(upbeat electronic music)
- Superman is one of the most instantly recognizable
characters in fiction, and I doubt there's
many people out there who couldn't tell you
the backstory or the origin of the Man of Steel.
He's very much the original comic book superhero
who fights for truth, justice, and the American way,
but would you believe that wasn't always the case,
and this poses a question:
What is the American way, and why does
Superman vow to fight for it so much?
(tinkling music)
As you can probably tell, I'm not Scott,
instead I'm Owen from Owen Likes Comics,
and I'm filling in today to talk about one of
the most interesting comic book characters,
and in particular, his relationship with
American culture and history, and as you
can probably tell from the intro, today we're
talking about Superman.
And more specifically, what the character can
teach us about what the American way actually is,
and why it's so essential to the Superman character.
Let's start with Clark's heritage,
rocketed away from a dying planet,
Jonathan and Martha Kent find a small infant
child in a crashed ship, and raise it as
their own in a small Kansas farm.
Being a child of both Krypton and Earth,
Superman embraces both his Kryptonian heritage
and human heritage, and welds them together to
create the Superman identity.
Superman is very much a mix of the human
Clark Kent and the Kryptonian Kal-El.
This aspect of Superman's story references the American
ideal of e pluribus unum, meaning one out of many.
This is the idea that commonality as Americans
can supersede any individual differences,
and is actually the motto on the official seal of
the United States.
Now, you could probably argue that the Kents
represent America themselves.
Clark being sent from another culture to be raised in
probably the most American place in America
could also represent how a literal alien can be
welcomed with open arms into the country.
And although the story of America's foundation is
nowhere near as fantastical as Superman's,
the idea is still the same.
Kal-El was sent to a new world with hopes of
opportunities to thrive and succeed,
but Superman doesn't just have one set of parents
in the Kents, his Kryptonian parents also play
a huge role in his life.
Besides the fact that, you know, they're dead.
Specifically, Superman's biological father, Jor-El,
helping to provide guidance to Clark along with
his human father, Jonathan Kent.
This is one of the fundamentals of the Superman
character that has deep roots in Jewish mythology.
Now, this is doubly symbolic when you take into
consideration the time that Superman was first created.
Superman, created in 1938, was published at
a time where Jews, such as Superman's creators,
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were fleeing
Nazi-controlled countries, and one place where
many Jews found solace was America.
Now, this all ties into the idea of Kal-El,
which has very deep roots in Hebrew,
also being changed to Clark Kent,
a very gentile-sounding name.
The Superman mythos in itself has a very strong
relationship with Judaism, which is something
I'm going to talk about in a separate video sometime.
But also the importance of fathers in the Superman
mythos also reminds me of the importance of
the founding fathers in the fundamentals of
the American way.
The ideas and principles established by the founding
fathers are still an important part of national
identity in America today.
They envisioned an enlightened society based
around freedom and rational thought, and this
isn't too dissimilar to Superman, who, despite his
immense power, uses his extraordinary abilities for
good and to better mankind.
And Scott would probably kill me if I didn't mention
that one of the founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton,
was, just like Superman himself, an immigrant.
We get it, Scott. You like Hamilton.
Superman's immigrant status can't be lost on us,
it is an imperative, fundamental part of who he is.
In the simplest terms, Superman represents the
American dream, and while the term wasn't coined by
James Truslow Adams until 1931, the principles
behind this ethos are the same as those set out
during the Declaration of Independence,
when the founding fathers envisioned a society
where everyone was created equal.
And while the American dream has symbolized
different things throughout the history of America,
it always comes back to this idea of freedom.
The American dream is that anyone can come to
the country and work and be an American,
and be given equal opportunities to succeed
through hard work and perseverance.
Professor Benjamin Sanders of the University of
Oregon writes, "Superman changes with remarkable
"rapidity, and yet manages to paradoxically project
"an idea of unchanging virtues."
And this statement also stands true to
the principles of the American dream.
Political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville
stated that "The greatness of America lies not in
"being more enlightened, but rather in her
"ability to repair her faults."
The American dream is at the heart of the
broader American way, which centers around
the ideas of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
and, interestingly enough, is also referred to as
the unalienable rights.
This means that everyone, even Kryptonian superpeople,
are entitled to these rights.
And, as I said at the start, of course,
we know Superman champions truth, justice
and the American way, but it wasn't always like this.
Originally, the Man of Steel only fought for
truth and justice, so when and why did it change?
It was first changed to include the American way in
a 1940s radio serial, although it was largely infrequent,
before becoming commonplace in the Adventures of Superman
series from 1951 to 1957, starring Superman
legend George Reeve.
It's also likely that this phrase was introduced
at this period of time due to the beginning
tensions of the Cold War, as relations between
America and the USSR become tense,
and therefore, Superman was changed to
champion the American way as a symbol of national pride.
But before all of this came the Great Depression,
of which Superman was very much born of.
After the Wall Street crash of 1929,
the failure of the American economy led to
a variety of political and social conditions
that would ultimately aid in creating Superman.
The president during the Wall Street crash was
Herbert Hoover, who stayed in office until 1933,
when the American people voted a landslide
victory for his opponent, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Now, Roosevelt offered a very unique style of
politics, very different from Hoover's,
promising to deliver what he called a new deal.
The new deal was a series of economic policies
introduced by Roosevelt in an attempt to solve
the problems of the Great Depression,
mainly the unemployment crisis, which, in 1932,
was the worst the country had ever suffered through,
as well as the agricultural crisis due to the
dust bowl, which had damaged mass
farming regions in the great plains.
But what's interesting to note is that so-called
New Dealers saw themselves as champions of
the common man, the champions of the oppressed,
and Superman is no different to this.
In fact, in Action Comics #1, Superman is
actually referred to by the narrator as
the champion of the oppressed.
Now, the Superman of the 1930s and 40s is one
far removed from a lot of the modern criticisms
of the character.
The Superman of the 1930s and 40s spent
less time fighting supervillains and more time
dealing with social inequality and social injustice.
For example, in Action Comics #8, Superman destroys
a city's dilapidated slums in order to force
the government to rebuild better housing.
All-Star Superman writer Grant Morrison discussed
this in his book Supergods: Our World in the Age of
Superheroes, stating, "At the beginning,
"Superman was very much a socialist superhero,
"he fought for the unemployed, the oppressed,
"he beat up wifebeaters, it's about a man
"driven by a burning sense of injustice.
"He was conceived as a Depression-era superhero
"who dealt with the problems of ordinary people."
The popularity of Superman, which led to the
creation of the superhero genre and creation of
characters such as Batman, Wonder Woman,
Captain America, during this period of time,
demonstrated how comic books and superheroes
can provide an escapist form of entertainment
from those suffering from the Great Depression.
And what's interesting to note is that both
Siegel and Shuster's families grew up with
these same hardships of the Depression.
It would be these hardships, along with
their love of science fiction and their
Jewish heritage, that would all go together to
creating the Man of Steel, and as a result,
the superhero genre as a whole.
And while Superman's popularity with the modern
audience may not be the same as it was during
the 1930s and 40s, with several critics of
the character saying that he's too good,
or Superman's too unrelatable, you know,
some people believe that Superman isn't a
Man of Tomorrow, he's more of a Man of Yesterday.
But to me, and to many other people who
appreciate Superman, Superman's greatest power
lies in his humility.
Superman's greatest superpower is that,
despite his immense power, he is incredibly humble,
and sees himself as nothing more than a normal
man from Kansas, but let me know down in
the comments, is Superman a representation of
the American dream, and who is his secret identity,
is it the human Clark Kent, the Kryptonian Kal-El,
or is Superman himself an amalgamation of
both of these cultures; let's talk about it all
in the comments section below.
And if you're looking for some more videos
based around comic book culture, NerdSync has
a whole playlist dedicated to just that.
There you can find videos such as,
Was the Creation of Superman Inevitable,
and Do Superheroes Really Need Secret Identities,
and if you enjoyed this, make sure to subscribe to
youtube.com/owenlikescomics, where we believe
knowledge is our superpower, we make
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ideas behind our favorite characters, and what it
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Once again, I'm Owen from Owen Likes Comics,
and until next time, take care,
and keep reading.