The Girl of Robotics vs. The Man of Steel!

Superman! The Man of Steel! The  Last Son of Krypton! The Man of Tomorrow! The Big Blue Boy Scout!

Superman. What can you say about Superman? He’s a nice guy. A good hearted Midwestern farm boy who makes an honest living as a reporter in a big city. Who just happens to be an alien from the planet Kryton who has every superpower you can think of.

I like Superman. He’s not particularly…dark and compelling, nor should he be, and he’s probably my least favorite of the Trinity, but man, I like him. You can’t not like him. He was created by two guys back in 1938 to be a good, pure superhero with crazy amazing powers we all wish we had, and someone we could fantasize through.

My favorite 1940’s Superman moment was when he punched Hitler in the face. Now, that was the ultimate example of Supes being wish fufillment because you know his Jewish creators wanted to do that. “Here’s a strictly non Aryan sock in the jaw!”

Some might find Superman’s good hearted boyscoutedness corny, but we all need a little good hearted boyscoutedness in this cold, cynical world of ours. Isn’t it nice to think there could be someone who could totally destroy us all, but instead chooses to help us out, and catch us when we fall, and do amazing feats, and never turns away from the path of righteousness?

Of course, I think writers get WAY too carried away with this. The amount of stories that boil down to “Superman is the best superhero that ever was, and we should all hail Superman, and we owe it all to Superman, and he is so much better than everyone else and I just have such a boner for him, don’t you?” is a little ridiculous. Yes, he was the first, we owe it all to him, he is sort of the epitome of super, hence the name and he’s Jesus in blue tights (despite, as mentioned, that his creators were Jewish. A conundrum!), can we get over it and move on please?

Other things I like about Superman is the old school reporter atmosphere he operates in, all “I must track down this guy to get this story to my grumpy cheif!” There’s something cool about the free press in action. And I love his badass wife, who from her very first incarnation was a hardcore, independent, intrepid city-girl reporter who smashed right past the class ceiling without a second thought and how her bravery, ambition and ability to cause trouble wherever she goes, all in the name of a good story and integrity, had Clark head over heels immediately. But I already went on for a while about this in my first Valentines article, so I digress. I love Lois to peices, that’s all.

Superman has a family of multiple Supergirls, Superboy and Krypto the Superdog (who I just love, it’s so kitschy, which is so Superman). The latest version of Supergirl had an INCREDIBLY rough start, but now she’s pretty cool, entertaining and strong and all that.

Currently Superman is in the midst of a new Krypton crossover, in which we have learned to be glad Krypton exploded, because the 1000 survivors all seem to be horrible xenophobic people. Except for Zor El, who is dead. And Nightwing and Flamebird, I guess, if they are Kryptonians. Anyway, it was mildly entertaining, and Clark is apparently leaving his own title to go and try to patch things up there. Which seems unwise to me. I mean, the Superman title without Superman? If I was getting into comics and heard about that, I’d be awfully confused.

But, for now, the Man of Steel is rocking on. His last movie was a little bad, so they’re making a new one, which is going to be dark and edgy and all that. Let’s hope they don’t go overboard, because, Superman, in his very essence, is a projection of hope. And we don’t want to lose that.