Truth, Justice, and the American Way
by Giulianna LamannaSuperman is gay! Superman is Jesus! Superman is a dick! SUPES ON A PLANE!!!
Yeah, I saw Superman Returns. I couldn’t avoid it: Jason and Mike hauled out two different Superman t-shirts (Mike in the traditional blue, red, and yellow, Jason in “Man in Black” silver) and talked about it almost nonstop. Before long, even I was excited about it. That’s a pretty impressive feat; Superman has always been kind of “iffy” to me. He always seemed bland, lacking in personality, cheesy, over-the-top. Even with no past interest in comics, I could get behind Batman, Spiderman, and the X-Men when their movies came out. But Superman remained a silly, nationalistic antique to be enjoyed on the same level as those old 50’s educational films at Prelinger Archives.
I was expecting Superman Returns to be campy, which is probably why I wasn’t disappointed like Jason and Mike were. Of course, I did have my grievences. First of all, Luthor’s plan made no goddamn sense. Second of all, everyone knows that Superman can’t have children. Third of all, what was Bryan Singer smoking when he came up with the idea of casting Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane? But ultimately, the biggest, strangest problem - and one that exists in all of Superman’s various incarnations - is how he has become the personification of “the American way.”
In Superman: Red Son, Superman is re-imagined as a Soviet hero, fighting for “Stalin, Socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact.” One of my all-time favorite lines is spoken by a drunken Pyotr Roslov, Stalin’s illegitimate son who hates Superman: “You’re the opposite of Marxist doctrine, Superman. Proof that all men aren’t created equal.” Of course, the phrase “all men are created equal” was coined long before Marx, by the founders of our own capitalist country. And while Marxism may share the concept, it ultimately belongs to America as much as it did to Soviet Russia. Which, if Pyotr is correct, would mean that Superman is also the opposite of the American way for which he purports to fight.
Gary Engle would strongly disagree. In a popular essay, he explains exactly what makes Superman so darned American:
It is impossible to imagine Superman being as popular as he is and speaking as deeply to the American character were he not an immigrant and an orphan. Immigration, of course, is the overwhelming fact in American history. Except for the Indians, all Americans have an immediate sense of their origins elsewhere. No nation on Earth has so deeply embedded in its social consciousness the imagery of passage from one social identity to another: the Mayflower of the New England separatists, the slave ships from Africa and the subsequent underground railroads toward freedom in the North, the sailing ships and steamers running shuttles across two oceans in the nineteenth century, the freedom airlifts in the twentieth. Somehow the picture just isn’t complete without Superman’s rocket ship.
Like the peoples of the nation whose values he defends, Superman is an alien, but not just any alien. He’s the consummate and totally uncompromised alien, an immigrant whose visible difference from the norm is underscored by his decision to wear a costume of bold primary colors so tight as to be his very skin. Moreover, Superman the alien is real. He stands out among the hosts of comic book characters (Batman is a good example) for whom the superhero role is like a mask assumed when needed, a costume worn over their real identities as normal Americans. Superman’s powers–strength, mobility, x-ray vision and the like –are the comic-book equivalents of ethnic characteristics, and they protect and preserve the vitality of the foster community in which he lives in the same way that immigrant ethnicity has sustained American culture linguistically, artistically, economically, politically, and spiritually. The myth of Superman asserts with total confidence and a childlike innocence the value of the immigrant in American culture.
So far, so good. But the most interesting quote is further down, after Engles delves more deeply into the American obsession with mobility:
When our immigrant ancestors arrived on America’s shores they hit the ground running, some to homestead on the Great Plains, others to claw their way up the socioeconomic ladder in coastal ghettos. Upward mobility, westward migration, Sunbelt relocation–the wisdom in America is that people don’t, can’t, mustn’t end up where they begin.
That description certainly fits one character in Superman’s universe: Lex Luthor. He was born from nothing, but he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and, with intelligence and hard work, he became rich and powerful. Lex Luthor is the classic Horatio Alger story. Superman couldn’t be more different: he is inherently superior to everyone he meets in pretty much every way, and all he had to do to attain that status is be born. Watching Kevin Spacey’s campy, Dr. Evil-like Luthor beat the crap out of a kryptonite-weakened Superman, I couldn’t help but think that someone as well-built as Superman could easily fight back even without his super powers. But maybe he was so used to relying on his powers that without them, he couldn’t master even the simplest, most basic task of fist-fighting with a normal human.
If Lex Luthor is the American ideal of the self-made man, then Superman is almost a monarchic ideal, cut from the same cloth as the nation from which we declared independence in the first place. The last son of Krypton, destined to lead the humans who “only need someone to show them the way.” Deserving of power because of abilities that only his genetics had anything to do with aquiring. That certainly isn’t the “American way” I remember hearing about as a child.
But then, we have never lived up to our myths of ourselves. America has never truly been American, even before wire-tapping and Guantanamo Bay. In a nation with a lower rate of upward mobility than almost any other high-income country, what does Horatio Alger - or Lex Luthor - have to do with America, anyway? One almost begins to wonder whether Lex Luthor was villainized out of some subconscious recognition that the American dream is a lie. If that’s the case, then it’s no wonder that Superman is the one fighting for “truth, justice, and the American way.” After all, the American way is a far cry from the American dream.
First of all, you should probably put a spoiler warning on that post.
Secondly, Superman is more than just an immigrant. Luthor’s conflict with Superman focuses on the dichotomy between Lex’s self-made power and Superman’s natural abilities. But really, Big Blue wasn’t “born” with his super powers. On Krypton, he’s no stronger than any human. It’s the yellow rays of the Earth’s sun that give him his strength. So it’s very much tied to the idea of place. Superman is the personification of the American dream in that he comes from another world and is made better for being here. And he, in turn, uses his powers to make his new home better in return. It’s the idea that you can end up better than you started that is really at the heart of Superman’s story.
Comment by Mike Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 8:21 AM
I thought all Kryptonians were superhumans, even on Krypton? Then of course, there’s that “funky high on yellow sun,” but that’s something they’ve gone both ways on in the past, isn’t it?
Comment by Jason Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 8:41 AM
There have been different explanations of Superman’s powers, but as far as I know, the most common one is the powers-derived-from-the-Sun theory.
Comment by Mike Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 9:15 AM
Superman, was morphed into the truth-justice-and american way, although he started off as more of a vigilante type, back in the 30’s.
I found the movie to be decent, not exactly what I expected, but a few good scenes saved it for me. I find the Lex Luther vs. Superman to be more of a battle between Lex “who desires limitless power to satisfy his ego” and Superman who Has limitless power, yet for the most part attempts to use it altruistically, although it occasionally hurts him (makes it hard to date etc).
I still find the tale to be more of a moral story, not one that relates directly to America per say, but rather a story on how Elites/ultrapowerful people should use their abilities for the common good, rather than for purely selfish ends…
I enjoyed the movie overall, although I expected more action, and some of the lines were just hard to handle >>Lois: ” you are so warm” to superman as they begin their flight together–ouch!
Comment by Bubba — 30 June 2006 @ 9:17 AM
Superman’s first appearance was as a villain.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 9:20 AM
Superman has died, Superman has risen, Superman will come again.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 9:40 AM
For those who didn’t like the movie, just keep in mind that it could always be worse. Compared to what Tim Burton wanted to do, Superman Returns is the God damn greatest cinematic masterpiece of all time. Here are some choice tidbits:
So… yeah. Be thankful for what you have.
Comment by Mike Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 10:07 AM
Honestly… I would actually be willing to see that movie. Because it sounds hilarious.
“[A]fter watching Chasing Amy, Peters liked the gay black character in the film so much that he ordered Smith to make Brainiac’s robot servant L-Ron gay, asserting that the film needed a gay R2-D2 with attitude.”
YES. YES. This is what EVERY film needs: a gay R2D2 with attitude! But seriously, let’s focus on Rapebear.
Comment by Giulianna Lamanna — 30 June 2006 @ 10:29 AM
Lol, gratefully, I won’t be watching it. I have been burned by pretty much every comic film in the last 10 years. I am tired of paying 8 bucks to be pissed, when I can stay home and be angry for free.
Thanks for letting me know!!
Comment by Rory — 30 June 2006 @ 11:44 AM
Hey, that’s not fair. X-Men? Spider-Man? Batman Begins? V for Vendetta? Those all kicked ass.
Comment by Mike Godesky — 30 June 2006 @ 11:54 AM
well superman to me looked like he just rely on his brute strength to get things done. i suspect a better trained but slightly weaker hero could beat him.
Comment by truekaiser — 31 July 2006 @ 10:02 PM