Look Up in the Sky
Truth, Justice and the American Way
Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a
locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, heck, ma, this
American icon flies.
On March 14, Karen and I finally had a chance to do
something that we’ve discussed doing for quite some time, watch an American icon
as presented through eight decades of movie and television media.
 For
almost as long as there have been superheroes, Superman has been leaping over
tall buildings in a single bound and fighting for truth, justice, and the
American way. While many of the elements remained the same, different decades
have generated different spins on the Man of Tomorrow.
While these days, Superman is referred to as a boy scout, I
was surprised to see the 1950 Serial has Superman making some very un-boyscout
choices. His method of eliciting information from a captured criminal by tossing
him out of a window and playing catch with him was …not the Superman that I’m
used to seeing.
I was also surprised to see Superman fighting the Nazi’s in
a 1941 cartoon. Although, I shouldn’t have been, everyone needed to chip in.
However, what was more interesting was the predominance of Superman fighting the
Japanese. In one episode, he spends each night damaging Japanese ships, while
spending Clark Kent days incarcerated in a Tokyo hotel room. I’m used to the
image of Superman flying boldly, his primary colors fluttering. As, Lois says in
the 1990s Animated adventures, “Look at that S. I mean look at him. He’s strong.
He flies. He’s a Nitchean Superman all wrapped up in a red cape.” The
representation of Superman as a saboteur conducting a war from the shadows was
unexpected.
 However,
the recurring religious iconography came as no surprise. The 1990s animated
version has Superman first saving a child, who calls him a blue angel with red
wings. I’m told that el is Hebrew for “of god.” This is why the archangels have
names like Uri-el, Rapha-el, Gabri-el, and Micha-el. Red wings/a cape that never
clasps in the front, but always grows out of his suit.
The 1950s T.V. show had Clark’s adoptive mother making the
suit out of the Kryptonian blanket in which he was wrapped. I got the impression
from the 1970s movie that the suit grew organically during his long stay at the
Fortress of Solitude with his father’s talking head hologram, a clear parallel
to the God as beard in the sky idea. The movie presents one of the more
messianic versions of the Superman myth. Kal-el’s star shaped ship, Superman
conferring with his incorporeal father, the constant references to humans
needing a light to follow, Superman’s trick of bringing the dead back to life.
Only closely followed by Smallville, where there is no suit, but in the
first episode young Clark is made weak with kryptonite and crucified in a corn
field.
 However,
more than the story of a demi-god to be, Superman is the myth of the American
immigrant, forced to leave the old world behind, traveling west into the
American heart land. Where wide vistas of open prairie are as expansive as
Manifest Destiny all wrapped up in a 49/40 ribbon. His is the story of that
plucky farm lad who has got what it takes to make it in the big city.
Superman is the ultimate orphan, who reinvents himself
after each move. Kal-el, Clark Kent, Superman. As in the intro to the 1950s t.v.
series, Superman disguises himself as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter
for a major metropolitan newspaper. Heck in the 1950 serial, Clark is forever
fainting, disappearing. The 1970s movie has Clark spending his day playing the
fool. Mysterious Superman, who introduces himself in version after version, as
“a friend” gets invested with all the charisma and charm. It is after all
Superman who constantly gets to scoop up Lois Lane.
Echoing through all those stories of immigrants, who
reinvent themselves American into those wide open plains states and huddling
hulking cities, is the dissociation from the past. That was the old country.
This is the new. Go west young man. Go to the city young Horatio Alger. That was
so ten seconds ago and Superman is the man of tomorrow. However, in later
representations, America’s vast spaces mean nothing. Clark may fly just to visit
his folks. Run fast because it’s fun. Stand in the middle and juggle Clark
and Superman.
Instead of Superman disguised as Clark, it is Clark who
assumes the guise of Superman, who helps out occasionally.
 While,
Kal-el’s birth parents are doomed in version after version, the fate of his
foster parents is much more flexible. In the 1941 cartoon, Clark is raised in an
orphanage. In the 1948 serial, Clark’s parents, tell him that he must fight for
truth, justice and tolerance, and then die before he will go off to become
Superman. In the 1950s t.v. show, Eben Kent must die before the twenty-five year
old Clark will head off for a classic young man in the city montage. In the
1970s movie, it is only after Jonathan dies of a heart attack that Clark
discovers the green glowing crystal that will tell him of his Krytonian father.
I don’t want to make any sweeping generalizations, but it
is intriguing that as the latch key generation reached their twenties,
Superman’s foster parents lived. In 1993’s Lois and Clark, not only are
Clark’s parents alive, but they are clearly actively engaged in his life. The
same is true of the 1990 animated series. With the survival of both Kent
parents, Clark becomes sexy, competent and the women of the Daily Planet are no
longer blind to his line backer good looks. Girls make passes at attractive guys
who wear glasses.
 Also,
the various versions have a recurring fascination with bridges. It makes sense,
like the bridges that he saves, Superman hovers between. The villains threaten
and Superman flies in to try and save the bridge and the people on it. In the
1941 cartoon, a Mad Scientist blows up a suspension bridge with a death ray. The
1950 movie serial made a bridge ripple and snap with synthetic earthquakes. In
the 1950s television show, Superman was apt to make himself a part of the bridge
so the train could roll on by. The 1970s movie wobbled the Golden Gate Bridge in
the Lex Luthor’s artificially generated earthquake. The 2001 Smallville
pilot has one of the more plot significant appearances of a bridge, with Lex
Luthor accidentally driving into Clark and off of a bridge into the river below,
bringing them both to a quick baptism. That bridge is broken and characters
return to it again and again to reinterpret their own natures.
This too has a certain logic, in whatever incarnation,
where there is a Superman, his opposite, Lex Luthor, is sure to be near. Really,
of all the characters, Lex Luthor is the one who transforms the most over the
decades. The 1950s Serial Luthor is a bald pudgy man in a lab coat. With every
episode opening with images of nuclear explosions, it isn’t a far leap to
understand the fears that Luthor represents. But never fear, it seems that
radioactive materials decay, death rays can be reversed and so life in
Metropolis goes on undisturbed. The Luthor of the 1960s cartoons is little more
than annoyance. The 1970s Movie imagines a Lex Luthor who is little more than a
con-man and his genius seems to be more in the realm of trickster.
 By
the 1990s Lois and Clark, he undergoes a radical transformation from
pudgy bald scientist to a sexy self made millionaire with hair. There’s this
very interesting moment at the end of the Lois and Clark pilot, where
Superman hovers outside the window of Luthor’s penthouse office. Luthor offers
Superman the world, in a very Lucifer tempting Jesus in the desert sort of way,
but Supes can already fly. Instead, Superman says, “I’ll be watching and if you
want to know where I am, just look up.” A moment so visually interesting that it
gets repeated at the end of the animated 1990s Superman: Last Son of Krypton.
It seems that it is no longer rogue scientists and gangsters that we need
protection from, but the rampant interests of megalomaniac self made men. Good
thing Superman is also Clark Kent, member of the fifth estate writing watch dog
articles and feel good pieces about old theaters torn down to make way for sleek
new construction.
By the time we get to Smallville, we reach a sense
of what was meant by the 1950s Luthor’s constant mutterings that Superman is his
arch enemy. The hero creates the villain and the villain creates the hero. In
this version, Lex Luther is the son of a self made millionaire. A character that
you know will fall, but you long for him to find some other way. He is young and
bald and lithe sexy, with his father taking on all the characteristics of the
Lex Luthor from Lois and Clark. In this version, Lex Luthor stands at the
window and declares that Clark is his best friend.
 As
to Superman’s other other, Lois fluctuates too. In the Fleishman cartoons, Lois
could fly a play and was queen of the snark. Versus the 1950 serial Lois, only a
decade later, who never drives if there is another person there. They have a
head injury, they still drive. Heck, even Superman drives her car. The uber
competent Lois from the first 1950s t.v. show, tapping Perry White’s coffee pot
to get the lid off morphs into the 1970s Lois from the movies, who, does the
same thing with a soda bottle with predictable results on Clark’s suit in
between striving for a Darwin award. Well, okay, technically all the
incarnations of Lois run heedless into danger, but it’s interesting to note
where the rush is in the performance of her job, which is a dangerous job, but
about helping people, and which versions are Lois being an idiot. The Lois of
Lois and Clark is foremost a reporter and no weakling. The 1940s and the
1990s Lois are incredibly similar. While 1970’s early women’s lib era Lois
rushes headless into danger.
Although, the one who really rushes into danger is Superman
himself. Confident that he cannot be hurt, version after version had Superman
smiling when perhaps he should have taken care. In the 1950 serial, he attends a
boat christening in the face of synthetic kryptonite threats, certain that there
was no danger. In the 1970s movie, he rushes to open that lead box, certain that
he knows what’s inside. However, villains can be tricky and even heroes have
weaknesses. As an American icon, I can’t really think of a more appropriate type
of behavior.
Now, normally, I like to end essays like this on a
returning metaphor. The immigrant on the bridge. The fortunate orphan floating
down the Nile. Instead, I think I'll end with a list of what we watched.
-
1941 & 1942 Fleisher Cartoons
-
1950 Serial – Atomman versus Superman
-
1950 – Television Show
-
1966 – Superpowers Cartoon
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1978 – The Movie
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1993 – Lois and Clark
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1996 – Superman: Last Son of Krypton
-
2001 – Smallville
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