Super Kal El Fragialistic

There are some really interesting ideas and interpretations on the nature of Superman and how to handle him creatively put forth, both in Newsarama's latest interview with Karl and in Newsarama's new interview with Grant Morrison

I know Karl loves Superman. Grant clearly does too. I know a lot of people love Superman (whatever their varying opinions on the current state of the books may be).

Me, I've always just kind of found him dull.

Not in that 'Oh he's too powerful' kind of way, nor in that 'He's such a goody goody' kind of way that most people who appear to agree with me bring up to elaborate. My issue is more that he's just too damn ubiquitous.

Everyone knows Superman.

Everyone knows his story. Everyone knows (most of his) powers. Comic readers or not. I've always been more interested in reading about and discovering characters I don't know.

That's just personal preference though, and in no way conveys any kind of value judgement.

More significantly, he carries the burden borne by every major franchise character -- there's a status quo, and it will never be shaken up. At least not in any meaningful or permanent way. I've always preferred stories where anything can happen, no one is safe, and you never know where things are going to go, because there is no classic template to compare or adhere to.

And Superman, being ostensibly the first superhero, hasn't really been in that place since sometime in the 40's.

Now this may sound like I have a Supes Hate-on. I actually kind of thought I did, but then it occured to me that I've really loved certan instances of the character. Superman in Kingdom Come comes to mind. ...oh wait, there was a whole new status quo to play him off aganst in that. Um... okay Superman: Secret Identity then! ...nah, that won't work either. While it was constructed utilizing a lot of the key Superman puzzle pieces, it wasn't really Superman. It wasn't Kal El from Krypton, and thus it was a whole other life that proceeded to go in those very unexpected ways I mention above.

Still, both projects, particularly visually, really played up the grandeur and iconic nature of the character. Despite the rest, if that element were present month to month, I could see myself maybe running to the store for it. Now that my boy Karl here will be drawing a Superman title, and Frank Quitely, one of the most innovative talents of the last 20 years (IMHO) is drawing another, that's a likelier scenario than ever before.

Karl, in his interview, really struck at the core of why Superman is such a great character to him, and Grant, in his interview put forward some really interesting sounding ideas. Fresh stuff that, in that inimitable Grant way, is also really obvious, but just never thought of until he comes along to breathe life into a tired franchise.

At one point in the interview Matt Brady throws this doozy at Grant:

NRAMA: (...) in your view, is Clark the mask Superman wears, or is Superman Clark’s mask, or are both masks for the alien, Kal-el?

Here, I think, is the kernel of something.

This is something no one (to my knowledge anyway, maybe I just missed because I was too busy spouting anti-Superman rhetoric all the time...) has really hit on before -- that while Batman (and almost any hero with a secret identity, but Batman embodies it flawlessly) is a duality, Superman is actually a trinity.

So just now as I was making noodles it hit me -- a scenario for Superman that could really make me spit up my shreddies. And it rests on this, Superman is really Kal El, the alien. (which was essentially Grants's answer, but then he proceeded to elaborate on other aspects)

So here we have this alien being of great power stranded in his new home. He tries to be Clark Kent to fit in day to day and not terrify people, and he tries to be Superman - the all-American ideal that his foster parents in Kansas taught him to be.

But they're both a struggle to maintain. The very thing that hooks people about Superman, the absolute sincerity (the look in the eye that Karl mentions in his interview) makes it absolutely impossible for him to carry off either of these roles with any ease.

And thus we have tension, conflict, contradiction -- all that good stuff.

One result is that while Clark can show up at the Daily planet, do his job and not make waves, the minute anyone tries to get close (Lois, Jimmy, etc.) the cracks really start to show. His alien nature makes all the deceit and headgames necessary to maintain that role, that false identity, impossible for him. Anyone close to him will find out very quickly just who and what he is.

I guess the ultimate extrapolation of this idea would be the Miracleman-esque situation of those closest to him seeing their own flaws cast into such sharp relief next to him that they can't bear it and freak out and flee, which Alan Moore has already done so beautifully. Although, faced with that very scenario Miracleman chose to doff his Mickey Moran persona altogether. Kal El I think, would keep trying, because he sincerely wants to connect with us. After Lois goes mad or whatever (never understood what he saw in her anyway), he goes on, meeting new people, new women, new friends and tries to learn from his mistakes, play things a bit differently, hoping ultimately to find someone who can handle it. Maybe this means Clark moves around a lot. Why not?

The other result is that while Superman does his thing, stopping trainwrecks and bank robberies, -- what Warren Ellis once called something like "being the ultimate fascist policeman", basically maintaining things as they are, and never looking at the bigger picture; I'm totally paraphrasing from memory here... -- his real nature would feel compelled to get pro-active, and address the problems he's uniquely equipped to tackle, essentially to change the world for the better, because he can.

The ultimate extrapolation of that would probably result in something sort of like The Authority, which I gather was created directly out of the above idea. Unlike The Authority however, who are human (mostly, I think) and thus, fallible; he is the real goods. More than human. The conflict would arise from his farm boy upbringing telling him to keep his head down, know his place, and do what's right. Actually thinking that over for a second maybe it's more of a matter of interpretation. Do what's right, but on what scale? The farm boy looks straight ahead at what's in front of him, while the alien looks at a whole planet.

So looking at both these threads, we have two dynamics that have, admittedly been tackled elsewhere, but not at once, and never with Superman.

Big thoughts. Cold noodles.

Track of the Day: Ovary Stripe - Kasabian

Posted by kalman at December 23, 2004 06:49 PM