I’m on the eve of watching the new Superman movie. The three year old kid in me is absolutely vibrating.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Superman fan. When I was a kid, I have been obsessed with the character. I wanted to be able to fly. I wanted to be super strong. I wanted to be the hero and save the day. I was running around in Superman PJs with the little Velcro cape and jumping off chairs. Apparently, I jumped off furniture so much that I developed a limp. Christopher Reeve was my first Superman, and George Reeves came along shortly after thanks to Nick at Nite reruns. I loved the Max Fleischer cartoons too and I still remember it being on the TV with all the flashing lights while I sat in a dark room watching it on tape.
Why Superman though? He’s lame. He’s too powerful. He’s not interesting. He wins all the time.
He. Is. Too. Good.
What doe that even mean? Too good for what? He saves people too much? He does the right thing too much? He has too much hope and altruism? Those are comments I’ve heard my whole life whenever I get excited about him. I’ve heard arguments upon arguments about him not being cool enough. Quite frankly, I just don’t get it. Are heroes not meant to be the best of us? Are they not meant to inspire and drive us to be the best versions of ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, I love every flawed human super human character out there for all kinds of different reasons. What I love about Superman is that he has all the same struggles and battles any other superhero has, but he’s principled and he works hard to put forward the best of himself.
I tend to believe that’s what our heroes are for. I worked with a guy a while back who used to say that he really didn’t enjoy modern superhero comics or movies because he always felt like our heroes were meant to be “above reproach” and too many of them had too many flaws. I’m not totally sure if I agree with that entirely, but I understand his sentiment. He wanted to read about people that were better than us on our best days. People that always saved the day. I definitely understood it, and that’s probably what attracts so many little kids to Superman. He’s safe. He’s strong. He saves everyone. Somewhere in our cynical adult selves there is that little kid who still wants to see someone helpful, safe, and strong. We’ve just forgotten what it’s like to see that on screen.
I’m thrilled at what I’ve seen and heard so far about what James Gunn has done with this movie. I’m looking forward to it so much, and you better believe the next post you see on this blog will be a review of that movie. Fingers crossed its everything I hope for.