I have been complaining for years that cinema keeps getting Superman wrong. He’s either a boring boy scout or a god awful Jesus metaphor who does Dragon Ball Z fights and kills people. It’s no wonder the character’s reputation has fallen to pieces over the years!
Superman isn’t a complicated character. Just make him goofy, nice, and optimistic! It isn’t hard! Just look at ‘Superman and Lois’! That show did a great job of making Clark Kent likable!
More than that, I feel that the true Superman is more needed now than he has been in a long time. Let’s be real: life is real dour right now. Things are scary and depressing, and it’s probably gonna get worse before it gets better. Having a symbol of hope like the Man of Steel may not make those frightening things go away, but it may give us a little extra push in dealing with them.
Yet, despite this, the legendary hero has been missing. The man we’ve gotten has been a gross misinterpretation of him. One that didn’t give hope, but rather removed it.
Then comes along ‘My Adventures With Superman’. A show that, within one episode, gave me back the Superman I had waited for so many years for.
By making him a clumsy himbo with an identity crisis!
One thing a good number of Superman stories get wrong is the identity. Is Clark Kent Superman, or is Superman Clark Kent? Is he a farm boy from Kansas, or the last survivor of Krypton? Just who is the Man of Steel?
‘My Adventures With Superman’ takes that issue and makes it the heart of Clark’s story. He’s trying to figure out who he is. But right out the gate, he knew one thing: that helping others was the most important thing. Is he the farm boy or the alien? It doesn’t matter. What matters is what he does.
Yet both Clark and Superman are amazing! As Clark, he’s an adorable and awkward dork; he’s earnest and honest to a fault, and gets easily flustered by just about everything. As Superman, he’s cool and confident, charming and friendly! For the first time in a long, long while, watching Clark try to hide his identity is actually fun to watch!
There’s a great scene at the end of episode two that really gets me. Superman has just beaten the bad guy, and the street they fought on is a mess. Clark takes one look around, then bam! He zooms around at super speed, cleaning everything up and putting out the fires. He even fixes the cars and signs!
See that, Zack Snyder?! Do you get it yet?!
We even get all the best Superman gags. His mom makes his costume. Clark saves a cat from a tree. “It’s a bird, it’s a plane!” is in here. Yet they’re all done cleverly and lovingly rather than the usual ‘reference old thing because profit.’
But that’s more a point in the show’s favor, less the character. We’ll get to that when the show is actually done.
Regardless of where the show goes, I’m completely sold on its version of Superman. It’s everything I love about the character in all its goofy, colorful glory! Fun and humor, hope and optimism, it’s all here! This is Superman!
And I didn’t even mention Lois! Seriously, these two are so sweet I’ve got cavities! Whoever decided to make her a tan tomboy with short hair deserves a pay raise!
Again: that will have to wait for another day.
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