Frailty, Fault and Fatherhood; inside the distinctly mortal experiences that made the “Man of Steel”
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The first trailer for Man of Steel runs more like an extended photo album; a flurry of sepia-toned images passes before the iconic cape flickers onto celluloid. The difference this time is who dons that scarlet cloak—a child, the young Clark Kent, running through a Kansas field. He stands, fists on his hips, posturing as the hero he’ll grow up to be. The background is muted in the moment, accentuating the red, blue, and white of young Clark and his cape. America. His costume. An easy image. Russell Crowe’s voice comes in, playing Jor-El, Superman’s birth father. His monologue lays down a heavy charge for the film. “You will give the people an ideal to strive towards,” Jor-El says. “They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.”
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After I saw this trailer, I got excited like I never had before for a Superman movie. I was one of the few who seemed to enjoy 2006’s Superman Returns, but it’s true that the film did nothing to quash the hero’s reputation for being boring. Director Bryan Singer added a hefty amount of Christ symbols and imagery, which were novel and intriguing, but they weren’t what people wanted. They weren’t necessarily what I wanted. It probably wasn’t the right way to add a little dimension to the superhero most commonly called out for being flat and bland.
I know I’m in the minority, but I never considered Superman dull. Yes, he lacks the character arc of many of his heroic peers. He doesn’t work to become good. He doesn’t struggle with a desire for vengeance that could overwhelm his mission, like Batman does. He’s not a teenager wracked with guilt which leads him to do good, like Spider-Man. He’s good because he was raised that way in an idealized America. He is good because Jonathan and Martha Kent wouldn’t settle for anything less from their prototypical American boy. Superman, through and through is a good man. He is the ideal good man.
Whenever I’m forced to defend Superman, it all inevitably comes back to a comparison between him and Batman. People love Batman. He’s America in superhero form. He’s morally ambiguous at times and he’s willing to do near anything to accomplish his tasks, but there’s a clear line he’ll never cross. So, we like to think, Batman is like us, only incredibly smart and wealthy. Superman, though, is an alien who grew up in a stable household, and can literally punch the fabric of reality (he did that once in the comics, but let’s not talk about that). Batman is interesting because of his struggles, and because he’s a hero in the classic Byronic mold. He’s tortured and conflicted and has that ‘modern’ grit to him. Superman, then, is criticized for being an antique, fighting for “truth, justice and the American way,” and always wanting people to be better. When everyone else in comics became conflicted 90s anti-heroes in the mold of Wolverine, he stayed good, and to many, he stayed boring.
Really, Superman’s story then all comes back to that Jor-El line in the trailer, “You will give the people an ideal to strive towards.” It’s idealistic and hopeful, and it’s reinforced by making his iconic ‘S’ a Kryptonian symbol for hope, one that coincidentally looks like the human alphabet letter (calling him super, or superior, couldn’t have been that far of a stretch). Superman himself is a symbol for hope, and, to me, he is the best representation of a character that is unflinchingly good. He’s not the Big Blue Boy Scout that people call him with derision. Instead, he’s what the best of us could be. He’s got the powers of a god, and could use them to conquer the world, but instead he uses them to protect humanity. His aim is to inspire people to be better and stronger, and recognize that while they may lack his powers, they possess his potential for good. We can never truly be Superman, but we can aspire to be some source of good for the people around us. In many ways, Superman takes a fatherly role for humanity. He guides and cares, and he can express disappointment, but he continues to believe that humanity can achieve more.
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When you look at it, Superman is truly a story about fatherhood. Not just the metaphorical relationship between him and humanity, but the literal relationship with his own fathers. Both his biological and adopted father are the major influences on his life, and the ones who push him into heroics. Jor-El sacrifices his own life so that his son could have the chance at surviving elsewhere, and Jonathan Kent accepts this gift of a child and raises him to be the best that he can be, with moral codes that facilitate his powers, that ensure they are used for good. In this way, it’s his human qualities that guide and dictate the extent to which he uses his superhuman ones. Being “human” makes him super.
A popular ‘What if?’ story is “what if Superman’s ship crashed somewhere else?” and the comics have shown him raised in the USSR and the Amish, in addition to numerous others. And in each version, Superman isn’t quite Superman, because his upbringing is essential. It’s weird to think that one of the more idealized and romanticized examples of proper parenting techniques comes from the story of an alien who wears his underwear on the outside, but that’s precisely what Superman is. When it comes to fatherhood, if most men were half the parent Jor-El or Jonathan Kent was, then who knows what this world would be?
The Superman mythos even elevates Jor-El and Jonathan over Superman’s mothers, Lara and Martha. Martha is an important character, even on the same level as Jonathan, but when it came time for the writers to kill a parent for emotional impact, Jonathan was the clear choice. In fact, it wasn’t even until the 2000s that Lara started to play a bigger part in the Superman stories. It’s fatherhood that’s the focus, not parenthood. Superman represents the awkward and distinctly masculine struggle of having a son that’s stronger than the father, but instead of making it an issue, Jonathan reminds young Clark that all of the strength in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you use it to help people, unless you use it be a good man.
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“All-Star Superman”, a mid-2000s 12 issue limited series, provided the definitive Superman story for me. Superman winds up with a new power that is also killing him, and he’s given a year or so to live. He keeps this a secret, reveals his identity to Lois Lane, travels through time, and generally has an adventure worthy of Superman. It’s fun and lighthearted, but it isn’t the type of story that translates well to the screen.
But it contains the scene that defines Superman for me. At various points in the issue, a teenager is shown trying to get a hold of her therapist. Her appointment is canceled because her doctor is held up, and she finds herself on the roof of a building. She drops her cell phone off the edge and prepares to jump when Superman appears behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Your doctor really did get held up, Reagan,” he says. “It’s never as bad as it seems. You’re much stronger than you think you are. Trust me.” Superman, while battling the villain of the issue, spent time checking in on this girl, and when she faltered, he was there. He didn’t catch her when she jumped. Instead, he took the time to make sure she never did.
Superman speaks to the kid in me who would tie cloth around his neck and look at the sky, dreaming of flying. He’s still what I want to be when I grow up. So I hope “Man of Steel” is a great movie. I want it to be because Superman deserves that. We deserve to watch him be that great, so we remember how.
Photo courtesy Ap/Warner Bros./Clay Enos
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At last: a man who admits that he looks to an ideal and wants to be that better man, on principle, and there is no conflict about that desire. THANK YOU! *This*, and not Batman, is what we need more of in the world. I don’t look to cartoon characters to find role models in the world, but if one had to look for one in that context, Superman as you have described him — for the very reasons you cite — would be a good one. In the back of my mind, I like to think that the newest… Read more »