‘Superman: Escape from Bizarro World’ by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Eric Powell is a collection of Bizarro tales. For those unfamiliar, Bizarro is an imperfect clone of Superman created by Lex Luthor, who becomes one of Supe’s most formidable adversaries Not only does he has Superman’s equivalent strength in other manners (e.g. freeze-vision instead of heat-vision, heat-breath instead of freeze-breath, x-ray hearing instead of x-ray vision…), he also perceives values in the opposite manner (e.g. seeing order as chaotic, beauty as ugliness…) And yes, he scowls instead of beaming a broad smile, and wears a reverse ‘S’ logo. Whenever Superman and Bizarro clash, readers are forced to reflect upon the true value of the values we ‘normal humans’ usually cherish yet take for granted.
Which values are really worthy and worthy of upholding? What is truth and goodness? Are they relative – especially when facing a character like Bizarro who sincerely believes his opposing values are the right ones? Hey, he even lives on a cubical (instead of spherical) planet spelled Htrae (‘Earth’ backwards!), where all of its citizens believe in similar values. If so, is ultimate truth and goodness to be won by a popularity vote? And how do we convince the severely deluded that values are not only not subjective, but that objective universal ones exist? Lots of wisdom and skilful means needed… some of which are demonstrated by Supe in the comics! In Buddhism, ultimate goodness must embrace all beings good, neutral and evil with unconditional compassion, be they great or little. And ultimate truth is based on wisdom realised that encompass the whole universe and its beings – the Three Marks of Existence (Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta).
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