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Superman was created by two Jewish guys who would have been quite unpopular with the Klan. His costume was inspired by circus strongmen, not the Night Riders.

slg 7y ago
Art can be inspired by or a reference to something without being an endorsement or homage to it.
jrochkind1 7y ago
Can be unconscious/unintentional connections too. But I think Moore's real point is simply that the Birth of the Nation does some of the same things as later superhero movies, with the KKK as the superheroes. They also happen to wear uniforms that are strikingly similar as it happens... But it doesn't mean Siegel and Shuster were consciously -- or even unconsciously -- inspired by Birth of a Nation and the KKK. It might mean that there is a connection/commonalities in the reasons both forms were so popular. Birth of a Nation was released in 1915. It was enormously popular, it was not some fringe thing, it was a mainstream popular success which generally did not have it's politics questioned in the mainstream, although there were protests by Black people. According to wikipedia, "It presented the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a heroic force." Heroic, eh? Superman's first apperance was in 1938.
- thomascgalvin 7y ago
  There's a difference between the KKK being represented as heroic in BoaN and the KKK being the origin of all super heroes, though. Moore is slandering the genre, or at least attempting to, by association, and that association is absolutely not deserved. Every culture has heroes, and every culture tells tales of impossible heroics. It would be more accurate to call Achilles the first superhero, or Beowulf, or Gilgamesh. All of these characters are larger than life, and all of them are morally flawed. American racists had racist, American heroes. That doesn't mean that Captain America is devoid of commentary about the nation's role in today's world. And if Moore had watched Civil War, for example, I think even he would be forced to agree.
pastor_elm 7y ago
The original Superman also wasn't raised as a corn fed All-American from Iowa with good moral farming parents. He was supposed to come from an orphanage. One must wonder why the former origin story turned out to be much more appealing.

slg 7y ago

Art can be inspired by or a reference to something without being an endorsement or homage to it.

jrochkind1 7y ago

Can be unconscious/unintentional connections too. But I think Moore's real point is simply that the Birth of the Nation does some of the same things as later superhero movies, with the KKK as the superheroes. They also happen to wear uniforms that are strikingly similar as it happens... But it doesn't mean Siegel and Shuster were consciously -- or even unconsciously -- inspired by Birth of a Nation and the KKK. It might mean that there is a connection/commonalities in the reasons both forms were so popular. Birth of a Nation was released in 1915. It was enormously popular, it was not some fringe thing, it was a mainstream popular success which generally did not have it's politics questioned in the mainstream, although there were protests by Black people. According to wikipedia, "It presented the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a heroic force." Heroic, eh? Superman's first apperance was in 1938.

thomascgalvin 7y ago
There's a difference between the KKK being represented as heroic in BoaN and the KKK being the origin of all super heroes, though. Moore is slandering the genre, or at least attempting to, by association, and that association is absolutely not deserved. Every culture has heroes, and every culture tells tales of impossible heroics. It would be more accurate to call Achilles the first superhero, or Beowulf, or Gilgamesh. All of these characters are larger than life, and all of them are morally flawed. American racists had racist, American heroes. That doesn't mean that Captain America is devoid of commentary about the nation's role in today's world. And if Moore had watched Civil War, for example, I think even he would be forced to agree.

pastor_elm 7y ago

The original Superman also wasn't raised as a corn fed All-American from Iowa with good moral farming parents. He was supposed to come from an orphanage. One must wonder why the former origin story turned out to be much more appealing.