Superman: Woke Since 1938!

 

Sometimes, I really hate what we've become. I'm a fan of the website IMDb. We love to know about what we're watching. We see a familiar actor, and Alison and I will research to find out who they are and what we've seen them in.

There is an unpleasant aspect to IMDb, and that is with the unwoke army that comes in and corrupts their ratings. They will diss any show or movie that their right-wing nut job influencers have told them to mark down to 1s and 2s, bringing down the average score. For example, the lowest-rated episode of the new Quantum Leap series dared to feature a transgender athlete. I thought the story was beautiful, and the only episode of the series that brought me to tears.  

So, who is the unwoke army's newest vendetta? The latest Superman movie. Why? It glorifies an illegal immigrant (spoiler alert - Superman is not from around here). He's too soft. He's too kind. He takes the side of a weak nation about to be pillaged by a much stronger one. His opponent is a villainous stereotype of a billionaire. He takes the time to save a squirrel, for God's sake!

Did none of these mooks actually read Superman? He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish high school students from Cleveland. Almost like a Golem, ready to defend the weak and powerless. Superman was an alien, rocketed by his parents from the dying planet Krypton, landing in a Kansas cornfield, raised by two loving, caring farmers, and endowed with a tremendous sense of humanity. He chose as his alter ego, Clark Kent, to be a reporter, putting himself in a position where he could discover social ills and the problems of everyday citizens and address them. Some of his first cases involved confronting a husband who was abusing his wife, defending and revitalizing an area that was exploited by slumlords, and yes, intervening in a war involving Boravia and arms dealers profiting off of it.

That is from Superman #2, published in 1939. So much for Borovia just being an invention of Dorector James Gumn,

Any character that is almost nine decades old and has been written/drawn by dozens of comic book talents is bound to have reboots and reinterpretations. It's not always a straight line.

But I know what the core of Superman is. I've been reading Superman comics since the early 60s, and yes, I still read them today, both the classics and the newest issues. And what James Gunn has done is a perfect capture of the essence of Superman and his world, as I have ever seen.

This is not a review per se. But I do feel every character in it is a home run. There are no false notes. Much of it left me weeping with joy, as I feel blessed to have seen this movie.

I had a slight difference with my son, Benjamin, who also saw the movie. He said it was the best Superman movie he's ever seen. I slightly disagreed, in the sense that I thought it was the best movie I've ever seen.

As I come down from my high, that evaluation may change. But right now? It is the best. It's one of the few movies I've seen in my life that I immediately wanted to go back and see again.

Sorry, unwoke army. Like it or not, Superman is the epitome of woke and all the good things that it represents. I love him! Superman! Woke since 1938!

Why I Am a Superman Fan #1

I gave them up. Thousands and thousands of comic books spanning over six decades of collecting, and I'm happy because we were able to pay off our house.

But I kept my Superman collection. I continue to get back issues where I can, filling in gaps in my Superman Collection.  

Above is one I read yesterday, Action Comics #517 from March 1981. Reading the story, taking place on Christmas Eve, I was reminded of why I was a Superman fan.

Like any character written by diverse hands over the last 85 years, there will be variances over how Superman is characterized. The Man of Steel movie had a grotesque violation of what Superman is all about when they had him kill the villainous Kryptonian, General Zod.

But for the most part, Superman is written as what some complain, but I adore, as a big blue Boy Scout. He stands for truth, justice, and the American Way (the good democratic melting pot version, not the Reich-wing nativist horror version). Even though he is from another planet, his values are about as good as values get. His humanity is tempered through his secret identity, Clark Kent, a reporter dedicated to uncovering and exposing social injustice.

In this particular story, he runs across two teenagers, one Jewish and one who calls himself Christian,  fighting with each other about Christmas Eve, whose holiday it is, and who should be excluded from it.

Whatever you think of Christmas Eve and what it means, no one can argue with the sentiment Superman expresses next...

 Ok.  Given the religious violence and intolerance we see today, maybe some would argue with it.

But it means a lot to me.