Despite the pending status of my formal mythology education, one of the more salient features of any myth tradition, to me, seems to be revisability. In order for a culture to make use of a myth, that myth must be able to adapt to the culture's changes over time. In effect, old stories have to be updated. Mind you, I don’t consider this revisability to be a function or defining aspect to mythology; it is more of a superficial component that allows mythologies to function. But more on that later.
Now, if one there is one
that word Microsoft Word does not consider a word that applies to the superhero
genre, revisability (seriously, MCW does not accept revisability as a real
word), I think, is that word. Take for example the recent update to Tony
Stark's origin: though in his 1963 debut the events that led to his capture and
later creating the Iron Man suit occurred in Vietnam, Warren Ellis's Iron
Man: Extremis and the blockbuster film Iron Man place Shell-head's formation
in the Middle East. Revisability.
Not only do superheroes
change over time as they pass from one writer to the next, but every so often
these heroes undergo rather substantive overhauls or alternative
explorations. If I may use some genre vernacular, these overhauls or
alternatives (consider especially Marvel's Ultimate universe and DC's
New 52) usually involve origin stories, the tales that explain both how and
why--the latter usually being the more interesting--a superhero comes to
be.
Many of the recent
superhero films act as re-tellings of our favorite heroes beginnings (or
re-beginnings, if we're discussing the recent reboots of Batman, Spidey, and
the Man of Steel). Of course, this makes perfect sense since the filmmakers are
introducing these characters to a much broader audience than they may have had
on the page or TV; however, these re-tellings also act simultaneously as updates
to these heroes' origins. The simple fact is that we love origin stories—en
medias res has little narratological standing in this realm.
Into this arena enter J.
Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis’ Superman: Earth One, the beautiful, stand-alone 2010 graphic
novel that retold the superman origin.
In
this story, an already mature Clark Kent (I’m just going to assume that if
you’re reading this blog, you know who Mr. Kent is), moves to Metropolis
seeking employment and, more importantly, purpose. Upon informing her that he doesn't know how long he’ll be staying or what he will do, Clark’s new landlady
tells him, “Well, you gotta decide what you want to do with your life, other
people can’t do it for you.”
By
now, Clark’s adoptive father Jonathan Kent has already passed away, leaving
Clark to care for his adoptive mother Martha, so Clark seeks only the best,
most top-paying jobs in the city. He almost instantly wins a contract to play
for the Metropolis football team and later scores an R&D gig at a
Metropolis think-tank after offering them a key equation necessary to obtain
electricity from salt-water, among other jobs. He tells Martha that he can make
enough money to set her up for several life-times, but she instructs him to
follow his own dream.
“Besides,” she adds as Clark looks in his
closet at a blue shirt with the corner of a yellow and red crest showing, “If
we make this about what I want, well—I want the same thing Jonathan wanted.”
This
sentiment is repeated throughout the narrative as Clark struggles to find a
career meritorious of his devotion while attempting to reconcile his desire to be happy
and comfortable with his need to help people. He is trying to justify not
doing…something. Later, when Clark visit’s Jonathan Kent’s grave, he says that
he knows what his parents want him to be, but he just can’t do it. Whereas he
once struggled to fit in, he says, he knows now how to hide his abilities. He
can have relationships and make money (for the sake of supporting his mother,
of course) and be happy.
“If
I expose myself to the world,” he says, “if I show them what I can do…I’ll
never fit in. . . . I’ll be all alone. Worse still, I’ll have made the choice
to be alone. I couldn't make that choice before, but I can now. And I choose to
be happy…to have a life. And isn't that what you wanted most? For me to be
happy?”
But he knows his father expected more, and he
assures his father’s grave that he can still help people within the confines of
a normal life. “I can find cures…expose corruption…give the average guy a leg
up when the world wants to crush him. . . . I won’t disappoint you, dad. I
swear it.” Of course he says this while hovering next to the tombstone,
obviously with the potential for far more than normalcy.
However, though Clark would prefer to help the world
as a member of the world, events soon unfold that force the young Kryptonian to
embrace both his identity and a purpose. After his alien (yes, the
extraterrestrial variety) ships take strategic positions across the globe Independence Day style, the mother-ship conveniently
parked directly over Metropolis, a white-faced villain named Tyrell (perhaps a Shakespearian
connection?) announces that his forces have come to earth seeking a certain
surviving Kryptonian.
“If he is here, I will continue the attack until he
is provoked into revealing himself. If it turns out he is not here, then I’ll
leave your world and try elsewhere. But only after several million of you are
dead, so that I will know that I have done everything possible to provoke a
response. . . . To my target, if you are listening, those are the terms. Reveal
yourself and surrender, or watch your world die around you.”
Sound familiar? Check out this trailer for the Man of Steel film.
Ultimately, Clark’s choice is stripped away. Either he
reveals himself, risking death, or he allows millions of the people he vowed to
somehow help perish because of him. Gone
is the possibility of him fitting into the world in which he lives without
feeling tremendous guilt.
“I hope you can manage your own way without
revealing yourself Clark,” Jonathan Kent says in a flashback, “But you there
are things you can do that nobody else can. Important things. Things that can
mean the difference between life and death for a whole lot of people. I came up
believing that sometimes we all have to serve something bigger than ourselves.
We don’t want to do it, we’d give anything not to have to do it…but we square
our shoulders and we get it done.”
But with the extinction of one choice, another takes
its place. Clark Kent must act, but how? Does he simply surrender himself? Does
he try to fight without being seen? Or does he embrace the superhero persona his
parents envisioned? To, as Tyrell says when he finds Clark at last, “stand
revealed in all our power.”
Of course, after another brief flashback
explaining how and why Martha Kent created the suit, Clark Kent becomes the
iconic Superman and launches his assault of earth’s attackers.
“When we say ‘I won’t take this anymore,’” Clark,
while trapped beneath Tyrell’s ship, recalls his father saying, “that’s when we
know who we are and what we’ll tolerate. Until we’re tested, we don’t know
those things. That’s when we wake up. That’s when people know who we are. That’s
when people show up and take your side.”
And thus a hero is born. After some clever maneuvers,
several hurricanes’ worth of damage to the city, and much exposition from
Tyrell about the destruction of Krypton, Superman finally defeats his enemy. The
earth is safe, for now, and Clark, after witnessing the heroism of a couple
Daily planet journalists, now knows exactly what career he wants to pursue as
the boy from Smallville, Kansas. He finds the job fairly easy to land since he gave
himself the only exclusive interview with earth’s newest champion.
The ultimate theme of this story, I think, is
identity. While accompanied by some very clever explorations of Krypton and a
great subplot about journalism, the entire narrative hinges on Clark’s discovering,
accepting, and embracing who he is and who he can be. It’s about embracing one’s
differences, and it very much has a “with great power comes great
responsibility,” tone to it, which makes complete sense considering Straczynski
wrote Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man from
2001 to 2007.
As a college senior still unsure of what I want to
do after graduation, this narrative certainly resonated with me. How does one balance
the desire to follow a calling or, forgive the cliché, make the world a better
place with the need to live happily with a house, a family, and Saturday barbecues
Clark has accepted his identity as a superhero and a journalist, but I think
this is a question that will be further explored in following volumes of this
can’t-miss series. Just because a decision has been reached doesn't mean that
decision can’t be doubted.
Perhaps this combination of the superhero with
real-life struggles is another part of what may allow to superheroes into the
hall of mythology. Joseph Campbell says, “When a person becomes a model for
people’s lives, he has moved into the sphere of being mythologized” (15). One
could make the argument that since Clark’s struggles with identity and purpose mirror
so many of our own, his story could identify as a “model” for reference. But,
again, more on this later.
What I would like draw special attention to is how
this recent revision of the Superman origin story relates to the original 1938
comic by the character’s creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster. While this new
story strays considerably from the original vision, it may surprise some that
it also brings the character back to his roots.
First, I posit to you that the entirety of Superman: Earth One, and every other
Superman origin story for that matter, is simply an elaboration of the first
Superman comic page found in Action Comics #1. In a single page, the authors
breakdown the character's essentials: saved from his planet’s destruction by
being launched to earth where his advanced “physical structure” would allow him
heightened strength, speed, and invulnerability, Clark Kent became Superman and
dedicated his life and powers to helping those in need. Because some editors at
DC Comics thought the story may be TOO fantastical to catch on, the authors
included a lovely “Scientific Explanation of Clark Kent’s Amazing Strength,”
which consisted simply of ants lifting more than their own weight and a cricket
leaping a relatively massive distance.
Superman’s mission statement, however, is what
interests us now: “Early, Clark decided he must turn his titanic strength into
channels that would benefit mankind. And so was created SUPERMAN! Champion of
the oppressed, the physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existence to
those in need.” Indeed, Earth One, is
simply a story about how and why Clark came to dedicating his life to helping
the helpless. One could say that, concerning this topic at least, Earth One is more elaboration than
revision.
Now, while this story may be an elaboration of
Superman’s origin, Earth One still
takes the character places the 1938 character would never know, but, oddly
enough, it also brings the character back to his original form with one subtle
distinction.
If I were to ask fans of the character what Superman
fights for, most would respond with three simple nouns: truth, justice, and the
American way. However, these words were not associated with the Superman of the
late 1930’s. That character fought solely for the downtrodden. Remember, this
time in American history was characterized by economic depression and rumors of
war, so their hero represented the people’s will to cure the social ills that
plagued them daily: corruption, corporate greed, robbery, abuse, and so on.
“[T]he 1930’s Superman’s purpose was to fight
against problems and help average people,” says historian Jeffery K. Johnston
in Super-History: Comic Book Superheroes
and American Society. “Look at the first story’s villains: a sheltered and
misguided state official, a domestic abuser, several smart-mouthed mobsters, a
lobbyist, and a corrupt federal politician. These are hardly the
world-conquering madmen that would later be comic book staples, but that is
Siegal and Shuster’s intention” (15-16).
Of course, in order to do this, Superman had to work
outside the law, outside the system that had thus far failed those to whom he
now devoted himself. He represented the voice of the people, not the
establishment.
The Superman of Earth
One shares a similar sentiment. Nowhere in the novel does Clark mention
fighting for the American way. What he does seek, however, is truth, and he is not alone in that pursuit. When Tyrell attacks Metropolis,
only Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane and photo journalist Jimmy Olsen run
towards the action.
When Tyrell, wondering if such courage could mean he
had discovered at long last his missing Kryptonian, Jimmy replies, “No—we stay
and we die for the truth. Because that’s the only thing worth dying for.”
Unconvinced, Tyrell moves to smash Olsen, but Clark crushes the robot just in
time. “That’s the other reason you stay,” Olsen says to himself. “Because the
truth kicks serious ass.” Later, it’s his desire for truth that leads Clark to
settle on being a journalist for the Daily Planet.
In the interview between Clark and Superman included
at the end of the novel, Clark declares that while he loves his home country,
he does not belong to it. “I was raised in this country. I believe in this
country. Does it have its flaws? Yes. Does it have its moments of greatness?
Yes. . . . But if I do what I do just for the U.S., it’s going to destabilize the
whole world. It could even lead to war. So I’m here to do what I can, whether
that’s in the U.S. or elsewhere. But I can never get involved with politics or
policy. . . . [I]f I start down that road, then I can’t serve humanity as a
whole, which is what I feel I’m here to do.”
Of course, though combating Tyrell and his alien
invasion force is a far cry away from correcting corrupt officials and thugs, this
Superman’s adherence to objectivity and truth ties him back to his 1938
ancestor. While it could be said that “the American way” does not necessarily
mean American interests, but rather the ideals upon which this nation was
founded, even that is too narrow a scope for the Man of Steel who simply
desires to help all people in need for any reason.
Well that’s all I have for today. Check out Superman: Earth One, don’t forget to go
see the new Man of Steel film
releasing tonight, and check back soon for more superhero stuff—I’ll be doing a
similar analysis of Geoff John’s Batman:
Earth One.
References
Campbell, Joseph, and Bill D. Moyers. The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday, 1988. Print.
Johnson, Jeffrey K. Super-History: Comic Book Superheroes and American Society, 1938 to the Present. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. Print.
Straczynski, J. Micheal. Superman: Earth One. New York: DC Comics, 2010. Print.
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