Which is what Im hoping for. Doing the right thing in this modern world isn't easy. A demi-god from another world doing it as if it's nothing doesn't teach us anything except for waiting or some deux ex machina.
And that is not what Superman is at all. Remember, he came to Earth as an infant. In most post-1986 versions, he never even learned he was an alien until he was an adolescent or a young adult. What makes him Superman isn't his alien powers, it's the values Jonathan and Martha Kent instilled him with and the loving, kind example they set for him. At heart, Clark Kent is just a farmboy who wants to use what he can do to make a difference. He doesn't see himself as a demigod. The great thing about Superman is that, with all his power, he's in awe of
us. He started out as a populist standing up for the litle guy, and that's remained a part of him ever since. "
You're much stronger than you think you are."
The reason I've always loved Superman, and superheroes in general, is because, as a bullied child, I was drawn to the idea of someone who had great power and used it only to help, never to harm or put others down. Superman embodies the principle that power is meant to protect. Not to elevate oneself, but to help raise up others. As someone who was victimized and devalued throughout my childhood, as someone who struggled with depression and despair, I needed the idealism of Superman,
Star Trek, and the like to give me hope, to let me believe things could get better. Hope was the only thing that gave me a reason to keep living. So when I see people trying to tear down the idealistic stories I needed and turn them into something dark and cynical, it hurts me deeply. Idealism is not shallow or stupid or empty. It's the refusal to give up. It's the determination to keep fighting to
make things better instead of just throwing up your hands and saying nothing will ever change. So if you say idealism is silly and only dark, cynical stories matter, I say you don't know what you're talking about.
Right, which automatically means that he didn't become that.
The point is that it's not an inextricable part of Superman as a character. It's just the way
some writers have interpreted him. And really, I think that perception of Superman as defined by patriotism comes largely from Frank Miller's
negative portrayal of Superman in
The Dark Knight Returns, making him just a stooge of the government because he basically didn't like Superman as a character. So much harm has been done to comics by people, writers and fans alike, who mistook
Dark Knight for the default template for comic books instead of a satirical deconstruction.