Superman’s Decision Not to Fight in WWII is His Greatest Failure

Warning: contains spoilers for Justice League Infinity #5!

DC’s Superman was perhaps just as patriotic as Marvel’s own Captain America – so why did the character not fight in World War 2? The Man of Steel may not have been created in response to a war – Action Comics #1 debuted in 1938, a full year before Hitler invaded Poland – but the character was firmly on the side of the Americans, selling war bonds and boosting morale in the way that only a comic book superhero could. But in Justice League Infinity #5, a variant of Superman actually decides to fight in World War II – and unlike many alternate history scenarios, actually changes the world for the better.

During the Golden Age of Comics, almost every American-based superhero took an active role in World War II. Many would travel overseas to the European or Pacific front, such as Captain America, Fighting American, and others. Superman (along with Batman) notably stayed on the home front, fighting against corrupt politicians, organized crime, and other domestic injustices. He would occasionally come across enemy spies, but he never officially joined the United States military in any capacity – at least not in the prime, canonical DC universe.

In Justice League Infinity #5, Superman visits an alternate universe in which the variant Superman actually did participate in World War II to an astonishingly hands-on degree. This Superman fought Hermann Göring and his Nazi regime (Adolf Hitler apparently never existed in this universe, but Göring appears to be his substitute) and worked to help build a unified government after the conflict was over. “The nations of the world formed a global government, dedicated to peace. And we’ve been pretty successful, too.” The new Superman’s world still has issues, but they operate as one planet and one people.

But why did the main Superman never participate in the war? A possible answer comes from the August 26th, 1944 issue of the Midpacifican Armed Forces Newspaper in which Superman creator Jerry Siegel is asked that very question. “No comic strip heroics can hope to compete with the everyday feats of plain, ordinary G.I. Joe…Superman realizes it would be an imposition for him to barge in brazenly and singlehandedly win democracy’s battle for survival against tyranny and fascism.” Siegel goes on to say that Superman has the utmost faith in the superiority of American and Allied Armed Forces and that “…individuals and nations should have the right to earn their own salvation.”

On the one hand, this explanation has roots in respect toward servicemembers insofar as they have no superpowers on which to rely. However, the latter reasoning that Superman refuses to enter the war because nations must “earn” their own salvation is American self-sufficiency at its absolute worst; surely Superman can fight injustice regardless of whether a person has “earned” the right to be saved. Nevertheless, this is the canonical explanation for why Superman has never entered World War II, from both a Doylist and Watsonian perspective.