By Dr. Mike Robinson | Communication Studies
This summer, in a single bound, Superman leaped back into the popular imagination. Superman made just over $608 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The film unabashedly returned Superman to his more cheerful and optimistic roots, pushing back against a darker take on the character in more recent films and the rise of “Dark Superman” figures like Omni-Man (Invincible), Homelander (The Boys), or even The Sentry (Thunderbolts*) across popular culture.
Superman’s return was not without controversy… or more accurately, manufactured controversy. The outrage machine unsuccessfully tried to gin up some moral panics about Superman because the Last Son of Krypton was an illegal immigrant, as if the character’s origins were somehow surprising after his 1938 debut in Action Comics #1 made him a global legend.
Popular culture is a shifting and swirling ocean of changing meaning. Its characters never stay still, nor should they. Caught up in creative efforts that are also profit-oriented, these imagined entities must change to meet the needs of the time. One should never argue that a single “true” version of any character exists.
However, it is also possible to consider where Superman began and the elements that have remained with him over time. From this perspective, what endures in Superman is what audiences have always expected of him.
When Superman first appeared, he kick-started a new genre. Arguments can be made that some characters who existed before Superman were, in fact, superheroes, but none exploded onto the scene like he did. In a world where the Great Depression was finally winding down but the looming threat of fascism and World War II was rising, a powerful being who came to help, not conquer, seemed like an optimist’s dream.
One of the more famous catchphrases associated with the Man of Steel is “This is a job for Superman!” The term marks out a specific set of problems, something that a good-natured hero with special powers and abilities is suited to solving.
In his first outing, Superman does not fight any supervillains nor does he save the world from alien invasions. Instead, he stops the execution of a wrongly convicted man by muscling his way into the governor’s mansion at night so that the governor can call in a stay of the execution. Then Superman tosses around a man who was abusing his wife. Next, Superman saves Lois Lane from the aggressive advances of gangsters, iconically lifting their car above his head and smashing it on a boulder. Finally, he confronts a lobbyist who is trying to corrupt a senator.
These are all human crimes. These are all, unfortunately, things that still happen today. Superman takes a clear moral stance on these crimes. He is in tune with the simple desire to live in a world without judicial error, spousal abuse, gangsters, and government corruption.
Admittedly, even to this diehard fan’s eyes, these initial adventures are a bit dull and certainly not the plot of an expensive Hollywood summer blockbuster. Superman is, fortunately, far more entertaining.
At its core, though, the movie repeatedly reminds the audience that Superman cares about everyday people. He shields the innocent with his body. He painfully mourns the death of an ordinary man who befriended Superman. Heck, he even saves a squirrel in danger. Caring for people is clearly an essential part of Superman’s job.
