My current plan is to go through the golden age Superman stories that have been reprinted, issue by issue, looking at their themes, style, structure, or whatever I happen to find interesting about them.
Revolution in San Monte, part 2 opens where the previous issue left off, with Superman finally managing to uncover the plot to stroke the flames of war in South America. On the one hand, this serves as an interesting critique of modern-day American statecraft, with the CIA’s incessant intervention in the regimes of developing countries forming a modern extension of imperialism. On the other hand, it feels rather strange to see a distinctly anti-war story which traces the root of all conflict to capitalist greed when World War Two is just on the horizon, especially considering the villain’s throwaway line last issue claiming that “before any remedial steps can be taken, our country will be embroiled with Europe”. This thread isn’t brought up in the second issue, though the ending implies the problem is resolved. It’s unclear if this is meant to be criticising industrialists for working with the Nazi Party, or to be a more general anti-war settlement reflecting the more popular isolationist view that was popular in America at the time.
