Appropriately, the death of Christopher Reeve prompts thoughts on Superman. Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz has written a piece celebrating Superman as the great archetypal American hero: only in the US could an alien, an immigrant, come to represent the finest American ideals:
I think the phenomenon of Superman teaches us that for Americans, our collective identity is about values and ideology, not race, culture or religion. Superman is ultimately an American because he is really Clark Kent, a person raised in Smallville with middle-American values. His origins don’t matter, only his values do. Culturally, we don’t have trouble accepting Superman as a full fledged American because we don’t really have a problem accepting anybody as an American. If you believe in American ideals, you are an American. The fact that you are a space-alien who is given near godlike powers by the rays of the Earth’s yellow sun does not really enter in to it.
Well, whatever, but that’s no excuse for him to be so dull. Facing an enemy, he’ll win because he’s got super-strength, X-ray vision, all the rest of the crap. No contest. In light of all the superpowers, odd chunks of kryptonite lying about the place are a poor excuse for plot tension. At least Batman had a touch of camp comedy about him and Spiderman was kind of weird. The Silver Surfer was just cool.
Reeve was a good choice for the Superman role because he was appropriately uncharismatic. As an actor he was, in a word, dull. The first Superman movie – the only one I’ve seen – was, frankly, rubbish. I could take him being very strong, leaping over buildings at a bound, seeing through walls, laser-vision, all that: I can suspend belief for the length of a film as well as the next person. But then when things go pear-shaped what happens? He flies round the Earth so fast it makes time go backwards and all those nasty things never happened. How pathetic is that as a plot device? How stupid do they think the audience is?
No doubt there are points that can be made about the cultural significance of Superman. In fact you could argue that the moronic simplicity of Superman – bigger and better superpowers as the answer to all problems – has contributed to America’s negative image. But in a society that was producing bebop, rock’n’roll, noir thrillers, classic movies, pulp sci-fi, beat poetry, western swing, bluegrass, and the hula hoop, Superman comes about near the bottom of the list of interesting things to discuss.
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