Is Superman still relevant? Hell, yes

Anybody that knows me, knows I'm a huge comic book fan. While my preferences tend to lean more towards Marvel's stable of heroes rather than DC's, there are a few of the latter's characters that hold a special place in my heart. First and foremost among these is Superman. I first became acquainted with The Man of Steel when I was five or six years old. One year for Christmas, my parents bought me an illustrated Superman storybook that came with an accompanying cassette tape. I loved that thing and must've listened to it about 1,000 times. As I grew older, my fascination with the character grew, which was thanks in no small part to the efforts of Christopher Reeve, Richard Donner, and company. To this day, I'm a huge fan of the character and still read his comics on a regular basis.

So, why am I bringing this up? It's not like old Supes is an unknown commodity, I mean, he's been around for more than 80 years at this point. I guess the reason why I'm bringing this up because I think Superman has been unfairly maligned and mistreated in popular culture over the past few years and I've had many a conversation with friends who are a bit younger than I am on whether the character is still relevant in this day and age. I was also spurred into action by the news of the upcoming "Snyder Cut" of the woefully bad Justice League movie, which fundamentally misunderstands the character at a deep and disturbing level. So, I guess what I really want to do is provide a counter-point to all those naysayers who think Superman is lame and of a remnant of a bygone era. Maybe it's that I really just want to talk about why I love the character so much and perhaps make the case for why he's not so irrelevant after all. It's also that I see every day how awful a place the world can be and I just want to share my feelings on one of the things that bring me joy.

So, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we? Is Superman relevant in the modern age? Many today would answer this question in the negative. To some, Supes is just a boring character with too much power and not enough edge and way too goody-goody for his own good. Others look at the character and respect how groundbreaking he was but at the same time say that his time has passed and that other, more ambiguous heroes (or antiheroes) are what the world and popular culture crave. Many of these individuals compare Superman to his darker DC counterpart, Batman. While in the comics, these two are fast friends, in the real world, fans of the Dark Knight (which is just about everybody nowadays) tend to view Superman with derision. 

Honestly, it's easy to see why. Growing up a nerd, I was bullied and mocked because the things I liked weren't considered "cool" to the average kid. As someone who had to go through life shouldering that kind of abuse, I can see why the character of Batman is appealing. He's dark, he's brooding and his sole purpose is vengeance. Conversely, Superman is a straight-laced boy-scout who would rather bring a criminal in peacefully than beat the tar out of him. We all WANT to be Batman. Why? Because it's easy to be Batman. It's easy to grab a hold of our hate for a thing, whether its bullies, or strict upbringings, or opposing political viewpoints. It's easy to revel in that hate and actively wish for bad things to happen whether they're justified or not. 

Here's the thing though, as human beings, we all want to be Batman but we really should all strive to be Superman. Let me explain. Batman does what he does because he's looking to alleviate his own pain. It's not for the good of Gotham or the world in general, his motives are entirely selfish. While I'm sure some may disagree on that point, at his core, I believe, Batman has purely selfish motives. Superman, on the other hand, does what he does to make the world a better place. He has all of the power in the world, yet lives a humble life and spends every spare moment he has trying to make the lives of those around him better. He is good for the sake of being good and I've always respected that about the character. 

It doesn't stop there, though. Superman, for lack of a better descriptor, is an immigrant. He's spent his entire life knowing that he's different than everybody else. He knows that if circumstances were different, his childhood could have turned out much worse (as many alternate universe stories have outlined). He knows full well that while there are many that love him, there are also many that hate and fear him. He knows firsthand all of the flaws of humanity and yet he still does what he does because it's right. He is the best of what humanity has the potential to be and yet he's not a human. Yes, I'm aware of the messianic comparisons and while there are certainly parallels between Superman and Jesus, I don't think that's what Seigel and Shuster had in mind when they created him.

So, is Superman relevant today? Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. Not just as the focus of exciting adventures in the pages of a comic book or on a movie screen but as a role model of what we as people can achieve if we look beyond ourselves and our own hate. It's an old fashioned notion to be sure, but who knows what could happen if we give it a shot. 

"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way."