Musing on Superman

The new Superman movie is coming out, and given some of the hullbaloo surrounding it, I thought I’d give my two cents about one of my favorite comic book characters. In truth, there aren’t many good stories about Superman. This is largely due to the fact that modern writers do not understand the character, his context, or what he symbolizes.

The Character

This is probably one of the most difficult comic book characters to write because moderns do not understand the fact that Superman isn’t really Superman. He isn’t even Kal El. He is Clark Kent. The fact that Superman so strongly identifies with the Everyman and wants to live a normal life as a human being is the reason he is a hero. Clark Kent understands what the Everyman desires, needs, and fears because he tries so hard to be the Everyman, despite the fact he can never truly be Everyman. At the heart of this character is a level of humility that most people today do not comprehend. Rather, they look to his power and fantasize about what they would do if they were Superman. In so doing, they reveal themselves to be monsters, because Clark Kent would give up his powers in a heart beat if it meant he could live a peaceful, normal life.

The Context

Superman was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. Importantly, both were Jews at a time when the nation-state of Israel did not exist and Europe was not a safe place for Jews to live. One can speculate about the fact that “Superman” is an English translation of the German “Übermensch;” however, that leads us back to the power fantasies of monsters. In truth, the Jewishness of Siegel, Shuster, and Superman say less about being Jewish and more about being American in the first decades of the 20th century. While living as a Jew in the rest of the world was difficult at best, America provided a place where Jews could not only thrive, but be accepted as Americans. Take a look at these celebrated American artists of the early 20th century:

• Jack Benny

• Irving Berlin

• Leonard Bernstein

• George Burns

• Aaron Copeland

• Will Eisner

• George Gershwin

• The Marx Brothers

• Mae West

And I could go on and on…ever single one of them is a Jew, but we don’t think of them as Jewish-Americans. Every one of them is embraced simply as American.

The Symbol

Thus, Clark Kent and his hope to be Everyman, and Superman’s acceptance as a hero all hinge on the Jewish experience of the United States in the early 20th century. In other words, Superman symbolizes America at her best. This is why Superman landed in Kansas at a farm raised by a good Christian family. There is nothing more American.

So, modern writers who attempt to make Superman a hero of the world, a man who uses his power to make the earth a better place are doomed to fail. Superman isn’t an all-earth hero. If he were, he wouldn’t be a hero. He would be a villain: a demi-god with enough power to force the world and its people to bend to his will and his vision of the “good.” This is why so many superman clones end up as villains. Without the Kents, without the Jewish experience of America, without the Christian values that gird the American experiment, Superman is not Clark Kent. Superman is not a hero. Superman is a monster. Clark Kent and his humility, his desire to be the Everyman, and his American-ness is the hero.

I live in hope that someone, somewhere understands these things and writes the stories this wonderful character deserves. Unfortunately, my cynical self denies this possibility anytime soon. It is neither cool nor politically correct to celebrate the best of America or the Christian values that make that best version possible.