The Many Versions of Superman, Part Three: The Fun Adventurer and the Savior

See Part One and Part Two.

Having covered the first three different versions of Superman, we turn to two others:

4) The Fun Adventurer:

While Superman would always be a role model, he couldn't be just a role model. Superman during the 1950s and through the 1960s was probably one of the most consistently fun comic book heroes.

Superman's adventures were weird, they were wacky, and they were fun. Under Mort Weisinger, the series had Superman enjoying numerous wacky and colorful adventures.

Superman had a team of robots who could fill in for him. He had a Super Best Friend in Batman. He had a Fortress of Solitude that makes the Batcave look like a kid's treehouse.

Superman stories of this era have some silly or off moments, but they're something so incredibly fun and joyful. Reading this stories, it's great to be Superman and even greater to be Superman.

Superman was so popular that he not only had stories in Action Comics and Superman, but Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen each had their own spin-off titles, and of course there were the adventures of Superboy.

Some of these stories were weaker. Many, such as the Lois Lane stories could read like sitcom plots as Lois Lane and Lana Lang competed over Superman. There was the time the IRS went after Superman for not paying taxes on various activities but ended up backing off when it was pointed out Superman had saved the world and could claim everyone as a dependent. Yes, it was awesomely silly, but wonderful.

That doesn't mean the stories were totally vacuous. The Silver Age Superman established Metallo and Brainiac as well as introducing Bizarro as a character that adult Superman had to deal with.

Not all 1960s stories were happy, but still fun but with poignancy mixed in. One told the tragic story of how Superman couldn't save Ma and Pa Kent. Another, "Superman's Return to Krypton" had Superman travelling back in time and landing on Krypton and finding himself trapped in its final days but falling in love with a woman who loved him just for him.

Two stories dealt with the Death of Superman: one an imaginary story where he actually died and another where he appeared to be dying and spent his last days trying to find ways to help others on his home world. Even a relatively silly story where Superman got a lion's head, Superman was really upset about it and Lois (whose pursuit of Superman always seemed a little selfish) gave him a very sweet kiss in a touching scene.

Of course, the Silver Age couldn't last forever and Superman moved on. Yet, the sense of fun survived the original Superman Movie, and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and of course the tone was reflected in the 1950s Superman TV show and the 1967 Cartoon show which aired during the Silver Age.

While the 1990s Superman: The Animated Series had some darker themes in it, it still was drawn in a far more brighter fun way than the more dark and serious Batman stories.

This does contradict one of the major points of the Speculative Faith series that inspired this, but I'll save those comments for Part Five.

5) The Savior Figure

Superman as a savior figure is something that's been written about quite extensively. It's true that the character was created by two Jewish young men who certainly didn't have the idea of doing anything based explicitly on Christianity. Still, they saw him who came to Earth as a "savior of the helpless" (Action Comics #8). However, it's safe to say that he wasn't initially anymore of a Christ figure than the Green Hornet who saved people from racketeers and rackets. Superman was seen as a savior, but not really as a Christ figure.

However, Messianic imagery worked its way to Superman, starting with the novel The Adventures of Superman which George Lowther renamed Jor-L to Jor-El with "El" being the Hebrew name for God.

Reverend H. Michael Brewer in his book, Who Needs a Superhero?: Finding Virtue, Vice, and Whats Holy in the Comics writes of the parallels. One of the big ones is, "Superman arrives in this world as Kal-El, who comes from the Heavens sent by his father to a planet in desperate need of his help."

Still, Superman saved us from the same things other superheroes did. Superman had no big plan to save the world, at least not usually, but there were a couple exceptions.

Imaginary stories were a huge features of the Superman Universe. They told stories of what might happen or could happen but it was imaginary because if these stories did "happen" it'd be too big of a gamechanger.

1963 saw the publication of, "The Amazing Story of Superman Red and Superman Blue" which imagined the people of Kandor (Kryptonian survivors who were shrunk and imprisoned in a bottle by Brainiac) giving Superman an ultimatum: You have 30 days to restore us to normal size, eliminate the effects of Kyrptonite, and banish crime from Planet Earth.

And in this imaginary Story Superman accomplished his mission. He did an experiment that created two of him (Superman Red and Superman Blue) and the two of came up with solutions to all these problems, including a scientific solution that eliminated all evil. Luthor and Brainiac became good, the Cold War ended with Castro and the Soviets ending their evil ways, and peace and prosperity prevailed. Superman Blue married Lois and moved to new Krypton while Superman Red married Lana and retired to Earth with Superman robots handling search and rescue missions. The story reflected a modernist belief in science like no other Silver Age tale.

Nine years later in a "real Tale" thanks to brainwashing by the Guaridans of the Galaxy, Superman begins to wonder whether he's hindering human social progress. He begins to think they're right when he encounters migrant workers who refuse to stand up for their rights except when Superman's around. Superman then pledges only to help people with things they can't do themselves.

It was only with Superman: The Movie that the image of Superman as a Christ trope and as a Messianic figure really takes firm root with Jor-El's dialogue on why he's sending Superman to Earth, "They can be a great people Kal-El; they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son."

The other thing that changed was the emphasis on Clark Kent, particularly int the post-Infinite Crisis era of comics and media. Early comics viewed Clark Kent a disguise, a device for Superman to achieve his goals. The radio show said that Superman was "in the guise of mild-mannered Reporter Clark Kent." However, in the modern era, it's different.

In the 1990s TV series, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Clark declares, "Clark is who I am, Superman is what I do." Clark embraces humanity, lives among us, and identifies with us.

Still, Superman would be mostly as an example because they wouldn't kill Superman...Except they did in 1993's Death of Superman event when he battled the malevolent Doomsday, and in killing him died himself.

Brewer writes of the story:

Doomsday was too powerful for an easy victory-he combined death, evil, and judgment into one terrifying figure. In retrospect the stakes were too high for a cheap win. The defeat of this gigantic threat demanded a heavy price.

Superman had taken it upon himself to be humanity's champion, and the one who came from above had to finally lay down his life to fulfill his mission. No lesser effort would have halted the onslaught of evil. No smaller sacrifice would have ransomed those in the path of destruction...

His death brought tears to my own eyes and echoed a much older story, this one true. Behind the slumped figure of the dead Superman, an upright piece of broken lumber juts from the wreckage. The tattered cape of the Man of Steel hangs on the board and flutters in the wind. In my eyes, that heaven-reaching timber casts the shadow of the cross over the scene. Superman is no savior, but his dying to rescue Metropolis points our hearts towards the true Savior who died for the world.

After this event, Christian imagery became more pronounced working its way into Smallville and of course The Man of Steel and has become part of the Superman mythos, a part that does point the way to Christ.

In our next post, we'll turn to to two more modern innovations. Superman as the "anti-Batman" and as a Greek god.