The Philosophy of Superman PT.2
Wrapping up my arm-chair philo-si-phizer think piece on the greatest hero in American lore, Superman, in the conclusion of this 2-part series.
Continuing from Part 1 of this 2-part series…
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Why We Need a Superman
In the current climate of the United States, from politics to societal issues and the extreme disconnect that’s plaguing the U.S., not capitalizing on the very fact that Superman is meant to represent hope and connect people of all walks of life shows how little some creators understand the character.
Terror attacks, both foreign and domestic, and shootings have become a common occurrence, and the division our country is currently facing is one of the worst we’ve faced since the Civil War.
Our political and societal landscape has bred so much violence, hate, and negativity on both sides, and if there was ever a time for Superman, the definitive Superman, it’s now.
BATMAN V. SUPERMAN in its opening weekend broke attendance records (which was due to the title and characters alone, not the story), brought all sorts of new exposure to this character, and was more than the perfect time for a Superman of hope-bringing light to our ever darkening world.
Instead, we were given a brooding, unsure, more “humanized” Superman, and it displayed how little is understood about the character and why that needs to change.
“Even though you’ve been raised as a human being, you’re not one of them. They can be a great people, Kal-El, if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason, above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son.” (Jor-El, SUPERMAN)
Superman isn’t meant to be flawed.
The whole point of the character is that he always knows what’s right, even if he struggles with making those decisions, and questions them afterward.
He’s essentially a man who has the powers of a deity but lacks the omniscient abilities of an actual god. A human being whose moral compass always pulls him true north, power or not, because he simply knows what is right.
That’s what makes him human, and that’s what makes him interesting.
“I’m not God… I’m just a man.” (Superman #666)
Superman’s Greatest Power is his Limitless Empathy
One of the best examples of this is in SUPERMAN: GROUNDED when he returns from the destruction of New Krypton and is instantly ambushed by a group of reporters.
It isn’t the reporters that are important here, however, but rather the random woman who approaches him. This woman is upset and feels that Superman abandoned her, as well as Earth. She feels it’s his fault her husband died of a brain tumor, even though Superman was off saving millions.
Whether this was rational or not, which was addressed by several reporters, she still feels Superman could have somehow saved him had he been on Earth.
What’s important about this dialogue is Superman’s reaction and the basis for the story itself.
It may not be realistic, rational, or even possible for Superman to have done anything for her husband. He was off saving millions of lives, but the fact that Superman legitimately felt deep down that there might’ve been something he could’ve done for one single individual, that he failed one person on top of everything he just did, shows how deep his empathy runs.
No matter the circumstance or the scale Superman will always care because he knows he can do things no other person can. Which is far from the individual in both MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V. SUPERMAN.
Superman Represents the Greatest Tropes in Literature: Triumph and Good Overcoming Evil
So many of the greatest pieces of philosophical and religious literature, not to mention fiction, center around beings or individuals who are above the average man and make choices that we mere mortals couldn’t possibly handle.
Stories that present ‘gods’ without limits among men who do.
Perfect or higher entities compel so much of our literature because they’re symbols we in real life can aspire to be like, and these attributes just aren’t being embraced by the writers of Superman, which is more than odd considering the obvious religious inspirations associated with the character.
Superman stories constantly try to humanize a character that is meant to be larger than life and not tethered to the negative qualities of the average man.
“At his inception, Superman seems very much a representative of the downtrodden working classes his creators hailed from, and a wonderful embodiment of all the dreams and aspirations of the powerless.” -- Alan Moore
Superman is meant to be great. He’s meant to be an unachievable goal for everyone else to strive for and to work towards.
The best quote or really analogy I can give to express this goal of ‘perfection’ comes from Mixed Martial Arts legend and one of the all-time MMA greats, Georges St. Pierre:
"There is a difference between a fighter and a martial artist. A fighter is training for a purpose: He has a fight. I'm a martial artist. I don't train for a fight. I train for myself. I'm training all the time. My goal is perfection. But I will never reach perfection."
It’s knowing that to become like Superman is just something you cannot reach but will always strive towards.
It’s a level of perfection or goal that you will always reach for but never grasp—an unreachable height of ideology and aspiration.
Superman is, above all, what it means to be a hero and the best self in a character:
"The hero must be the character's best self. When Odysseus appeared at home disguised as a beggar, the big resolution was that he was “really” Odysseus. When young Arthur yanked the sword from the stone what that revealed, even to himself, was that he was the king and always had been. When the prince of Egypt, for just his own sense of rage and righteousness, killed a taskmaster and was banished for taking the side of the slaves, only then did his real origin become clear to those around him. In every classical setting the hero first arrives in disguise, and Superman is, at the very least, our own age's quintessential classical hero."
He’s Just Good
Superman is the embodiment of the highest ideals of morality laid out by some of the greatest philosophers in history, including Plato and Immanuel Kant, and while he may bear the name of the Übermensch in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” I think most would agree, he doesn’t resemble much of the “Overman” that Nietzsche spoke of.
Nietzsche himself would probably see Superman as more of a limiter of human evolution rather than a facilitating growth. A notion that Lex Luthor enjoys pointing out constantly through the long history of their rivalry:
“All men are created equal. All men. You are not a man… but they’ve made you their hero. They worship you. So tell me, what redemption do you offer them? Those red eyes. I’m sure they look right through me, like I am nothing more than a nuisance. But when I see you? I see something no man can ever be. I see the end. The end of potential. The end of our achievements. The end of our dreams. You are my nightmare.” (LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL)
In the Republic, during a discourse between Plato and his brother Glaucon, the latter proposes an argument to Plato using a magic ring that turns the user invisible and states:
“Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other; no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a god among men.
Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever anyone thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust.
For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.”
Glaucon is proposing the idea of absolute power corrupting absolutely, but, in Superman’s case, he is the “Just Man” that Plato constantly argues for in the Republic.
So rather than Superman’s absolute power corrupting, it absolves absolutely.
If you recall, Max Landis points this out in his earlier quote. At his core, unless he’s tainted by some sort of Kryptonite or an Apokolips fire pit, Superman ALWAYS does the right thing.
Even in SUPERMAN: RED SON, albeit shaped by Communist ideals, he still wants to help people. His ideology may differ, and his methods might not be what most would agree with, but Superman’s ultimate goal is still to help people when it all boils down.
Can we say this about every character? Does Oliver Queen, without his time on the island, ever receive a moment of illumination, or does he continue his life of lavish debauchery? Would Peter Parker, without the death of his uncle, still have become Spider-Man or just continue to gain fame and money? Does Tony Stark, without being kidnapped and forced by circumstance to create the Iron Man suit, still move away from arms to more peaceful endeavors? Does Bruce Wayne, without the tragic death of his parents, still become Batman? The list goes on, but I think you see my point.
Even without superpowers, Clark will always be a good guy.
“If Clark wanted to, he could use his superspeed and squish me into the cement. But I know how he thinks. Even more than the Kryptonite, he’s got one big weakness. Deep down, Clark’s essentially a good person… and deep down, I’m not.” (Batman, BATMAN: HUSH)
Superman is the Ultimate Hero
I’m going to pick on Batman here for a bit, and it’s not because I dislike the character. I did the same for Spider-Man earlier, who, I’d like to note, is by far my favorite character in any entertainment medium.
Peter Parker is a character that I relate to in almost every aspect and one I have the most personal attachment to. However, I need to be objective in this discussion.
Batman is the dark to Clark’s light. The yin to his yang. The ever-present duality of morals presented in DC Entertainment in terms of being a hero. Batman is famous for his determination and obsessive desires to the point of almost delusional madness in accomplishing his goal of justice.
Batman constantly ostracizes allies, destroys relationships, and generally presents a destructive nature in order to achieve justice at all costs.
While his methods are more ‘vigilante’ (“They work against the law — they take the law into their own hands, essentially becoming criminals themselves in order to fight criminals. This is down to a loss of faith in the law — where the law has usually failed them at some point in the past and in this instance they believe they can do better in the name of justice — namely smashing people’s faces in.“) than ‘hero’ (someone who still possesses faith in the system and uses their profound abilities to aid it), he’s nonetheless an individual who strives with every fiber of his being to accomplish good and prevent others from feeling the trauma that had forever changed his very self.
Unlike Clark, however, who made his decision to don the cape from a calm state of mind, Bruce is driven by what some would define as vengeance in order to carry out his mission.
There is an argument over whether his character is driven by justice or vengeance, but that’s all semantics and personal opinion. There’s no arguing, however, that Bruce is driven by trauma, and that’s what created the Batman.
Bruce doesn’t create Batman from an internal need for good, but rather an outside and external circumstance. His desire for good is ultimately selfish or for personal reasons. This is precisely what separates the two character so vastly and really the majority of characters in the superhero genre. It’s what sets Clark apart and why he’s the quintessential hero, as well as why it’s so important for creators to distinguish the difference.
Otherwise, what makes Superman so super?
What makes him unique and what drives him? If you cannot present the deeper empathic nature of Clark and his ultimate internal desire for good without outside circumstance, as well the image of hope and aspiration that Superman represents, the answer is nothing.
It just makes him another guy flying around with larger-than-life abilities and who can do things others can’t.
He’s just a strong guy.
“They are perfect because they reveal, in one sentence, the fundamental secret of Superman and why we love him so much. Gods achieve their powers by encouraging people to believe in them. Superman achieves his power by believing in us.” (Mark Waid, “Introduction” ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, Volume 2)
This thing that sets Clark apart from every other character is that he creates a symbol of truth, justice, and freedom (formerly the American way) to aspire towards.
Clark is a powerful, godlike messianic figure who, no matter what, is always there for the people of Earth and will actively choose to make the right call at every crossroads.
He will always set the needs of others above his own desires, safety, and sometimes even his own beliefs. He chooses to be an objective symbol of good rather than a dictator, embodying the role of the hero completely. That’s what makes him an inspiration and a symbol of hope. A staple of the character from his first appearance in ACTION COMICS back in 1933, which has clearly been lost over the years.
The Ultimate Immigrant Story
If you look at the time in which Superman was created and have any basic knowledge about the two creators, culturally and their place in society, you really see what this character is meant to inspire.
Superman was created as an outsider, placed in a society that allowed him to carve out his own destiny and, at the same time, resonate as a ray of hope to those around him.
Siegel and Shuster were two Jewish immigrants trying to survive the Great Depression, besides all of the other nuances of the culture at that time. They lived in an era when people, especially immigrants, were looking for hope in a very dark and uncertain world. Economies were collapsing, empires were changing, and the world just finished one World War and was on the verge of another. Immigrants were leaving their homes believing in the opportunities presented in the West, where they could shape their own paths in the booming United States.
To be honest, not too different than many circumstances and sentiments in our own time.
Yet, Siegel and Shuster were idealists in a dark and uncertain time, unlike the cynicism that surrounds our own. They believed in having a beacon of light and inspiration, in having a symbol of hope. The parallels of Superman and their own experiences are more than obvious.
Superman was created as a savior figure, even if he himself doesn’t believe he is one.
“I want you to stop looking for a great savior. Lex isn’t it. I’m not it. You are. All of you are. I do what I do because I was given a gift, but all of you were given gifts, too. Use them to make each other’s lives better. Show the world Metropolis has a heart.” (SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #3)
What the “S” Represents
In the same way, the Greek Pantheon represents different ethical and moral mythos, so do our comic book heroes.
Spider-Man can represent how we can overcome our insecurities and find freedom through self-confidence.
Batman has an undying grit and determination to accomplish his goals.
While Captain America presents the motivation to always push forward, to always go one more round.
Superman is that light we find in the darkness. That little bit of hope we find in the most desperate of situations. To pick us up and realize we can do more, we can be more. Superman isn’t a sad sack who always loses or someone who can’t win. He’s the contrary.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a character very similar to that of Superman in his values and general personality proudly stands at the forefront of their world. Marvel has allowed Chris Evans as Captain America to exude almost identical values of Superman without the need to reinvent the character.
Captain America and Superman are both products of the 1930s and 40s in their morality and optimism toward the world.
If anything, Marvel showing Captain America as traditionally valued and a moral backbone, it instantly sets him apart from the other characters in the films and distinguishes him from every other character he’s surrounded by. Captain America lifts those around him up. He gives them confidence, he gives them strength, and he gives them hope.
Captain America in the MCU is what Superman should be doing in the DC Extended Universe.
Make Superman Great Again
What’s really sad about the current state of Superman is that in our atmosphere of distrust, disillusion, and just the general lack of unity our country faces, as well as the growing pain and fear presented by this modern world, a character that unites or stands for something “higher” is more than needed with our constant cynicism.
Having a character that stands alone in his morality and his ability to be a light in the darkness is really what makes the character special, and if there was ever a perfect time to present this character properly, it’s now.
I will acknowledge that the current run of SUPERMAN in DC’s Rebirth is going back to the character’s roots. I started this piece over a year ago [so 2017], and since then, DC has done a phenomenal job highlighting and exploring the very ideas I have presented in the current run.
Max Landis’ SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN is another great example as well. However, only two examples for a character that is the staple of the comic and superhero genre is just not enough, especially in this era of cynicism, disbelief, and lack of “hope.”
It’s time for Superman to be great again, just like he was when Siegel and Shuster first created him.