A Date With Superman
Good afterevenmorn, Readers! And also watchers, this case.
It’s been a bit of a rough time for me of late and so, deciding that staying home and moping was not going to help me at all, I took myself out on a date. I went to the movies to watch the newest Superman. I loved the movie, but I’m not here to provide an in-depth review, rather, I’d like to reflect on the core of the character of James Gunn’s Superman and how it was, surprisingly, precisely what my heart needed in this moment.
Let me go pour myself a whiskey and settle in.
Okay. I’m good. Let’s go.
I have never been a Superman fan. I was not aware of the character as a child, and teen me could not have found more disdain for him than I already had. A character with super strength? Who can stop a bullet with his chest? And is faster than a speeding train? Oh, and he’s a goody-two-shoes to boot? He wins every fight. Is dull as dishwater. Gross. Where is the conflict? Where is the angst?! How could he possibly be even remotely interesting as a character?
Look at me, Mum. I’m so edgy.
Don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely adore dark, gritty stories. I love conflicted characters. I adore when characters struggle against their own base natures. Or those who have to turn to terrible acts in order to do what’s right. Or those who have just seen so much f[redacted]kery in their lives that they’re permanently affected; jilted, jaded, cynical, and aggrieved. Give me the hungry, the conflicted, the scared, the miserable, and the struggling.
Feed it right into my veins. I live off it.
And yet… And yet…
Here I am, days after my date-for-one at the movies, still contemplating Superman, having absolutely adored the film.
The character of Superman had not fundamentally changed from my impression of him I had as a young ’un. He’s still the indescribably good Boy Scout character that irritated me so much before. But it feels different this time.
It’s not just that I’ve changed, that I’ve both softened and developed significant hard angles as I’ve aged (I have), but that the world also has changed. Everywhere now seems so much darker, so much more cynical, crueler and harsher than before. Empathy, truth, compassion, and hope have all seemingly been crushed under rampant selfishness, cruelty and rabid, indifferent individualism. Fascism is on the rise. Kindness has been brutally beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Life feels overwhelmingly grim.
There’s no need for dystopian fiction. We’re living it.
Perhaps that’s why the inherent goodness, the hopefulness, of Superman in James Gunn’s version was what made this movie so wonderful. The character is a walking, talking avatar of r/wholesome. He uses phrases like “Golly.” He’s kind. He has compassion. And perhaps, more importantly, he acts on that kindness and compassion; unthinkingly, sometimes. And that is where the conflict happens.
It’s not an internal struggle that makes this story interesting. Superman/Clark Kent is just a wholesome, good dude. A bit of a dork. But with super strength. And acting on that, trying to save lives, and being (perhaps naively) ever-hopeful that goodness will prevail, creates all manner of problems for our protagonist.
And still, he’s good. Even throughout all the adversity and hostility he faces, he remains good. He chooses good. That is no easy task.
In a world that rewards cruelty, anger and outrage (every algorithm ever. Thanks for nothing, social media), choosing kindness can be such a struggle. And in a world that rewards the worst human impulses, going the other way almost always delivers punishment. It now takes remarkable strength and courage to be kind, and (more importantly) to act on that kindness.
Kindness, hope, and compassion, it seems, is now counter-culture. Kindness is punk as f—k. If you’ll pardon my language (I was very tempted to throw in another [redacted] joke, but I feel I’ve definitely overplayed that).
And so I find that, much to my younger self’s horror no doubt, this movie delivered the kind of salve my world-weary heart so desperately needed in this moment; a genuinely lovely, deeply good dork prevailing against a small, envious, entitled, soulless billionaire and his tech-bro devotees.
It was a bright, joyful story that I didn’t know I needed until the end credits began their scroll.
This is no shade to Snyder, and certainly not to Henry Cavill, who did an excellent job with what he was given, but I think James Gunn really understood the assignment. He got Superman.
And now, finally, so do I.
When S.M. Carrière isn’t brutally killing your favorite characters, she spends her time teaching martial arts, live streaming video games, and sometimes painting. In other words, she spends her time teaching others to kill, streaming her digital kills, and sometimes relaxing. Her most recent titles include Daughters of Britain, Skylark and Human. Her next novel The Lioness of Shara Mountain releases early 2026.
I haven’t seen this yet, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it from those I trust.
I’ve always loved Superman; I grew up in the 60’s, and the Silver Age optimism (and, let’s be honest, silliness) that the character exemplified…well, that’s comic books to me. When Frank Miller took the iconic characters of my youth and started making them dark, darker, darkest, I started edging out of the room (despite the man’s undeniable talent).
I loathed the last Superman film, with its cynicism and destruction, and I’m so glad to hear that this one seems to understand what makes the character the greatest superhero of all.
For me, it will always be Superman over Batman. Batman punishes because he couldn’t protect. Superman protects because it’s not in his nature to punish.
Oh, I have a LOT to say about Batman. But neither really captured me when I was younger. I would have chosen Batman over Superman, then, though.
Not now. Now, I think, we need this Superman.
Superman is not a character that needs to be edgy. Batman, for example, can work really good as edgy but Superman does not. I’m more of a Bat fan but that is mostly because of the 90s animated series. I have not seen the current Superman movie but I probably will.
Agreed.
“Welcome to the Light Side. We offer so much more than cookies. And put down that stupid harp– you’re going to need your hands for other things.”
It’s so wonderful that you enjoyed Superman that much! And thank you for being willing to summarize/highlight/rearticulate the central conflict of good characters (the sheer struggle to choose to do right even when the entire world is trying to force the character to do wrong for good ends or easier resolution) as having validity. It’s so very rare someone who prefers grittier characters will give it full credit as a struggle, rather than giving it the verbal equivalent of a headpat and sending it out to the backyard to play; my esteem for you, which was never all that low, has shot up immensely.
I’ve always liked Superman (a surprise to no one) and Superman-like characters the best. If you’d like to hang onto your current Superman glow and so don’t want to read the comics or watch the other movies, but still need some more balm for your soul, may I suggest a few things that might bear reading?
—The Lee Falk, Ray Moore, and Wilson McCoy compiled dailies and Sundays of “The Phantom” that Hermes Press published circa 2010. The Phantom doesn’t have quite the angelic polish that Superman does at his best, but the Phantom always strives to do good (even when he’s at his angriest, he’ll tell an incompetent Scotland Yard inspector that, “There’s a whole roomful of men at [villain]’s place. Get them to a prison hospital at once! They need it!”) and boost the disadvantaged. Since the comics are from the late 1930s up to the middle 1940s, the sociopolitical values are not particularly modern, but neither are they malicious.
—Jane Yolen’s “Wizard’s Hall,” a middle grade book about a wizard’s apprentice off to a school, who always tries to do good, even though he’s not that good at it. It’s a book with a thematic bent toward striving to live up to things beyond your own potential, especially when people around you can’t agree on what your potential is.
—Diane Duane’s “So You Want to be a Wizard,” the starting book of a middle grade-to-YA series that has nothing to do with the book above. It’s a story about characters who strive to do the good thing in spite of bad circumstances, about when self-sacrifice becomes necessary, and about giving the villain a chance at redemption and reconciliation. Keep a box of tissues on hand for a cathartic crying session during the last chapter, and also be prepared for starting up the lawnmower to become a source of giggles for the rest of your life.
—One of the Gospels. Whether you’re inclined or disinclined to believe in the truth of the account, it’s still the ultimate story of a man who strives to do good and right with the entire universe arrayed against him, and the result that a whole bunch of the people who knew him started trying to do right as well. The Book of Luke tends to be comforting to me when the world is being particularly harsh.
—(Look away, J.O’N.) Todd McAulty’s “The Robots of Gotham,” if you haven’t read it, is chock-full of characters that have little bits of Superman in them. Barry Simcoe, Sergei, Mack, Sgt. Vandeveldt (may have that spelling wrong– I listen to this one more than read it), and Zircon Border all end up confronted with right vs. easy choices and usually go for “right.” Plus, Armitage is a good, old-fashioned, Lex Luther-style villain, with minions and everything!
—David Weber’s “On Basilisk Station,” the first of the Honor Harrington series. I wouldn’t recommend following the entire thing while under Superman glow, since Honor loses her way in a lot of things (politics does that to a person), but for at least the first book she’s on the doing-right-even-when-it’s-hard heroic path. It’s a fun sort of space opera that believes that good will eventually win, even if it’s bleak right now.
—Dorothy J. Heydt’s “A Point of Honor,” which is a pre-litRPG-boom novel of immersive virtual reality, where the main characters are playing a game called “Chivalry,” and end up in a self-assigned quest that has both reality and virtuality implications. Though their day-to-day choices are not of the good vs. easy variety, the overarching conflict is, and (bonus) involves author’s rights vs. weaponized fandom. Since the text is out of print, Heydt offers the book for download on her website.
Hoping things get gradually better for you. Keep going on those solo movie dates! They’re good for the soul! (Experience talking.)
Well, that is very kind of you to say.
And thank you for the reading list! I’ll check them out.
There will definitely be many dates-for-one in my future.