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(Right: Marlon Brando and Susannah York as Jor-El and Lara in the 1978 film, Superman: the Movie.)
Press on this blue line to see an interesting fact about Superman's two fathers!
In the screenplay by David and Leslie Newman and Robert Benton (based on a story by Mario Puzo), Kal-El's scientifically advanced parents express concern for their baby's future:
Lara: But why Earth, Jor-El? They're primitives thousands of years behind us.
Jor-El: He will need that advantage to survive. Their atmosphere will sustain him.
Lara: He will defy their gravity.
Jor-El: He will look like one of them.
Lara: He won't be one of them.
Jor-El: No. His dense molecular structure will make him strong.
Lara: He'll be odd, different.
Jor-El: He will be fast, virtually invulnerable.
Lara: Isolated, alone.
Jor-El: He will not be alone. He will never be alone.
Biblical references then lend depth to Kal-El's legend. His ship (no longer the art-deco rocketship as in the comics) is a multifaceted star, like the one the three wise men follow to find the Christ child. Upon landing, the starship becomes a burnt odd-shaped husk, resembling the little raft Moses' mother places him in to save him from the Egyptian king. Instead of a Pharaoh's daughter, Kal-El is found by a childless couple who keep the baby, raising him as their own. (In 1938's first Superman story, the child is found by just a nameless passing male motorist.)
Through various accounts before standardization of the myth, Kents are referred to as either foster parents or adoptive ones, and are named John and Mary, Eban and Sarah, and finally Jonathan and Martha. They are traditionally depicted as typically middle-aged, Midwestern farmers who instill decent family values into their foundling son, Kal-El. They name him "Clark" (actually because of Siegel and Shuster's admiration for Clark Gable, but as part of Superman's expanding realistic biography because Martha's maiden name is Clark).
Jerry Siegel's stories avoid overt theology, but the screenwriters notice parallels between Superman and the classic Greek gods who walk the Earth as men. They translate this theme into familiar Christian metaphors: in the movie when the small ship crash-lands, a naked baby Kal-El emerges from the wreckage. He holds his arms out to the Kents to be lifted, his hands extended in a crucifixion pose. Later, as Clark is approaching manhood, the long deceased Jor-El's recorded messages explain Kal-El's Earthly mission: "Even though you have been raised as a human being, you are not one of them." With godlike intonation, Jor-El (Marlon Brando) tells his son to lead ordinary men to righteousness: "For this reason above all-their capacity for good-I have sent them you, my only son."
...Click on button or on the Refresh Page or Reload icon to hear Brando speak...
The script makes it apparent that Superman does not go out into the world as its savior until the age of 30, as does Jesus. In the film Kal-El is born in 1948 and goes public in 1978-when the movie is released, appropriately, for Christmas. (Note that every major production of the 1972 Off-Broadway musical, Godspell, has the actor playing Jesus wear a Superman T-shirt.) Then, in 1993, Superman-like Jesus Christ-rises from the dead. Superman graduates from his secular exclamations, the '50s "Great Scott" and the '70s "Great Krypton," to the more subtle "My God" of the '90s. What his religion is, therefore, seems a pertinent question. The word "Kal-El" has an Hebraic etymology; some analysts say, since Siegel and Shuster are Jewish, so too is their creation.
Yet a tiny detail in the film reveals otherwise: at the cemetery where Jonathan (Glen Ford) is being mourned and teenage Clark (Jeff East) is comforting Martha (Phyllis Thaxter), she is clearly wearing a simple gold cross.
(left: Jeff East and Phyllis Thaxter after Jonathan Kent dies.)
In Roger Stern's 1993 novel, The Death and Life of Superman, he writes that the Kents were not regular churchgoers (14). Evidently, to make this family more real, contemporary Superman writers give them a faith, deciding on their being "typical American" WASPs.
It has been said that Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty, Mickey Mouse, and Superman are universally recognized icons of the USA. Interestingly, Superman--the newest of them--has the richest history of them all. His very origin--revised again in the film--symbolizes the birth of our nation, with mainly English actors as Kryptonians (including, notably, Susannah York as Superman's mother Lara), representing the British heritage of so many first settlers in the New World.
Repeating the line from the '50s television show, the motion picture Superman tells reporter Lois Lane he is here to fight for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way." She laughs at him, alluding to dishonest politicians, for the movie is made only a few years after Watergate. In a comparable scene in the '90s TV series, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, he less sentimentally mentions merely "Truth and Justice." In contrast, on comic-book covers during the far more patriotic 1940s, Superman often waves the American flag, saluting the servicemen of World War II. Though he is rewritten to reflect the attitudes of the times, Superman remains the personification of an American Dream: the small-town boy (from aptly named Smallville, Kansas) who makes good; the immigrant who leaves his motherland (Krypton) for a better, safer, more productive life in America.
Present-day readers raised on pop psychology and confessional television expect a pensive, introspective super-hero, so the current Superman is sometimes troubled about his dual heritage. In 1986, writer/artist John Byrne, in his landmark revision of the saga, depicts Krypton as an emotionally sterile world. Even its weather is controlled by science. Physicality is disdained, and couples reproduce by having their reproductive "seed" mingled in special matrixes. Jor-El and Lara wear long robes and headdresses covering all but their faces and hands. As the doomed planet Krypton crumbles, Kal-El's parents kiss, stoically acknowledging repressed love and grief as they send their as-yet-unborn son to Earth. In this retelling, the ship is an eggshaped "birth matrix." When it crashes, the child is born right in front of the Kents, here in America (Man of Steel mini-series, No.1).
Jonathan and Martha in this version are of childbearing age but have experienced, the Stern novel specifies, "two miscarriages and a stillbirth" (14). Coincidentally a blizzard snows in Smallville for many months, and after the thaw the Kents fabricate the story that the infant is theirs, born during the snowstorm. Their "white lie" is meant to protect Clark, whom they assume has been part of some cruel genetic experiment.
All accounts of the myth indicate Kal-El immediately shows the effects of Earth's lighter gravity and yellow sun. His skin is impervious to cuts. He is an inordinately strong child, lifting livestock, furniture, and machinery. As he reaches manhood, his powers become fully developed. Martha Kent fashions his brilliant blue, red, and yellow costume by unraveling and reknitting the blankets from his spaceship (the fabric too being rendered indestructible by our different atmosphere). Since the film, the large, stylized "S" in the pentagonal insignia has come to represent the El family's crest, later Americanized by Lois Lane as standing for "Superman." (In the post-Crisis comics, the S-symbol is designed by Clark and Pa Kent, while in the Lois & Clark television show, Martha finds the famous symbol in Kal-El's rocketship but sews his costume from regular cloth.)
Some versions starting in 1945 have Clark beginning his heroic mission in the same costume as a teenager about a dozen years into Superman's past (in Adventure Comics and self-titled comic, Superboy, with a 37-year run starting in 1949) on what is later designated as "Earth-1"--a construct of the 1960s which, though well-intentioned, serves to clutter and confuse the legend's continuity. Superboy already has full powers and knows about Krypton. The Kents manage a general store in town while young Clark attends high school. (From 1989 to 1992 a Superboy TV series presents him as a college student; set in the present--which is supposed to be Superman's era--it does not follow the continuity of the comics.) But in the comic books before 1945, in the films, serials, the two Superman TV series, and the comics after 1986, there is no Superboy version of Clark Kent.
Most versions have Clark learning about his Kryptonian heritage as an adult, and the Kents' warm, bucolic simplicity, markedly different from his native planet's emotional austerity (inspired by the crystal-and-ice motif of the 1978 film's Krypton), provides Superman with a quandary: environment vs. heredity. Ultimately, he pledges his allegiance to Earth (The Man of Steel, No. 6, 1986).
(Right: Martha, Clark, and Jonathan Kent in 1998. Art by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding.)
The prologue of the 1940s radio program, later adapted for the 1950s TV series still rerun today, tells of "...powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men." While a man can lift objects, see, and walk, the Man of Steel can also, among other things, lift cars, see through anything but lead, and fly--exaggerations of human abilities. In 1948's first definitive Superman origin story, Siegel and Shuster explain that Krypton's inhabitants are an abnormally strong and swift race of people. Then they illustrate Superman leaping over a building on Earth, far higher than he would have back home. (Since 1953, the usual comic-book explanation is that Kryptonians, with just normal strength under their own red sun and heavy gravity, acquire various heightened powers in our much different atmosphere.) Superman's powers become quite elaborate over the years. He does not truly fly till the early '40s, the decade when his earlier "X-ray eyes" evolve into the sight powers: microscopic, telescopic, heat, and X-ray vision.
Many of these abilities defy our laws of physics: if the Man of Steel can physically catch a falling two-ton boulder, his legs would sink into the ground; his intense heat vision would burn his own retinas, and so on. Rather than disrespectfully criticize the mythology as "science-dumb," some sci-fi writers offer other rationalizations: Kal-El allegedly focuses his prodigious willpower and intelligence to perform his wondrous deeds. Thus, instead of actually lifting a schoolbus careening over a bridge, he telekinetically raises it. Rather than fly, he levitates. Yet Superman can change directions in mid air, an allegory for freedom--and a thrilling act of fantasy, not science. The scientific explanations do not completely work, but they are reminders that Superman is as smart as he is strong. Elliot S. Maggin's 1978 novel, Superman: Last Son of Krypton, discusses the Man of Steel's astonishing intellect, his computer-like mind in perfect harmony with his exceptional body--he can even see inside his own vital organs to monitor his health (176).
(Above: detail from The Man of Steel graphic novel, 1987 cover art by John Byrne and Tom Ziuko)
Yesterday's adolescents readily respond to the very physical strength and powers that, in his first half-century, become limitless, and make Superman unrealistic to older fans. Today's better educated readers expect sophistication: not only dynamic, unpredictable page layouts (replacing the story-board style of the Golden Age) with their cinematic overlapping of dialogue from one scene onto the next, but also more logical situations than in past decades. Before the reinvention of the character, Superman can breathe anywhere and lift anything. Now he might need an oxygen mask for other solar systems, and his strength is more finite. He currently sweats and strains if the feat is awesome enough to put a prolonged drain on his energy resources--as is his relentless struggle with the insane monster, Doomsday.
In the pre-Crisis comics, Superman's suit can stretch like elastic. It never tears. In recent stories, the cape often shreds. Although Martha now explains that the costume parts which fit snugly on his body, with its "special aura," somehow resist dirt and damage, the tights do tear during his fatal clash with Doomsday. Ripping Superman's outfit gives him a realistic, picturesque look. He is more spectacularly muscled of late, like a symmetrical heavyweight bodybuilder, fitting the current aesthetic of steroid-enhanced celebrities and comic-book heroes.
In the Golden Age of comics, Superman's visual creator, Joe Shuster, draws him in an effectively simple style with a circus strongman's physique. Starting in the mid-1950s, the Silver Age artists many boomers remember--including Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, and Kurt Schaffenberger--add pleasing proportions and more expressive faces. He is perennially about thirty years old and noticeably handsome, with realistic contours in his face, his physiognomy that of a strong, virtuous man. Before the revamp, if Superman removes his shirt, he is store-mannequin smooth, and in full costume his private areas are always modestly hidden in black shading, regardless of the direction of the light. Today's artists, which include Dan Jurgens, Kerry Gammill, and Brett Breeding, use more accurate lighting and acknowledge subtle, anatomically-correct curves and other details: Superman has been given chest hair, and he often needs to shave.
Clark's large, muscular frame, usually covered in well-tailored suits, is now "explained" in the comic books by the presence of a Nautilus home gym in his Metropolis apartment, number 3D at 344 Clinton Street. Clark Kent seems slightly shorter than Superman because he stoops a bit as part of the illusion he is a separate person. (Of course, to us they look identical.) The age-old question of why the aggressively inquisitive Lois cannot figure out they are the same man is "answered" by Clark's mild-mannered demeanor and clear tenor voice (Superman's is a deep baritone), the eyeglasses which cause his blue eyes to appear gray (Stern 36), and his hairstyle. (The blue inks used to indicate shiny black hair are now often blue-black for more naturalism.) Clark's hair is combed back preppy-style while Superman has a more interesting S-shaped forelock indicative of his very active life, a hairdo as distinctive as his costume.
The first actor to play him on screen (in two 15-chapter serials in 1948 and 1950), Kirk Alyn, usually wears a hat as the reporter but has the correct curly hair (and for his era's undemanding young fans speaks three octaves deeper as Superman than as Clark). George Reeves, TV's first Man of Steel, wears his hair combed back in all 105 episodes as both Clark and Superman, each of whom he depicts assertively, with an occasional wink to the viewers. Christopher Reeve, looking quite authentic, has the perfect hair combs for both characters, and further distinguishes them in four Superman movies by playing Clark as a pale, clumsy everyman, and his Man of Steel as a confident, altruistic champion. Dean Cain, TV's present Superman, has the hair in reverse: Superman's always neat and Clark's disheveled, suggesting the real stress of leading a double life. Cain's youthful, determined Clark Kent and Man of Steel are polite, well-educated gentlemen.
The novel, Superman: The Last Son of Krypton, raises further intriguing points about Superman's appearance: in one sequence, rendered powerless by hostile alien forces, he lies on his back like a well-defined classical Italian sculpture. His teeth, never attacked by bacteria, are described as "bleach white," his hair tough as steel wires (Maggin 174-175). Superman trims his hair and shaves his whiskers by focusing his own heat vision off a small handmirror.
No longer the meek scholar of the older stories, he is now a former high school football star. In the many versions without Superboy, Clark only begins wearing glasses for a disguise when he starts his double life as an adult. (As high school boys Siegel and Shuster wear glasses, identify with the timidity they bestow on Clark Kent, and dream of being powerful like Superman.) In most accounts, the Kents only learn of his Kryptonian origin and the name Kal-El after he grows to manhood. Even before being aware of the full extent of his developing superpowers, his adopted parents teach him to use them selflessly:
(Left: Clark shaves using his heat vision. Art from 1997 by Ron Frenz and Joe Rubenstein)
You told me all those times that I should never use my special abilities to make myself better than other people--to make people feel useless.--The Man of Steel mini-series, No. 1 (18).
During his childhood they keep his powers a secret from others for fear discovery would lead to scientific analysis and media scrutiny, robbing him of privacy, subjecting him to physical and psychological damage. They have raised him to be a normal man. Clark Kent has been employed at The Daily Planet (first called The Daily Star) since the late 1930s. In prerevamp issues 233-423, Clark's position as reporter takes on secondary importance when he becomes a WGBS television newscaster (from 1971 through 1986 in our time) for Galaxy Communications, the conglomerate that owns the Planet. He rekindles a loving friendship with childhood sweetheart and then fellow TV anchor, Lana Lang. In the meantime, Superman maintains what there is of his separate, uneventful romance with Lois.
In the '90s comics, an award-winning investigative reporter for The Daily Planet, Clark is also a published novelist. For many weeks in 1990, he reluctantly becomes managing editor for Newstime magazine (Superman, second series, Nos. 39-43). But the definitive Clark Kent is the reporter--symbolically the seeker of truth--the better to be near late-breaking news and nip crime and catastrophe in the bud as Superman.
Another reason for Clark's existence is so Superman, living as a human, can have respite from being a 24-hour-a-day force for good. Clark has a regular job, but Superman neither needs nor accepts money for his innumerable helpful deeds. Unlike his cultural predecessors, the Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro, and his peer, Batman (with whom Superman teams up in
World's Finest comics from 1954 to 1986)--ordinary men who assume the roles of heroes, Kal-El is a super man assuming the role of a normal man. Though he is outgoing nowadays, Clark is still emotionally subdued compared to alter-ego, Superman, who--writ larger in many respects--can not only defeat most opponents, but also often sheds tears when he grieves.The most personal reason to be Clark is to enjoy a family and loved ones. Superman faces the threat of outlaws "negotiating" with him over the fates of those he cherishes--in return for favors achieved through superpowers and invulnerability. Superman never abuses these powers. Either abetting wrongdoing or jeopardizing anyone would be a dilemma, for absolute goodness is one of the Man of Steel's "weaknesses."
Another is
kryptonite, a Day-Glo-green ore transformed from Krypton's exploded fragments. Its radiation can painfully weaken and kill him. In the pre-Crisis stories there is just too much of it finding its way to Earth, in backyards, lakes, hiking trails, and so on. The writers even think of different strains of it: red, white, gold, rainbow--each with a special ill effect on him. In Superman, No. 233 in 1971, a gigantic chain reaction changes all Earth's kryptonite into harmless iron; but since he needs a humanizing factor, stories thereafter stress Superman's vulnerabilities to magic and certain alien technologies--weakness which have always plagued him.In the newer stories, kryptonite does affect him again, yet very little of it is known to exist. His arch enemy,
Lex Luthor, acquires a synthetic piece which is fashioned into a ring Luthor wears to bring Superman to his knees (Superman, second series, No. 2), but the scheme backfires when the radiation from the ring infects Luthor with cancer, necessitating the amputation of his hand (...Action, No. 600). Pre-revamp kryptonite is harmless to normal men; now it is toxic to humans too with prolonged exposure, implying a similarity between us and Superman.Kryptonite figures prominently in countless stories in the past, most notably in Superman, No. 149 in 1961, in which the Man of Steel dies from its poisoning, in a deeply moving "imaginary" tale, which young readers are relieved to know is just a story (naturally one could contend that all of Superman's stories are just imaginary). Mostly appearing in the '60s and '70s, there are several of these full comic-book length stories, called "novels," not following the regular continuity, with hypothetical plotlines like what if Superman were a criminal.
Among the "what-if" situations are various stories showing what might happen if Superman marries
Lois. The outcome usually has Lois leaving her job to raise one or two children who inherit their dad's superpowers, but one darker entry has her dying after being kicked by a developing super-embryo (Adventures...Annual 1991, No. 3). Aside from his ability to procreate, however, Superman's sexuality is not really addressed until the '78 movie.As the star reporter for The Daily Planet, interviewing the Man of Steel after his first public deeds in Metropolis, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) is obviously mesmerized by his striking appearance and fabulous abilities. She provides the Superman saga with its first double entendre when she asks, "...and how big are you?" Immediately realizing her Freudian slip, Lois quickly adjusts the adjective to "tall." (He also impresses her with his honesty.) In the next day's newspaper she writes, "He's 6'4, has black hair, blue eyes, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and tells the truth."
Over the past fifty years there has been conjecture about Superman's sexual experience. The former consensus is he must be a virgin so that, as a pure hero, he can be recognized as special, more iconographic, a better role model for children. In the 1940s newspaper strip, Clark and Lois are wed, but the marriage turns out to be a dream story (different, in the DC Comics universe, from an imaginary story). Similarly, in a 1955 episode of the TV show--"The Wedding of Superman"--Lois (Noel Neill) has a dream she is his wife. In this television series from 1951 through 1957, Clark and Lois address each other in a formal or friendly manner. There is no sexuality though Lois does have a crush on the Man of Steel. However, in 1978 they do, in fact, get married--on Earth-2. They remain wed and in the last Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986 move on (with Superboy of Earth-1, no less) to a final haven in an other-dimensional world.
For the movie Superman II, Hollywood decides audiences do not expect another chaste love story, so Superman and Lois sleep together in his private place of meditation in the North Pole, the Fortress of Solitude--after she has discovered his identity, but not before he agrees to the spirit of his dead mother to relinquish his superpowers. (The film maintains there is an ancient Kryptonian rule prohibiting relations with Earthlings.) He complies, somehow conveniently becomes unsuper, and, therefore, is not really Superman when they first have sex (before the plot soon requires him to get those powers back). Lois and Clark are emotionally unable to go back to work after what has transpired, and he ends the film with a super kiss so literally breathtaking that Lois forgets everything, including Clark's alias. Then, the well-known triangle returns: to both his and our amusement, Lois treats Clark like a nuisance and loves Superman like a god.
In the next movie sequel, Superman again has off-screen sex, this time with the brainy mistress of one of his enemies, but Superman has just turned bad due to some defective Kryptonite. His "one-night stand" does not really "count" since, once again, he is not himself when it happens (though he does remain super). Inevitably sex enters the comic-book version too (this time he is both good and super): in the reinvented Superman stories, Lois and Clark have been engaged since Superman, No. 50--December 1990 in real time, a few months prior to his death in comic-book chronology. They spend the night together sometimes (infrequently, with their busy journalistic careers and his saving the world from certain destruction every few issues). Yet their relationship is so tasteful and discreet, the sexual aspect may be unbeknownst to younger, more innocent readers.
In Superman, No.81, many days after four other Supermen have mysteriously appeared following his funeral, the real but still recovering Superman attempts to convince a skeptical, distraught Lois that he has returned from the dead. He tells her personal things: we learn Clark's favorite movie is To Kill a Mockingbird (part of the realistic history writers like Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, and Louise Simonson are providing for Superman). He talks of giving her Martha Kent's engagement ring and asks: "Did [the the other Supermen] tell you about the time I admitted being Clark? Or the time we flew to the mountains to talk? Or about that rainy night in July when we first...." Lois' tears interrupt him, apparently before he can say "made love" (19).
Then in Adventures..., No. 31, fully restored to health, he appears at Lois' window like a magnificent angel (his hair having grown during the month since his death). He flies her outside into the night sky and they kiss repeatedly. The next panel, in Lois' apartment, shows Superman happily showering while she applies her morning makeup, rumpled bedsheets depicted in the background. (Throughout Stern's novel, Lois calls Clark "lover.") When Clark reveals his identity to Lois in ...Action, No. 662 in 1991, she has trouble responding--neither of them knows how his alien physiology will impact on their lives. They have considered having children after they marry and presently are uncertain if their genes are even compatible. Either way, they discuss each other's feelings with tenderness.
The innocence of the Superman/Lois/Clark triangle of yesterday's comics has given way to a more mature sensibility. Contemporary comic-book demographics include, primarily, adolescents growing up in the more sexually frank 1990s, as well as college students and adults who continue to enjoy their childhood hero. Obviously, making Superman more realistic provides a more satisfying read (and removes any "guilt" attached to grown-ups buying comic books). Those decrying this tampering with Superman's purity may, perhaps, appreciate that his relationship with Lois reflects the prevailing liberal media's view of morality, and (despite the predominantly male readership) is filled with sensitivity and romance.
The current TV series, on the other hand, follows still a different continuity wherein Clark and Lois are not engaged, and are not lovers, though playful, humorous innuendoes (as well as dramatic self-discoveries) are weekly occurrences. Attracted to both Clark and Superman, she does not realize they are the same man. Clark's need to hide his secret from her has restored much of the humorous tension between them which has been lost from the latest comic books because, ironically, the comics now have more serious themes (and Lois knows his secret identity).
When Clark first starts work at the Planet, in all versions his chief (and presumably only) rival for bylines is Lois Lane. Affected by the social climate, she goes from being an "impetuous girl reporter" to today's assertive working woman. Beautiful Lois--herself an inspiration to young female audiences--has always been independent, but in her own comic book, Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane (from 1958 to 1974), the stories revolve around her quest to stay attractive to Superman and to get "scoops." Before her comic is done in by the changing sensibilities of the Women's Movement, in one 1970 story (...Lois Lane, No. 106), she "scientifically" transforms herself, with Superman's help, into an African American to write empathetically about ghetto poverty. Superman is understanding for he, an alien, an outsider, identifies with minorities (though Lois reminds him that being a white man has enabled him to assimilate).
This story is among the first to incorporate serious social issues into the entertaining adventures. The present interconnected Superman comic books in recent years have tackled subjects like drunk driving, with Clark as teenage passenger (in Adventures..., No. 474); wife beating, Clark as outraged neighbor (in ...Man of Steel, No. 16 and Superman, No. 72); sexual harassment (...Action No. 694); alcoholism, and racism (Adventures..., No. 507). Reflecting actual urban conditions, the supporting cast has become integrated and multicultural to give Metropolis verisimilitude. There are now Jewish, Catholic, and Hispanic characters, and a lesbian police inspector. While Superman is dead, he is replaced by, among others, an African-American construction worker who is a high-tech weapons designer, and a cocky, leather-jacketed 16-year-old clone with superpowers, a teenager's libido, and an African-Asian love interest.
Their relationship is presently platonic. A more miscegenetic relationship is, oddly enough, the one between Lex Luthor and Supergirl. She is not Superman's late cousin, but a shapeshifting artificial life-form fallen to Earth and nursed to health by Ma and Pa Kent (Superman, second series No.21). She assumes the likeness of the original lovely blond Supergirl and has come under the spell of possessive, manipulative Luthor. She amuses him by changing her appearance into different international beauties. (She can even look like Clark to help hide Superman's identity, about which Luthor is unsuspecting.) Supergirl, till recently, has been blind to Luthor's criminality.
In today's accounts, Luthor is a billionaire industrialist who hates Superman for stealing the limelight from him as Metropolis' most celebrated citizen. In his youth Luthor pays to have his shiftless parents murdered because they embarrass him (Lex Luthor: the Unauthorized Biography 18). He also fakes his own death as his health deteriorates (in ...Action, No. 660). His brain is now in the biogenetically grown body of a strapping young Australian (No. 678), purporting to be Lex Luthor II, Luthor's love-child. Lex II is, of course, his own father--a blackmailer and murderer who owns much of Metropolis.
In contrast, Superman has a sterling code of ethics. He does not lie (though he lives a double life) and he does not kill. He lets the police deal with the criminals he captures. Nevertheless, once, in a several-issue story arc, he executes three escaped Phantom Zone criminals who have destroyed an entire populated planet (Superman, second series, No.22). Ashamed by this violation of his oath to preserve life, Superman banishes himself for weeks, and temporarily stops wearing his famous costume. Eventually, in Adventures..., No. 455 (July 1989), he encounters a Kryptonian learning device and energy source, the Eradicator (which is instrumental in his return to life in 1993), does much soul searching, and realizes his killing the mass murderers is morally justified (Superman, No. 33).
Other familiar characters have been touched by far more realistic problems: Jimmy Olsen, staff photographer for The Daily Planet, goes through a period of joblessness and homelessness (Superman, No. 57 and Adventures..., No. 486), too proud to seek help from his friend, Superman. Pre-revamp when something preposterous occurs, like Jimmy mutating into a giant reptile (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, No. 53 in 1961), he becomes normal again by the story's last page, the status quo restored with Superman's assistance. Now a problem arises, and it does not always get resolved. Instead, we read to see how the newest events will affect the characters in upcoming issues. For example, Clark's managing editor, Perry White, discovers in 1991 his teenage son (who dies of a drug overdose) is the illigitimate son of Luthor and Perry's wife, Alice (Adventures..., No. 470). Certain predicaments even Superman cannot fix. (The Whites are still reconciling, without his intervention.)
Perhaps to justify that the obviously fictitious Superman cannot end our wars or cure our diseases, he has been given instructions (in the 1978 film) by Jor-El: "You are forbidden to interfere with human history," but--strongly motivated by love, and unwilling to remain helpless as with Pa Kent's passing--humanly, Superman disobeys, and superhumanly he spins the Earth backwards reversing time to save Lois from an earthquake death.
During World War II Clark attempts to enlist, failing the army physical when he reads the wrong eye chart (an unillustrated editor's note in Superman, No. 25 from 1943 says his X-ray vision shows the one in the next room), but Superman often brings aid and provisions to our troops. Four decades later, in 1986, he goes to Ethiopia (in a special issue: Heroes for Hunger) to help the hungry and learns famines do not change overnight. In 1991, politically correct, he halts some damage to the Brazilian Rainforest and motivates Metropolis residents to clean up their own environment (in another special comic: Superman for Earth). Clark even assists Lois in recycling her garbage.
Today's Superman is allowed melancholia over being the only survivor of a dead planet and introspection over his inability to help everyone in trouble. (The streets of Metropolis are lined with the disenfranchised, just as in any big city.) In a 1993 TV scene, unwittingly Lois (Teri Hatcher) comforts Clark, who is concerned that Superman is not accomplishing enough:
Not even Superman can be everywhere at once....What he can'tdo, it doesn't matter. It's the idea of Superman--someone to believe in, someone to build a few hopes around. What he can do, that's enough.
--October 3,1993 episode, "Neverending Story"
Click on the glowing dot
.to hear Ms. Hatcher's words...
Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him
"Superman's Song"
--by Crash Test Dummies
Click on the glowing
.button to hear more of the lyrics ...
(The Death of Superman 1993 graphic novel cover art by Jon Bogdanove, Dennis Janke, and Reuben Rude.)
In the American folk tradition of tall tales about inspiring men like Paul Bunyun, moving mountains; Pecos Bill, lassoing tornados; and John Henry, outracing railroads, folk hero Superman can outdo all of them, yet seems more real than they because his mythology is a living and changing one, reflecting the very society he can motivate people to improve. Superman may never die as long as his exciting, idealized persona makes us strive to be better--to be like the man in Superman.
(Right: Clark Kent resurrected. Art from 1993 by Kerry Gammill and Jackson Guice.)
WORKS CITED AND UNCITED
Andrea, Tom, et al. "The Birth of Superman: The Jerry Siegel and Joe .............Shuster Interview." Nemo: The Classic Comics Library Aug. 1983: .............6-19.
Austen, Beth and Janice C. Simpson, "Up, Up and Awaaay!!! Time 14 ..............Mar.1988: 66-74.
Bridwell, E. Nelson, ed. Superman from the Thirties to the Seventies. New ................York: Crown, 1983.
Bryne, John and Dick Giordano. The Man of Steel. New York: DC Comics, .............Inc. 1986.
Clarke, Gerald. "The Comics on the Couch." Time 13, Dec. 1971: 70-71.
Crash Test Dummies, "Superman's Song," The Ghosts that Haunt Me. .............Arista ..ARCD-8677, 1991.
Dooley, Dennis, and Gary Engle, eds. Superman at Fifty: The Persistence .............of a Legend. New York: Collier.Books, 1987.
Fleisher, Michael L. The Great Superman Book. New York: Harmony .............Books, 1978.
Grossman, Gary. Superman: Serial to Cereal. New York: Popular Library, .............1976.
Hudnall, James D. and Eduardo Barreto. Lex Luthor: TheUnauthorized .............Biography. New York: DC Comics, Inc., 1989.
Jones, Clyde. "The Powers of Kal-El." Fantastic Films Jun. 1978: 29-30, .............43-44, 64.
The Kinks. "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman." 1979. Come Dancing with .............the Kinks. Arista A2CD-8428, 1980.
Levine, Dan. "Neverending Battle," Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of ..............Superman. Developed by Deborah Joy Levine. ABC 2 Oct. 1993.
Lowther, George. Superman. 1942. Los Angeles: Kassel Books, 1979.
Maggin, Elliot S. Superman: Last Son of Krypton. New York: Warner ............Books, 1978.
________. Superman: Miracle Monday. New York: Warner Books, 1981.
Maggs Dirk. Superman Lives!. New York: Time Warner Audio Books, 1993.
Petrou, David Michael. The Making of Supeman, the Movie. New York: ............Warner Books, 1978.
Puzo, Mario, et al. Superman: the Movie. Dir. Richard Donner.
"Special Superman Issue." Amazing Heroes No. 41, 15 Feb. 1984.
Stern, Roger. The Death and Life of Superman. New York: Bantam Books, ............1993.
________. Superman for Earth. New York: DC Comics,.Inc., 1991.
"Wizard Superman Tribute Edition." Wizard Apr. 1993.
(Illustration adapted from dust cover of The Great Superman Book, 1978 art by Jose Garcia-Lopez)
Please note: In the five years since the publication of this article, much has happened in the Superman Universe. For a thorough update (marriages, births, deaths, etc.) please see the comic book,
Superman: Secret Files and Origins.
New York, DC Comics, Jan. 1998.
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