Faith and Comics

I’ve been thinking about Superman a lot lately. That’s partly because of the movie but mostly because Glen Weldon has been talking about Superman a lot lately. (The frequency, in turn, is partly because of the movie but mostly because he [Weldon] has a new book out about him [Superman]).

In fact, I’m writing this post in the basement of Politics & Prose shortly after I saw Glen Weldon talk about that book here. (That’s me in gray in the second row on the right. This is me watching. With my mouth hanging open. Awesome.)

During the talk, or at least on some podcast or other, Weldon said roughly this: “these characters have to get their hooks into you when you’re young.”

His book has helped me remember that Superman did, into me. And it’s reminded me of a couple other things as well.

Sure, I owned the Death of Superman trade paperback and Superman #75, the final single issue in that story arc. My uncle had sent them along with the usual shipment of baseball cards from his newsstand/cigar shop/convenience store. I had no idea how to read them.

But that wasn’t my first introduction to the character. No, I learned about Superman the same way I learned about Marshmallow Fluff, a half-dozen Roger Miller songs, and “Along Came Jones“: from my dad’s encyclopedic but less-than-tuneful memory for 1950s jingles, TV themes, and pop songs.

OK, so this isn’t exactly a theme song. But printed on my brain from a young age through force of repetition, maybe next to all six verses of “You Can’t Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd,” are these hallowed words:

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! (“Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman!”) … Yes, it’s Superman … strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman … who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way! And now, another exciting episode, in The Adventures of Superman! (You can watch the sequence here.)

I first learned about Superman by hearing my dad recite that little Superblurb. A lot. And then by watching, with him, the show it introduced. It was probably on Nick at Nite after Get Smart or Mary Tyler Moore or something.

That’s the Superman who got his hooks into me, he of the organized-crime fighting, the hilarious suit, and—my dad remembered this scene excitedly the first time we watched it together—the breast-pocket-silver-dollar-as-explanation-for-gunshot-survival(-as-Clark).

I remember The Adventures of Superman as kinda like Dragnet with a super-powered Joe Friday who was every bit as square. That’s a far cry from the new movie, to be sure. But he does the two things Weldon claims the Man of Steel always has to do in order to ring true as Superman: “he puts other people’s needs before his own, and he never gives up.”

Of all the Big Blue Boy Scout I’ve read and watched lately, I recognized that Superman most clearly in Superman for All Seasons. What I appreciated so much about that book is the way it showed how these traits came to take root in Clark Kent—how he was formed for this kind of life of giving. He got it, of course, from his parents.

In one scene in the final volume, Clark has skipped Metropolis after being outsmarted by Luthor. He’s at home, with his dog, moping in bed. And Pa says this, in two balloons that boil down what might be the most important piece of wisdom anyone can learn from a parent:

“It’s not nearly as hard learning you have limitations … as it is learning how to work with them.”

Too true.

I can’t recall if I ever thought of my dad as Superman. Probably when I was very young, but it certainly didn’t last. That’s a good thing—for all of us sons and daughters.

I’m no Superman either, but I can relate to a guy with a dad like Clark’s. I can relate to a guy who learned not to give up because he received some timely love and good advice the first time he was tempted to.

So I’m grateful today for Pa Kent and especially for Pa Oliver. I’m grateful for Adventures of Superman and for stories from other seasons. And if I have daughters or sons some day, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to read them Superman for All Seasons. Gotta get those hooks in early.

Image from Superman for All Seasons, issue 1, page 37.