What I never thought would happen has finally occurred.
Never in my wildest of comic dreams did I think that me, I, the lover of dark heroes, the pursuer of complex characters with deep inner turmoil, would be interested in the man who is the opposite of dark. That I would be interested in knowing more about the man who is all about light.
I’m talking, of course, about the guy who gets his power from the sun itself, Superman.
So, I guess what I’m saying is, that I like him. I like Superman. Which is strange, because I never thought of myself as a Superman fan.
For some reason, maybe because he is damn near indestructible and almost all powerful, I thought Superman just had it too easy. I thought to myself, “What could this near perfect person have to offer me? There’s no way I can relate to this guy.”
But I was wrong in these assumptions. Superman has difficulties of his own. Being perfect is not all it’s cracked up to be. And, interestingly enough, it is exactly these “perfections” (this is actually a misnomer, but I’ll use it for articulation’s sake) that cause problems for him.
Geoff Johns, in his comic Superman: Legion of Superheroes, illustrates these difficulties. He shows that because he was strange (Superman is an alien after all, and what can be more “alienating,” pardon the pun, than that?) he often had problems fitting in. He had to hide who he was from everyone around him.
There is, actually, this great quote from Kill Bill (I know I’m such a nerd) that talks about how Superman has to pretend to be like everyone else.
[Kill Bill Vol. 2, Bill's trying to make some crappy philosophical point to Beatrix. Although he's pretty much full of it, what he says right here is actually interesting.]
“Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us.”
When you think about Superman this way, you actually have to feel kind of sorry for the guy. Yes, he gained this loving family when he reached earth, but he’s also experienced loss. He basically lost his entire planet, his race, his family (Although they have brought back his cousin Supergirl, and more recently a whole slew of Kryptonians, but that’s been a long time in coming). That’s hard stuff right there. Yes, he’s still this wheat field Kansan boy, but he’s also this powerful and intelligent outsider. He will never quite belong, but he will always try to even if it is futile.
This is why I really liked Johns comic. It started out by pointing out what an outsider Superman was. It stated point blank that Superman only really felt at home among aliens, but also that he could never live anywhere but on his adopted home, Earth. This is a contradiction… and frankly, it’s what makes me like Superman more. A hero must have his/her weaknesses. Without them, how can we, the readers, relate? When I’m reading a comic book, I want to feel like I could have an actual conversation with the character portrayed. I’ve got to be interested enough to want to ask questions.
I feel like now I have questions for Superman.
