“Do you worry that you’re not liked/How long till you break/You’re happy cause you smile/But how much can you fake?”
-Our Lady Peace, “Superman’s Dead” from Clumsy
I have always loved the iconography of Superman’s logo. In fact I considered getting a tattoo of the bleeding “Death of Superman” logo from my teens.
But I never liked Superman. Even when I was into Smallville, the CW show, it was because of Lex Luthor. I enjoyed Red Son. But Superman himself never worked well for me.
Meanwhile, I loved Batman as a kid. I still do, though sometimes there are Batman moments that confuse me to no end. For example, when he recently gained the Mobius Chair from Metron and had access to all the knowledge in the universe, he found out there were 3 Jokers when he asked for the Joker’s name. But then he stopped. The greatest detective in the DC Comics universe didn’t think to ask “so who are the 3 Jokers?” Things like that disappoint me.
The reason why directly ties to why I have always loved Batman and why I think Batman is so popular. Batman’s life– while exceptional– is not impossible. I don’t have to be from Krypton. I don’t need a magic green ring. I don’t need a pact with a demon. I just need to be smart and work hard. I could use riches, of course, but Americans tend to always behave like they think they’ll be rich one day anyway. So Batman was… possible.
What complexified this for me, when I was young, was what DC finally started playing up in the last few years: if we look at Superman through the lens of Batman, it’s Lex Luthor who is the hero and Superman who is frightening. Superman is pretty much the model for an immigrant in the happy melting pot story that we’ve left in the distant past for today’s immigration stories, but if we look at him with cold, hard logic (as the Superman v. Batman movie tried to), he’s a frightening alien with unfathomable powers. Mankind has to believe that Superman will remain uncorrupted and benevolent. Should he turn evil, what is the world to do? He’s not a man.
The two heroes I’ve mentioned here represent interesting binaries with their arch enemies. Batman and the Joker are two sides of a coin. Batman’s unwillingness to kill, and his desire to maintain a certain order, are all that differentiate him from the Joker. Joker craves chaos and doesn’t believe life has value. But Batman one click deeper into his own neuroses is basically the Joker, a crazed orphan who dresses like a bat to get vengeance for his slain parents. Bruce Wayne might be, at least outwardly, something of a genius, but Wayne is the mask. That is the Batman, and while he’s calculating and rational, he’s one step from batshit crazy. He stays even by watching the Joker, and he defines his own morality by insuring he never crosses the lines that he feels would make him “like” the Joker. Of course if you read The Killing Joke in a particular way, it seems like maybe the second Batman realized just how much he was like the Joker he also realized he had to end the Joker, in the process proving they were very much the same. But not everyone buys into that reading.
Meanwhile, the Superman v. Luthor binary is harder to handle. Originally, Lex Luthor was a crazed scientist. That worked. The crazed scientist vs. the good hearted American melting pot Kansas boy worked for the time period. But as Lex Luthor was made more and more relatable. Right now it’s not so hard to by the President Luthor storyline, for example. Lex is the human being who is afraid of what might happen if Superman is left unchecked. What happens if the powerful alien with the messiah complex becomes tired of being a savior and chooses to be a tyrant?
And if it seems weird to buy Luthor’s concern over Superman’s potential in the future, one need only look to Batman, the man with a plan to stop his “friend” should he never need to. And as long as Superman doesn’t mutter his mom’s name, Batman has it all figured out. Bruce Wayne has plenty of kryptonite.
I think we’re in a world where Superman doesn’t work anymore. It’s a time when politically it’s hard to believe in such a boy scout of a hero. In fact in the end, that’s the part of Superman that I think I always found most sickening. I’m a good-hearted person, but I understand that to stop evil, sometimes you have to fight with cunning. I wish my political heroes were a little more Lex Luthor and a little less Clark Kent.
Maybe we need someone to dress up like a bat and protect the night. I know that hoping for the best hasn’t worked.
The boy scout image of Superman has always been bohersome because he’s such a show off and such a hoot. Taking him seriously has always been a stretch. Yes, Lex Luthor is much more entertaning, as is Grendel vs. BEOWULF , and Grendel’s dam vs. BEOWULF. IN fact, most villains are more interesting than heroes. We BELIEVE them. Heroes have to be taken tongue in cheek, or we’d spend our whole life throwing up, to borrow Woody Allen’s phrase.
Iago trumps Othello in guile, Claudius almost decimates Hamlet, and Moby Dick turns Ahab into kindling. Bad guys really run the show. Thank God for them. Superman pales by comparison. Big time.