We are All Super, Man

I’ve never loved Superman.

I’ve liked him, perhaps admired him, and certainly appreciated the iconography of that big, bold S – but I never loved him.

Bear in mind I was, as a child, and perhaps still am, part of Superman’s core demographic. I loved movies and comic books and cut my literary teeth reading science fiction novels. Until I discovered punk rock, I was far more inclined to purchase movie soundtracks than the latest release by a rock and roll band. I was an outcast, an outsider and, if you asked my classmates, perhaps a bit of an alien.

I should have loved Superman – but I didn’t.

I suspect it was the relative simplicity of the character’s core message that bugged me. Do good. Be good. Truth. Justice. The American Way. All admirable, to be sure, just not very nuanced. Superman always did what you expected. He saw wrong in the world and he heroically – always heroically – vanquished it. There were rarely surprises because, as the most powerful of superheroes, he was the guy most qualified to get things done. It was a combination of muscles and morality that never ran too deep.

There was also a certain confidence that came with Superman. Picture him in your mind. I suspect, when you do, he’s standing tall, chest out, chin up, and his knuckles confidently on his belt. He knows he cannot be bested and with that comes a certain degree of arrogance and entitlement. I always felt like his indestructability led him to believe he was better than mortal man in every way. I really wanted to see him lose a board game or moral argument, just to accentuate to man rather than the super.

So, for the reasons, I lent my nerdy allegiances to other heroes – Batman and Spider-Man first and then, later, the more philosophical adventures of Silver Surfer and Swamp Thing. Superman, of course, was always around, and that was fine – but just fine.

But every hero, it seems, has their moment.

Last week, I went to see the new Superman movie. My expectations were, admittedly, a little low. The trailers had not enthralled me and, again, it was Superman. I could not imagine the adventures of a titan in tights without a real alpha predator to pursue him would enthrall. Instead, I went for the summer spectacle of it all – the sound and furious fun of a summer blockbuster with the audacity to say very little very loudly.

 But what I discovered was something unexpected. Something deeper. Something that, had it been offered up to that child that felt like an outcast, outsider, and alien, might have had unexpected results.

I might have loved Superman.

In many ways this new model Superman is no different. He can still fly, use his heat vision, a watch idly as bullets bounce off the big red S. In other ways, he is by far the most vulnerable version of this hero we have ever seen. Superman, from the character’s earliest incarnation, has always been about an alien trying to find his place in the human world. The new Superman is different, and far more appealing. It’s about an alien trying to find his place as a human, which is very different and far more relatable.

There’s never any worry – well, no real worry - that Superman will fail to save the day. He always does. What made this movie interesting is the path he travels in doing so. It’s a movie that is less about a hero than a hero’s journey. It’s about discovering a path, developing as an individual, and discovering a reason for participating – as an equal – in community’s large and small.

It's about being human.

This Superman reminds us that we all have gifts, and that while not nearly as showy as the titular Kryptonian’s, they matter. A simple act of kindness, a warm word in an hour of need – empathy – the are superpowers we can all develop and leverage. We may never leap tall buildings in a single bound, but in the end, how often do we actually need to?

I’m sure Superman would agree.