Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster, children of Jewish immigrants who had fled Europe, published the first Superman comic in 1938.
In an interview with Den of Geek, Siegel said: “What led me into creating Superman in the early ’30s? Hearing and reading of the oppression and slaughter of helpless, oppressed Jews in Nazi Germany… seeing movies depicting the horrors of privation suffered by the downtrodden. I had the great urge to help the downtrodden masses, somehow. How could I help them when I could barely help myself? Superman was the answer.”
We went to see Superman (2025) mid-day Friday. It was action-packed, funny, romantic, very earnest and scary. It fulfills every bit of that goal of empathy and kindness towards others. That’s always been Superman’s story.
It is hard to overstate how TIMELY this movie is on anti-immigration … Gunn had a crystal ball. Masked arrests, too. Third party prisons. .
I bought tickets to the opening because of the right wing rants. It’s obvious why they hate it: Lex Luther loses and the immigrant wins. Just like every Superman story before this one. Bonus: no one claims Lois Lane got her job due to DEI
Turns out the Nazis didn’t like Superman, either. FOX et al are treading old ground.
“On April 24, 1940, the United Press ran a story that was syndicated in newspapers across the country: ‘Superman’ Poisoning American Children, Irate Nazis Claim,’ was the headline that accompanied the report in the Springfield Leader and Press.” Germany had invaded Poland in 1939.
After WWII, Superman took on the KKK.
It’s not just Superman. It’s the superhero genre. From The Guardian:
“In fact, superheroes (and more recently superhero movies) have always been the genre equivalent of a protest sign in a wind tunnel: loud, colourful, occasionally hard to read, but very much trying to say something. Captain America was literally invented to punch Nazis – the first issue of Timely Comics’ Captain America Comics #1 famously featured him socking Hitler in the jaw – months before the US officially entered the second world war. If that’s not performative virtue signalling, I’m not sure what is …
“As superheroes transitioned to the big screen from the late 1970s onwards, the original Superman movie emerged in 1978 amid the post-Watergate, all-American desire for a hero who didn’t lie, cheat, embezzle, wiretap, bomb Cambodia, or resign in disgrace with jowls full of self-pity and a suitcase full of un-shredded indictments.”
Go! Go this weekend so it meets its goals and delivers a middle finger to the naysayers.
About that sprinkling of humor: there’s a dog!
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com