Superman & Lois The Final Season

I love this show. It has consistently done a great job taking from the best of Superman adaptations that have come before and making something new. Bitsie and Tyler are such a great Lois and Clark. I truly think it’s ending too soon. At 53 episodes it is shorter than the four seasons of Superboy which got 100 episodes! I know television is very different now and I never expected a ten year 200+ Smallville-style run. Last year when it was up in the air on if we’d even get a final season Tyler was the Superman Celebration. He told the audience that he was growing his beard until he heard if they were renewed. He called it his “pickup beard”.

With the introduction of Doomsday last year it was clear we’d be doing a Death of Superman. Clearly this era of Superman was hugely influential on the creators of the show. We have Steel, got a Superboy with a leather jacket, and there was even the Eradicator (although not the same) in season one. Ten episodes gives them the opportunity to do it way better than either animated adaptation and definitely better than the DCEU.

With all that said the focus on Superman’s heart in the first two episodes was weird. It felt like it delayed them dealing with his death. Maybe it is too much of a sci-fi plot point and took away from the emotion. Lana’s realization that Superman was dead felt so removed from his actual death that it didn’t land for me.

I’m already surprised they’ve kept Clark gone as long as they have. Smallville never went 3 episodes with a powerless Clark so I figured that would be the max here too. I am pumped for where this season could go and I trust this creative team to stick the landing.

October 14, 2024

My Adventures with Superman Issue 5

Just have time for a quick recap this week. This issue was heavy on the action and it really let series artist Pablo Collar shine. It both feels like it’s in the universe of the cartoon, but also lets their own style be shown. Different than some of the Superman Adventures books that stuck very close to the model of the show.

I think with two seasons and this comic being so focused on Kryptonian tech I hope season three can stretch out into new things. More Luthor perhaps? I also hope that we get another comic because I’ve really enjoyed these!

Final note: it feels so good to see that DC Bullet in the corner box. I hope this heralds a new age of DC!

Next week I’ll delve into the return of Superman & Lois for it’s final season!

October 9, 2024 MAWS

Superman and the Right-Wing

Back in 2012, the news reported on Republican Paul Ryan’s love for the music of Rage Against the Machine. It seemed completely upside down for this right wing politician to love an unapologetic left-wing band. But what I learned is “the medium is the message”“. In this case, the medium of aggressive hard rock is all Ryan needed to enjoy the music. That was the message for him. The band’s left-wing lyrics just went over his head. The medium is the message.

This phrase had some new relevance to me over the summer at the yearly Superman Celebration. Among the vendors set up along Market Street was a Trump 2024 booth. This was my first visit to Metropolis in an election year (I started visiting in 2018 and 2020 was 2020). How could anyone think that Trump upholds the Superman values being celebrated that weekend? Then there was a comment (on the cesspool that is Facebook) on a post by Superman writer Elliot S! Maggin. He posted support for Kamala Harris, and a Superman fan that I know and have interacted with was critical of it.

Kieron Gillen is one of my favorite comic writers. Although he hasn’t written Superman or for DC he has written a lot of Marvel superhero books along with several creator owned titles. In an essay accompanying the latest issue of his creator owned series The Power Fantasy, Kieron talks about the appeal of superheroes to fascists. Quoting liberally:

One classic critique of superhero comics is to dismiss them as simple power fantasies, and say they’re at least borderline fascist in their Might Makes Right tendency. That normally prompts defences describing all the other many things they can do - the living metaphors, the moral play, the soap opera, the poetry, and a whole lot more. They’re good defences.

But as I looked at chat around the big-two comics, I wondered whether we were just deluded.

There is so much conversation around power levels. Issues are picked over for more “feats” (characters showing their abilities at ever greater levels). The demands to make more characters “Omegas” (X-Men terminology for the apex mutants whose power can’t be transcended). I was especially unnerved when I saw people say the most powerful characters should be the leaders. There’s a word for that.

What better example of this than Superman? The strongest of all superheroes. The medium is the message. It’s not difficult to find pictures of Trump as Superman. He’s posted them himself. In the right-wing narrative, he is the strong man, and only his strength can save America.

I’d like to make an aside to talk about my Superman knowledge. I am a Superman expert. I would put my knowledge of Superman up against anyone’s, including Mark Waid. One of my favorite things to do at the aforementioned Superman Celebration is to participate in Superman Jeopardy and I’m frequently a champion. When the Krypton television show debuted there was a tie in trivia contest and I was the winner the first night and in the top five on the third night. My Superman knowledge is, quite literally, award winning. There can be no argument saying that I do not know what I’m talking about.

Gatekeeping is a large part of toxic fandom. I don’t want to gatekeep Superman from anyone. I think Superman is for everyone. Telling someone that they don’t really understand a character or saying “that’s not the real Superman” is not what I’m trying to do here. People are always going to bring their interpretations and ideas to fictional characters. This character has very clear and important political ideologies that informed his creation and ongoing narrative. To miss those is to miss the main intent and meaning of the character. It’s like being a right-wing politician and liking Rage Against the Machine.

Superman was created in the mid 1930s, during The Great Depression. At the time Roosevelt’s New Deal was a leftist, progressive series of programs and financial reforms designed to get the country out of the Depression. Superman was born from these leftist ideas.

Created by two young Jewish men, sons of immigrants. It’s an immigrant story. Sharply opposed to the rhetoric on immigration right now. Just look at the untrue, anti-immigrant bile being spewed out about Ohio—the very place of Superman’s creation.

Superman laughed at the right-wing “strong man” leaders at the time as the clowns they truly are. Dangerous clowns, but clowns nonetheless. Similar to how the American right today are mocked as weird. These modern clowns who love those same kinds of “strong men” like Orbán. Hitler and Mussolini were frequently ridiculed in the pages of Superman comics. Not just because we were at war, but because of the horrible hateful ideologies they represented

Superman was described as Champion of the Oppressed. When I wrote about the First Five Years I noted that Siegel looked at parts of society he felt were corrupt and imagined a way to fix those problems. Notably the problems he saw were business men, the car industry, crooked lobbyists, slum lords, guns. He took action to protect the weak. He didn’t use his abilities for personal gain, he used them for the betterment of society. He stopped unfair executions, wife beaters, and lobbyists all in his first appearance!

These are leftist ideals. Protecting the weak. Working together for the benefit of society. They aren’t individualistic pull yourself up by your bootstraps ideals that the right claims to espouse. He’s a journalist! His day job is something the right has taken to call “the enemy of the people.”

Frank Wilhoit (another Ohio native) writes “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.” This can be seen in everything the right does. Whether it’s trans people, immigrants, any religious or ethnic minority, even women there is always an out-group. Superman stands against that. There is no out-group for Superman. He protects all. People for him are not to be stepped over, but lifted up. Even the villains are protected and given the chance.

Through the 50s up through the 80s Superman with his good looks and great power was often seen as the ultimate in conformity. The “man” that kept you down. He was the tool of the state. The medium was the message. But a reading of the text shows that he was not that. He did not believe that might makes right. He used what he had for the betterment of all, not himself or a certain group. Truth, Justice, and the American Way was an important part of Superman at the time. But what is the American Way?

Fandom recently created a Podcast series titled Superman vs. the KKK. The podcast details the fictional character of Superman and how he fought the very real KKK. The podcast explores who decides what the American Way is. Is it the right-wing hate group the KKK, or is it the leftist values from the New Deal Superman? Episode two entitled “Your Money for Your Hate” details the ways the KKK grew influence in American society at the time. Ways that sound shockingly similar to how the modern Republican party operates to this day. There can be no debate on this; the KKK is a right-wing organization. It may seem more extreme and further right than mainstream conservatism, but it’s only because they say the quiet parts out loud. At the end Superman had a real effect on the KKK; exposing them as the evil clowns they are.

In the 1970s there was a major fight for Siegel and Shuster to get recognition again and to support them financially for creating Superman. This pro-labor movement is leftist!

In the 1980s DC reimagined Lex Luthor. Who was the perfect villain for that time? Well Donald J. Trump, business man of course. It’s not a mistake that the cover for The Unauthorized Biography of Lex Luthor is modled after Art of the Deal. Unchecked corporate capitalism is the villain. Who was oppressing the people?

I’ll end today on Dean Cain. Cain has notably taken a turn to the right. He may be the perfect example of the medium is the message. He understands the strong man/might makes right of it all, but doesn’t get the message of what the character portrays. If only he watched his own show—Super Mann would be a great episode for him to start with.

October 1, 2024

The Christopher Reeve Story

Saturday was Batman Day and I thought the best way to celebrate was to catch a screening of the highly anticipated documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story at my local cinema.

I have to agree with the Rotten Tomatoes score and the consensus of Superman centric social media. This movie was excellent. It was a moving portrayal of an actor that we’ve all come to know as Superman. It wasn’t just Superman and his accident. The movie showcased his friendships, his family, and his whole career. It showed his courageous activism and his failures. I cannot recommend this film enough. Not just for Superman fans or people who love those movies. This is a documentary with something for everyone. I was moved to tears many many times.

I really liked Always Hold onto Smallville’s special episode about it and the preview of it from the Countdown to Superman podcast.

The movie has one more day in US theaters with Fathom Events so there is still a chance to check it out. For Christopher Reeve’s birthday! And of course it will likely be streaming on Max in the near future.

September 24, 2024

Filmation Adventures of Superboy

The Digging for Kryptonite podcast recently did an episode on the 1966 Superboy cartoons by Filmation. I have previously written about how these episodes are “lost”; in that they aren’t available for legal viewing anywhere. There was a VHS of some episodes in the 80s, but no DVD release, and no digital or streaming releases. Because of this lack of availability I haven’t watched any of these episodes. I thought that I would listen to the episode anyway since there really aren’t any spoilers to worry about. But once guest Daniel Sanchez started talking about how formative this cartoon was to his fandom I knew I had made a mistake. I immediately turned off the episode to wait until I could watch these cartoons.

Now I know it seems silly to recommend a podcast episode that I purposefully didn’t listen to, but the pure love that Daniel has for this cartoon is palpable in the first few minutes. I can’t wait to revisit when I’ve had the chance to (somehow) watch this show. Check it out!

Next: Super/Man.

September 16, 2024

My Adventures with Superman issue 4

Last week we got the latest issue of the My Adventures with Superman comic. This was my favorite issue of the series so far. Maybe it’s my love of Christmas!

I’m stealing this screenshot from Comic Box Commentary since it shows one of my favorite moments!

While our gang prepares for Christmas tensions between Bloodsport and Deathstroke boil over to a fight. We get some heavily anime inspired Bloodsport action here which I loved. As Task Force X and Checkmate brawl, Superman and Amazo enter the fray.

Amazo ends up saving Slade Wilson learning from big blue. Superman and Amazo fighting Bloodsport and Deathstroke ending with the apparent destruction of Amazon? Plus is Amazo Kryptonian? It’s been hinted at. Guess we’ll see next month!

September 9, 2024 MAWS