1) “Superman is the Jesus Christ of superheroes.” Superman Returns is “a story about what happens when Messiahs come back…”

2) “The metaphor was clearly there when Jor-El sends Superman to Earth with God sending Christ to save humanity.”

3) “I thought there were a lot of metaphors between Clark and Jesus actually. And I tried to throw in as many of them as I could.”

a) Bryan Singer, director of Superman Returns

b) Tom Mankiewicz, writer of Superman: The Movie

c) David Nutter, director of Smallville pilot episode

Answers:
1. a
2. b
3. c

As for the Christ metaphor (which I do recognize, for all its flimsiness), I don’t understand why a Christian would be interested in it. Jesus wasn’t a superhero saving old ladies from onrushing chariots. His whole shtick was about saving souls. Kal-el doesn’t have anything to do with that sort of salvation. If you say Jesus=Superman, it’s actually disrespecting the concept of Christ, who came to earth not to make life on earth better, but to help people get into heaven. (So I’m told.)

But if Superman is Jesus, I wanna know who Krypto is.

Don t tell me that he cut to the front of the line! I m shocked! That s so unfair!

Hey, if you can lift a bus over your head, you can cut in front.

Frame: the topic was pretty light-weight to begin with.

OK, we got a LOT of comic-book readers here. How about a debate about the single best rendition of Superman? I now Alex Ross and John Byrne will get a lot of votes, and Curt Swan and Wayne Boring will get the traditionalists’ support, but I have to go for George Perez — especially in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

J.

My hopes were that it would provoke a brief smile, or even a slight wince, and lighten the mood.

If you consider that sort of thing out of bounds, then tough shit. Last time I checked, one person sets the rules around here, and it ain t you.

J.

But while I think it is theoretically feasible that Superman could have been created as a Jesus figure, I don’t think he was. Siegel and Shuster simply weren’t that subtle or politically motivated. They had a good idea and ran with it.

Also, I think Byrne’s “birthing matrix” has been retconned, and he’s back to arriving on Earth as an infant. Personally, I’ll NEVER forgive Byrne for his obliterating Superboy — that screwed up Legion of Super-Heroes continuity of about 30 years at that point, leading to several reboots and trashing decades of history that I, personally, loved. I still miss a bunch of those characters that I was extremely fond of.

As far as Supes’ political leanings… I agree, it’s not fair to assign political beliefs to those who can’t speak for themselves. In the case of fictional characters, it’s usually a projection of the writer’s beliefs than of the character himself. Similarly, I don’t like it when people claim that dead people would endorse their position — this came up most recently, when folks started arguing Dr. Martin Luther King’s theoretical position on certain issues. In Dr. King’s case, a good argument can be made for both sides, depending on which statements and actions of his you cite — and it was distasteful for both sides.

J.

If anything, Superman is a Moses figure: Orphaned child found by parents who later developed a dual identity (though not at the same time). But the orphaned child is an archetype (like Batman, though with a darker twist).

Skelton is trying to appropriate Americana for Christianity, to show that we are a Christian culture and nation. gak. Ask Pat Roberton or Falwell, and I’m sure they’d say that Superman was a secular humanist who draws his power from himself and not from God.

This speculation is all ridiculous: Superman was a combination of the fantasies of young Siegel and Shuster as well as pulp and movie characters. Slap that many things together, and you’ll get just about any allegorical resemblance you want.

Jerry Siegel: “If you’re interested in what made Superman what it is, here’s one of the keys to what made it universally acceptable. Joe and I had certain inhibitions… which led to wish-fulfillment which we expressed through our interest in science fiction and our comic strip. That’s where the dual-identity concept came from, and Clark Kent’s problems with Lois. I imagine there are a lot of people in this world who are similarly frustrated. Joe and I both felt that way in high school, and he was able to put the feeling into sketches.”

It was about getting the girl.

The main thing about the Christ thing that doesn’t jibe is – do you think for their big break in comics two Jewish kids in 1930s America are going to use Jesus as a template? It’s forcing something into a template that doesn’t fit, no moreso than if I said Superman was a liberal because I could cite tons of “evidence” proving my point when in fact Kal-El is apolitical (though he was against Lex Luthor’s presidential run, and that mfer is clearly Republican).

That was back in the 60’s or 70’s, I think. Long before the current crisis. Also, there was a certain element of “for services rendered,” along with “let’s give him some ties to the US so he will be more reluctant to move away” feelings.

J.

Superman is not an illegal alien. Comics have covered that in a couple of ways: 1) he was granted US citizenship by a special act of Congress; 2) he was adopted by two American citizens, and therefore has citizenship through them.

Siegel and Shuster lifted a lot of things from a lot of places, and others had hands in the Superman story. The Christ-like elements cited from the first movie are a bit heavy-handed, but the parallel fails when you realize that Jesus wasn’t sent from a dying Heaven while God and the rest of the angels all died.

You got at least one thing wrong, though, Oliver. “George and Martha?” “John” and “Mary” became “Jonathan” and “Martha,” which have pretty much been the Kents’ names since. I don’t think his father was ever “Joseph,” but that apparently is Clark’s middle name.

J.

Don’t tell me that he cut to the front of the line! I’m shocked! That’s so unfair!