It actually took me a while to realize that Superman was my favorite super hero, which was an interesting revelation considering I can rarely be bothered to read his comics.
As a longtime comic book fan, I am very aware that loving Superman is in no way the cool thing to do. He’s too powerful, he’s too nice, and more than anything, he’s too damn boring.
But when you think about it, there are only so many heroes that can be considered iconic. As nerds, or geeks, or fanboys, or however we define ourselves, we like to think that everyone knows Wolverine, or Green Lantern, or whoever. But the truth is, at best, there’s really only one hero who I guarantee that 99.9% of people worldwide all know.
Superman.
The first and greatest of them all.
Honestly, for most of my life, my favorite comic book character has been The Hulk. This love was born, as most loves are, out of the simple nature of childhood. Why did I like The Hulk? Because green was my favorite color, and I loved taking my shirt off. Still do, actually, but that’s not really relevant right now.
Marvel Comic characters were originally created to be more modern, to have the kinds of flaws and hang-ups that the old guard never bothered with. The thinking was that kids and teens could relate more to characters that shared their problems than to aliens and weird billionaires. Which is obviously true, but what’s interesting is that they also made a strong case for themselves as wish fulfillment in a way that DC heroes never did. Sure, Peter Parker has shitty luck with the ladies and he gets bullied relentlessly. But he’s also a high flying hero that always has a witty comeback for his foes. He’s always the fastest, funniest guy in the room. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do that?
Take The Hulk. Sure, he’s an out of control rage monster, but he’s also the strongest there is. How many little kids getting picked on in elementary school wished they could ‘Hulk out’ and punt their tormentor into orbit?
So Marvel Comics characters tend to be interesting for what they are, what we’d like to be, and what we’re afraid we are, rolled up into one package.
DC Comics, having gotten there first, are more interesting for what they represent.
Batman, of course, is the pinnacle of human achievement. With enough training (and of course, limitless resources) theoretically anyone could become Batman.
Green Lantern, at least as originally conceived, represents the intersection of chance and opportunity. It was random chance that Hal Jordan received his ring, that he had the willpower to use it properly, and that he was a decent enough person to use it responsibly.
(It’s interesting, by the way, to compare Green Lantern with Spider Man in that both received their powers through random chance, but Peter Parker had to be forced into doing good via the use of ironic tragedy, and Jordan pretty much decided to do good because he had the power to do so. Spider Man debuted three years after Green Lantern, so this is more or less the last gasp of golden age morality before the more cynical 60’s took hold)
Which, at last, brings me to Superman, and why he’s iconic.
Part of being iconic is embracing the concept of simplicity. A simple thing can be understood regardless of language or culture. Here is a thing that can be changed and altered according to the needs of the time, but which always has, and always will, retain its own essential identity. This is the nature of iconography and mythology, and what is Superman if not modern mythology?
Let’s break it down:
For starters, there is no origin so perfect in all of fiction. I don’t even have to repeat it because you all already know it. It’s ingrained in the universal consciousness at this point.
Then, from a purely aesthetic view, there is his costume. It’s so basic, which is what makes it great. Any kid in the world can draw Superman. With the right colors, a cape, and a strategically placed ‘S’, any kid in the world can dress like Superman.
He doesn’t wear a mask.
Make all the jokes about Lois Lane and glasses you want… people trust a face they can actually see. And what’s interesting to me about Superman is that he could only be himself.
Think about it. We as media consumers know Spider Man is Peter Parker, and that Batman is Bruce Wayne, but in their world, to the public at large, they could be anyone under that mask. They can be (and have been) replaced.
Superman is Superman. Period. Anyone wearing a Superman costume that doesn’t look like Superman is not going to be thought of as the real Superman.
And yes, he is powerful. One of the most powerful heroes there is. Which, to some lines of thought, makes him boring. According to some people, the fact that he’s so strong, nigh invincible, means he never faces any challenges he can’t defeat.
This is both a cynical and a weirdly naive way of looking at things.
Firstly, it implies that the only solution to conflicts is through violence, which I don’t get. Secondly, let’s not kid ourselves: Superman isn’t going to die. Because he’s an icon, and once something ascends to the status of ‘icon’, you can no longer kill it.
Even when you do, it tends not to take.
What readers want is the illusion of danger, the illusion that our hero might get hurt. But to me that’s a fundamental misreading of what Superman is, and what he represents.
See, Superman is an outsider. He’s an alien that has been adopted by humans. And only someone with such an outsiders perspective can appreciate the wonders of humanity and the world they have built. He’s above the garbage we all have to deal with. While we’re in our cars stuck in traffic, headed towards a job we hate, there he is zipping through the sky.
Being above it all, so to speak, naturally leads to a different perspective on humanity. He can see them in ways that they can’t see themselves, caught up as they are in the day to day hassles of civilization.
Superman, being Superman and all, has seen enough to know the good and the bad of what humanity can be. And because he loves humanity so much, he has taken it upon himself to become the ultimate example of what they should be.
He represents optimism, kindness, decency, understanding, forgiveness, selflessness… all the traits that we seem to find boring in a narrative format, but which we would hope and expect to be treated with in real life.
No other hero, with all their traumas and neuroses, come from that place of purity. That doesn’t make them bad, of course, just different.
That’s why his powers are so important, and the fact that he was born with them. He is the only super hero out there that said, “I was born with these special gifts. It’s my duty to use them to help.” Not out of a trauma, not out of a desire to see justice done, but simply because he thought it was the right thing to do.
(Incidentally, the next closest thing to a purely altruistic hero is Captain America, and he got his powers in order to fight Nazis. Again, Superman didn’t become a hero to fight anyone. He did it to help people and to hopefully inspire them.)
Think of it like this: All heroes are symbolic in nature. But only three heroes are explicitly aware of their iconic status: Superman, Batman, and Captain America. Batman represents fear, obviously. The same fear that criminals use to turn people into victims, he uses to frighten criminals. His goal is to stop crime by creating an icon so terrifying that no one would dare defy it. Nolan’s trilogy is built on this very idea.
Captain America represents… America (duh). Not necessarily the place it is, but the ideals it was formed upon, which, theoretically, are universal ideas of freedom and justice. And the schism between those ideals and the actual state of things have led to some of HIS more interesting stories.
As for Superman, well as I’m pretty sure I’ve run it into the ground at this point. But he represents the potential for goodness in all mankind, regardless of race, creed, or country.
(And yes, we ALL know that he supposedly fights for “truth, justice, and the American way.” But, you know, you kind of had to say that shit during WWII.)
If you follow this line of reasoning, then it becomes clear that the danger in Superman isn’t the he’ll die… it’s that he’ll fail somebody. That he’ll be less than the inspiration he wants to be to every single person on Earth. Out of every hero ever created, he has taken on the greatest responsibility. Not to the world, or the Universe, or some abstract concept like that. But to society. Humanity itself.
Now, earlier I said that I don’t read a whole lot of Superman comics, which is true. It takes a special kind of writer to make all this stuff I’ve said play in context. It’s far easier to just have him shoot heat beams at aliens and punch Doomsday in the face every couple of months. But to me that’s the most boring version of Superman, just like happy-go-lucky Peter Parker with a hot model girlfriend is the most boring version of Spider-Man and well-adjusted Bruce Banner reading Popular Mechanics is the most boring version of Hulk.
The most interesting version of Superman is always going to be the one we take for granted. The original inspiration, when we were just kids and anything was possible. Before we got older and more cynical and started to think being Spider-Man was the best we could hope for.
He’s what we’re all thinking of when we think of what a super hero is supposed to be.
And that’s why he’s my favorite super hero, and why I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Man Of Steel gets it right.
