My nephew Mickey was auditioning for acceptance at the Ateneo years ago and he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. His classmates weren’t as original. They wanted to be doctors, engineers, football players... and Mickey – he wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. The ninja turtle Michaelangelo to be exact. You can’t get any more honest than that... Left on his own, unrehearsed by parents too busy, Mickey probably didn’t believe he was actually ever going to be a ninja turtle but dared to say it his way. It might as well be the shortest route for most of us to get to the point – the point being – yes, I want to be indestructible, I want to help people, I want to be a hero, I want to save the world, I want to use my powers for the greater good, I want to fly! Who wouldn’t want to? After watching the X-Men I asked myself which mutant’s powers I’d choose to be born with – X-ray vision? Magnetism, literally? Osmosis? Mind reading? Speed? Weather control? Or why not have all and be... Superman?
We all need to feel special – apart from the rest of mere mortals. I once wrote that we’ve all had those moments when we were kids – when we thought that swallowing an unusually colored pebble might just turn us into Darna... until we choke on our idiocy. In adolescence our longing for an idol evolves into realistic measurements and the icons become the earthlings Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie (yes, I’m Team Angelina), Manny Pacquiao or Taylor Hicks... until we settle comfortably into being doctors or nurses, businessmen or call center operators, graphic artists or parents... Into adulthood we are besieged with adult situations – problems like your Mom told you would come. Faith comes and goes and we become all too aware of the absence of justice, truth, equanimity and humanity. We turn to a Higher Being. Occasionally we are happily reminded that good still does exist and we can actually hope for deliverance. Watching a Superman movie every five years (although it took a long 14 years for this latest one to come along) is effective mass propaganda for the good guys. Longing to see someone do good and see the bad guys lose at the end of the movie is hopeful for humankind.
This isn’t to presume the answer to the great debate. Man may not necessarily be inherently good. God forbid any one of us actually acquires such powers. You can imagine how it would be so easy succumbing to the temptation that comes with power. But it does seem likely the aspiration of every Superman fan is to be wise amidst options, magnanimous in victory, gentle in spite of strength, restrained in the exercise of power and all encompassing in virtue. This keeps the idea of Superman alive all these decades. That’s a start. I wonder how a villain Superman movie would make it in the box office or, instead of Batman... Badman? Children – and the child in us – are lured to the good or whatever good is indeed possible in men today. You might say Superman does make the idea of a God more reachable and, what do you know – more commercially viable.
Writer David Bruce traces the origins of Superman to the background of its creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who were both Jewish. They created Superman in the late 1930’s when the Jews were being oppressed by the Nazis. It is thought the S on the costume stands for the last names of its creators and their Super Jew is the answer against the historical, real life Lex Luthor, Adolf Hitler. Grossing $80 million worldwide in 1978 the first Superman movie was a blockbuster phenomenon. This season’s version has so far grossed $108 million in the US alone by July 6 and has ranked No. 1 since it opened... What exactly is it that brings together the people of the world, of every race and creed, to rush to movie theaters for the latest on this caped flying Adonis? Bruce quotes philosophy which suggests we all need an ubermensch, "a super man of sorts, to look up to, to help guide us and protect us... Really, even with Mario Puzo, of The Godfather fame, writing this movie in 1978 Bruce says, "Superman simply retells the story of Jesus Christ."
Lois Lane, in this recent version, started to undo herself as she began writing against her Pulitzer Prize winning piece "Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman." The scene trails off to the next just as she was about to start typing her first line. It is unsaid with words but hollers out in action. As others write their own version of Lois’ unfinished antithesis, Superman never fails to save the day and rescues the world from tragedies close to the awareness of the 2006 audience – "head-on disasters, high rises collapsing, people falling out of buildings, space shuttles breaking apart in the sky... with strength representing the red, white and blue of America." Of course, we know better as even the most deprived street child in Third World Metropolis knows about Superman. For the impoverished kids with no chance at better education, the cartoon and movie hero represents hope out of helplessness. To the invisible working man never quite the hotshot in the office Superman represents a greatness good enough known to himself alone. It’s like a "secret" with his won conscience. To the weak and shy geek he represents inner strength and potential confidence. To the global community Superman is the fantasized deus ex machina to the otherwise utterly unresolvable – crime, terrorism, natural calamity.
The Cinderella cartoon I grew up with and fantasized about too many times in my eight-year-old head made me believe that the evil stepsisters of this world would inevitably eat my dust and the prince would eventually choose me even as I sat in a quiet corner. Snow White made me believe that however I am forced away from what was really mine would, in the end, be mine again. Pinnochio, one of my most beloved, made me believe that it pays to wish upon a star and dreams do come true. And, of course, it doesn’t pay to lie. Believe you me – what I keep believing, becomes. I’ve so often gotten worried about the kind of cartoons that come out today only because they seem so different from the characters decades back. Today my nephew Mickey is on his way to college next year and has done extremely well in school, yup – at the Ateneo since that fateful interview. No need for an over analysis on this one. Maybe it doesn’t have to be all to Superman’s credit. But we certainly don’t mind having him around. Looks like there’ll be one remake after another and nobody’s complaining.
(E-mail me at korina_abs@yahoo.com)