Comments on: Superconfessional

By: The Great Whatsit » Aliens I have known and loved

The Great Whatsit » Aliens I have known and loved — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:20:50 +0000

[...] Or maybe it was my love for little Kal-El in his spaceship, sent off from Krypton to save his life. [...]

By: PB

PB — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 01:47:24 +0000

When I saw the trailer months ago I thought: Bryan is going to write a great post about this and wow, superman is way cute. Your post was worth the anticipation, the movie only OK (although the actor IS really cute).

Although tattoo-less, I am also a huge Superman fan and have been since childhood. For me it is always the paradox and dichotomies–being from Krypton gives him the gravity edge gifts, but being from Kryton also makes him suceptible to the meteors. He is neither truly alien nor truly human. He is hidden and yet always potentially there. In love yet untouchable. As good as the villian is evil, etc., etc.

I love your identification first with the strength, then with sexuality and ultimately with the complexity of adult life. In the end that is lure, the simplicity of magic abilities that save us in a jam. Tha dark message of comic books is that there is always a cost.

great post, Bryan.

By: James

James — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 04:51:38 +0000

Nice post, Bryan. Interesting synchronicity – I’m going to be having dinner next week with some of the writers and artists we idolized, and first saw at the San Diego Comicon twenty years ago next week.

And I agree with you on Superman’s influence on the development of one’s gender identity; I didn’t get the ink done, but I wear a Superman ring as a wedding band. Which makes an intersting statement of its own, I suppose…

By: Tim Wager

Tim Wager — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 19:02:41 +0000

Hey Bryan,

Great post! Also, I’m crying at how too good a line this is.

> She didn’t really love that guy she made it with, now did she?

By: Lisa Parrish

Lisa Parrish — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:55:13 +0000

From today’s FT, a letter offering a new perspective on Superman:

Sir, It dawned on me during the opening scenes of the new Superman movie that Superman, the arch-typical American hero, is the ultimate undocumented illegal alien.

Think about it. He arrives in the US in a unregistered aircraft. He crosses the border and enters the US without any documentation, visa or passport. It is also likely that his adoptive parents, the Kents, falsified information for a birth certificate leading to his illegal acquisition of a US Social Security number and card.

Publicly exposed, and in spite of all his good works fighting crime, Superman would not be able to get a legal green card, and would be expelled to his country (or in this case planet) of origin. Sure, Congress could pass a special law legalising Superman’s status. But what would be the precedent? Good works? Crime fighting? Economic benefits created by the Superman movie franchise?

It’s a dilemma. The timing of the movie is perfect. It comes during the US great debate on immigration policy. How many other illegal aliens are there out there whose work and lives in the US have been such as to merit a legal path to citizenship? If we have created a system where not even Superman merits consideration, well, maybe we should reconsider the whole question?

Branko Terzic,

Vienna, VA 22182, US