Comics 101: Advanced Superman Studies

[PsionTen]

Don't ask me why, but once or twice every month I feel the need to vent about why I hate Superman. I've moved on from the obvious discussion of the implausibility of his powers (super strength, super hearing, super vision, super cold breath, super speed, flight, invulnerability, x-ray vision, and even super ventriloqusim!); whether he can have sex with a human woman (see Lary Niven's "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"); why no can tell that he looks exactly like Clark Kent (which you would think an office full of investigative journalist and/or Lex Luthor would be able to do); and the whole Superman as a Christ figure(only begotten son sent to save the world, yada, yada, yada), to more involved issues -- like why he keeps up the whole "Clark Kent intreped reporter" facade to begin with.

While Superman gets his jollies off everyday play acting as Clark Kent, he willingly lets untold numbers of tragedies go by (I say willingly, because he knows they're going on because of his super senses and because of the AP wire at the Daily Planet). The most common explanation for the Clark Kent ruse is that it's necessary in order to protect his friends. Of course if there wasn't any Clark Kent, then there wouldn't be any friends to protect in the first place ... in other words, it's Clark Kent that's placing people in harms way, not Superman. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that he stays Clark Kent because he was raised as Clark Kent, which, in my mind, raises some serious questions about the way Jonathan and Martha Kent raised Kal-El -- Were they rasing Kal as a human for his own safety, or were they raising Kal as a human for their own selfish desires to have their very own "normal" baby boy? And even if he was raised as Clark Kent, can't he see the danger he's putting everyone in by remaining as Clark Kent? Isn't he just playing with fire, hoping that none of his super-powered enemies discovers that he's Clark Kent and go after Lois, Perry or poor Jimmy Olsen? Isn't he just a selfish, self-involved jerk that puts his own needs and desires above those of everyone else?

I hate Superman.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Clark Kent is there for a good reason, in the real world WE are Clark Kent. Hiding inside every weak and frightened teenage boy is a hero.

 

[KoshFan]

Also if Superman isolated himself completely from the world... he'd be Batman.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

...and the whole Superman as a Christ figure (only begotten son sent to save the world, yada, yada, yada)

Actually Superman is a Moses figure - a child placed in a boat to save him from a catastrophe and is adopted by an alien culture where he rises to a position of (Seigel and Schuster were jewish. )

The Kents raised Clark as a normal human child because their only models of child-rearing (their own lives, what they've observed of the rearing of the children of their siblings, cousins and friends) involved humans. It isn't like that little spaceship came with an instruction manual. This isn't a matter of selfishness, it is simply reality. How else were they supposed to raise him?

And despite his powers, Clark mostly grew up as a normal midwestern American kid. Clark is who he is. Clark is his "true" identity, Clark is who he thinks of himself as. He could, in theory, be Superman 100% of the time after he invents that identity. But he wasn't raised as Superman, and that would be a damned lonely life, since Superman really can't have many friends. His only peers are other superheroes with secret identities who have secrets to keep.

Physically he's Superman all the time, but he choses to stay Clark because he wants to. That's what makes him a member of the community he serves.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

P.S.

Jerry Seinfeld hates you.

 

[GKarsEye]

I frankly surprised Superman is still around. Do kids and teens actually care about him when they have much cooler super-heroes now? Superman is from a by-gone day when Captain America was popular. CA is gone, it's time for Superman to join him.

 

[PsionTen]

With Smallville, Justice League Unlimited and the new movie on the way, Superman is as popular as he's been in awhile. Somehow, they've been able to re-invent Superman time and time again, while Captain America has always been stagnant -- at least to me. They've even had storylines about how out-of-it he really is, like when he discovers that the government he's sworn to protect is just as underhanded, corrupt and power-hungry as every other government.

The Kents raised Clark as a normal human child because their only models of child-rearing (their own lives, what they've observed of the rearing of the children of their siblings, cousins and friends) involved humans. It isn't like that little spaceship came with an instruction manual. This isn't a matter of selfishness, it is simply reality. How else were they supposed to raise him?

I suppose the same way that average normal parents raise gifted children. Undoubtedly, you're torn between wanting to raise him as a normal child, but also realizing that doing so might damage his potential. And, frankly, I think some selfishness does figure into it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But the stakes are taken to a higher degree when you're talking about a child from outer space that can literally do anything. At some point, I think you have to examine whether raising him as a normal human being is really what's best for him.

Look at it this way ... let's say that you're a young white couple that wants to adopt a black infant. In my humble opinion, you can't simply raise him and ignore the whole issue of his race. If you do, you're going to harm him ways that will affect him for the rest of his life. Even though you're white and have no idea what it means to be black, you have to raise him with some sort of knowledge of who he is, what he is and what that means in our society. Frankly, I don't think the Kents raise Kal-El with the knowledge that he is an alien, that he's gifted with powers above those of mortal men, or, most importantly, that he isn't limited to living as a normal human being.

 

[Bab5nutz]

Even if Superman spent all his time as Superman, and did nothing else but save people, he still could not save everyone and prevent every tragedy.

Besides, even people who have made it their life's work to save lives - doctors, nurses, firefighter's, paramedics, anyone other helping occupationn that you care to name, have their own lives. And time to themselves. They have to, to remain sane.
Superman might be Superman, but he was raised human, and has human feelings. What if the stress got too much, and he went nuts. Then people really would be in trouble!

 

[PsionTen]

Even if Superman spent all his time as Superman, and did nothing else but save people, he still could not save everyone and prevent every tragedy.

And I'm not saying that he could. All I'm saying is that by playing Clark Kent 8+ hours a day, he's needlessly letting many tragedies happen when they wouldn't have to if he was Superman for those 8+ hours.

Besides, even people who have made it their life's work to save lives - doctors, nurses, firefighter's, paramedics, anyone other helping occupationn that you care to name, have their own lives. And time to themselves. They have to, to remain sane.

But those people can't fly at the speed of light, lift mountains with one hand, shoot heat beams with their eyes... etc. Human limitations don't apply to him -- which is one of the mistakes that I think his human parents made in raising him.

Superman might be Superman, but he was raised human, and has human feelings. What if the stress got too much, and he went nuts. Then people really would be in trouble!

I think he already is nuts.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Superman is a life long freak. With the destruction of his planet he is the alternate orphan, he will be an outsider wherever he goes.

Clark Kent is a member of middle class society, it is an act but he is still a member. This is the big present from his stepparents - somewhere to fit.

Just be glad Clark is not Condoleezza Rice - black, female and clever. She will have to make her own place; and invite other people in.

 

[KoshFan]

Is anyone else thinking about the last conversation in Kill Bill Vol. 2 right now?

I'll cheerfully admit that having Superman being nigh on invincible makes for a boring hero. Batman or Spiderman are far more interesting.

 

[darth_librarian]

I frankly surprised Superman is still around. Do kids and teens actually care about him when they have much cooler super-heroes now? Superman is from a by-gone day when Captain America was popular. CA is gone, it's time for Superman to join him.

Anyone one of the millions reading Marvel's Ultimates comic every month may well disagree with that statement. Cpatain A is very well presented in that comic, with the anachronism of a man from WW2 living in today's America fighting Americas current battles well presented. Read it, it rocks and is one of their top selling titles.

I think Superman is mainly read by folks that read him when they were kids, although with the right writer it does come through as a good story... I think Grant Morrison is currently up for a run on it(not sure though), and JMS has always called it his dream job.

For me, Superman is the ideal of comics and Super hero's refined to the nth degree, he can do not wrong, but has to sit and watch whilst the world around him fails to meet his high standards.

That and he has heat-vison.

 

[PsionTen]

Is anyone else thinking about the last conversation in Kill Bill Vol. 2 right now?

I just slipped it in the DVD player ... I forgot all about Bill's Superman theory. I have to admit that he has a point, Clark Kent is a reflection of how Kal-El sees humanity, and it ain't a pretty picture.

Granted my dislike of Superman has to do with my own need to deconstruct everything in sight, but I do believe that Superman has more deep-seeded psychological issues than even Batman ... how can he not? If you can't put a square peg in a round hole, then how are you going to put an all-powerful alien from the planet Krypton into the guise of an average joe?

I hate Superman.