The presentation of a grounded ethic surrounding the archetypes represented in the Superman epic is what matters most. Superman represents the power of charity, and as pointed out in Mark Waide’s “Superman: Birthright,” the power of hope. Superman's strength finds it’s power in its active expressions, and equally in it’s active suppressions. Most critically, when power learns to control itself, it focuses into a dynamic strength, and Superman embodies this ideal in our shared popular culture.
Like Hercules, or Odysseus, major characters like this hold within them the best of humanity; what we as a culture and a people most like seeing reflected back about ourselves—specifically, our strength and the propensity for good. Recognized overtly or not, this foundation is what makes these characters so important to us. They are vessels for what we hold most dear about ourselves, or at least what we’d like to believe about ourselves.
Nietzsche, the proverbial father of the übermensch says it best in his title, “Human all-too-human.” Superman is so beyond the ranges of our species abilities, and yet participates with us in the challenges of becoming and how to adapt continually to who we are, where we are, what we are capable of, and what we are actually delivering to humanity. The repeated and authentic expression of the answers to these questions, grounded in a focused charity and hope, is the ideal Superman triangulates us against.
Humans need to know that at our core we are good. As children we’re as prone to fits as to affection; learning to be malicious comes much later, while our ability for charity must be constantly nourished, and hope is a daily exercise. We must know that we fight powers we wield against ourselves. Superman reflects our struggle, and we’ve always eaten our values embedded in our entertainment.
We instinctively recognize the importance these values are for our humanity and take this part of ourselves pretty seriously—for losing it would be losing the most differentiating parts of ourselves; Superman reminds us why that matters, why power without charity and hope is just cruelty that hides behind good intentions. This communicating of values is an important function of mythos, and why these stories find a home in our hearts after being reintroduced constantly. It’s been happening since the paintings on cave walls and probably before that.
At a time when the scale of our footfalls thunder down more than ever before, we need to remember how to fly again.
PS. The movie is even better the second time.
