International politics increasingly feels like it is taking place in Bizarro World, the fictional planet depicted in a series of comic books first published by DC Comics in the 1960s.

In Bizarro World, everything is inverted. The planet is a cube rather than a sphere; the sun is blue rather than yellow; its inhabitants strive for imperfection rather than perfection. The world is named after Bizarro, an inverted version of Superman who was created in a lab accident and wears a backwards “S” on his chest.

Bizarro World achieved some fame in the 1990s when it furnished the premise for an episode of the TV comedy, Seinfeld, featuring Bizarro versions of the central characters, Jerry, George and Kramer. But as an explanatory device it has come into its own only in the past year.