are already corrupt, and the main message of the show serves as a dramatization of current social issues. However, the show has faced similar criticisms to the Absolute Batman Annual comic regarding their depictions of nazis and White Supremacists, where some are unsettled by the treatment of such hate groups in the fictional universe and feel that current hero media is acting as propaganda to insight hate against hate groups. See how that sounds? 

My point is that superheroes and vigilantes alike have always, by principle, been devoted to the good of society by protecting individuals regardless of their identity. The protection of individuals does not apply when their motives are to deliberately harm others for personal gain, which is a recurring issue in society and always has been. The concept of fighting for social justice is not new to 2025 media and has always existed since the birth of modern superheroes in 1938, which happened to be Superman. 

While the breadth of my knowledge happens to include Batman and the DC Universe, I can also say that such ideologies are also portrayed in Marvel comics. For example, Spider-Man fights for justice as a working-class hero, defending the members of his community against various threats under his moral principle that “with great power comes great responsibility.” These stories of social activism among superheroes and vigilantes have been told in many ways, but to say that they are a newly developing topic lacks true comic knowledge. 

By: Elaina Irving, Opinion Editor