Faster than a speeding bullet
More powerful than a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Look, up in the sky – it’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Superman!
Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.
Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!
Ah the good old days, when everyone loved Superman and nobody doubted his bona fides for one minute. The human race was lucky to have him, and so said all of us.
I’m not into the superhero screen subculture, but I retain a soft spot for Superman, dating back to my childhood when I was an avid fan of the comics and the original TV series.
We were so innocent back then in the fifties. The Americans had recently saved us during the war and now they were sending us exciting TV shows and movies in which good always triumphed over evil. The words ‘truth, justice and the American way’ did not cause a jaded eyeroll or even an ironic eyebrow-raising.
Alas, now that Superman’s been moved into the 21st century, things are more complicated. Thanks to social media, misinformation, fake news and public cynicism about democratic government, people don’t automatically accept that Superman is the goodie or that his enemies are the baddies.
When he stops a war between two countries, the media wants to know why he acted unilaterally, why he didn’t consult the UN or the President and how he could be sure which side were in the right. I mean, it’s as obvious to us as it is to Superman: the Boravians are the aggressors because they’re white, they sound suspiciously Russian and they have high-powered weapons and fascist-y uniforms, while the Jarhanpurians are poor brown defenceless people.
No-one got killed, he saved hundreds of lives. All he did was ‘destroy a few planes, a few tanks…and some other stuff’. (He talks like a millennial.) You’d think that’d be enough to have everyone on his side but no, he’s got uber-baddie Lex Luthor controlling the narrative with his army of monkeys tapping away at screens and flooding social media with lies and disinformation: Superman’s in league with warmongers, he’s an alien, he’s on a secret mission to take over the Earth.
As if he hasn’t got enough on his hands tackling the nasty monsters Luthor keeps throwing at him and the citizenry of Metropolis! Now he’s got to fight a PR battle as well, even in his personal life, which has been updated to the modern era. Clark Kent and Lois Lane now cohabit. She knows all about his alter ego, although his having superpowers doesn’t seem to cut much ice with her. You’d think it would give the relationship a certain, er, je ne sais quoi but perhaps he’s too noble to take advantage.
I was disappointed in Lois. She falls for Luthor’s trolling like all the other sheeple. I mean, journalistic skepticism is all well and good, but does she really think there are two sides to this particular story? She doesn’t exactly accuse him of having a White Saviour complex but she’s tetchy with him for sticking to his good/evil dichotomy.
Some things haven’t changed. Clark has managed to keep his other identity secret from everyone else including the staff of The Daily Planet, where Jimmy Olsen and Perry White still haven’t twigged why he gets all the scoops on Superman.
He’s still got the same outfit, still wears his red underpants over the blue tights, but he doesn’t duck into phone boxes to change any more. In fact how does he change? Does he go home to do it in private? Not likely … he has to be on call within seconds to rescue people and the odd cute little squirrel when Luthor’s monsters go raging round Metropolis toppling buildings and destroying infrastructure.
Superman does have some friends. He’s got the Justice Gang – Hawkgirl, Green Lantern and Mr Terrific. They aren’t as pure-minded as Superman because they are constrained by corporate sponsorship but they do come in handy at crucial moments.
Then there’s Metamorpho, taken captive by Luthor and forced by him to conjure up some green kryptonite to deploy against Superman. It’s touch and go there for a while but suffice to say Superman manages to turn things around with goodness.
Krypto the Superdog is my favourite. I love that he retains his dogginess throughout, which means he sometimes misses the mark and makes a nuisance of himself just like a real dog. But in the end, when loyalty and ferocious devotion to his master count, he’s a bloody champion.
David Coronswet looks the part and the tech and the effects are thrilling, but don’t ask me to rate this movie in the usual way. Let me explain the academic side of my interest in Superman:
All cultures have had their mythical superheroes. You might say that Superman, Batman, the Phantom, Spiderman et al are the modern equivalents of the likes of Hercules, Achilles, Perseus and Gilgamesh, and it’s interesting what the portrayal of these heroes says about the culture that generated them. The heroes of old were expected to champion only their own side. It was a simple case of Us – the goodies, versus Them – the baddies. That being so, we might say that in fighting for all humanity Superman represents a higher ideal in heroic ethics.
On the other hand, the global culture where his struggles take place is beset with public cynicism and moral relativism and we don’t always know a good thing when we see it. We don’t deserve Superman! At least, Lois Lane doesn’t. Personally, and I know this is a terribly old-fashioned thing to say, I love a saviour, white or otherwise, so I say: Go Superman!