I Hate Superman. by Kayode D. '27

I never liked Superman.

I thought he was too idyllic. 

If you asked someone what superpower they’d want, they’d probably say strength, or speed, or flying, or something like that. Someone might come up with a more unique power, like density control, or to control friction, or to forget things. But if someone told you that they’d have flight AND strength AND invulnerability AND heat vision AND frost breath AND … AND … AND… You’d call them crazy! Oh, they have no weakness, except for a rock that you can’t find on earth. I’d laugh if someone told me this is the power they’d want. He’s much too powerful, it’s like he’s cheating! He could beat almost any other superhero just by looking at them. I thought he was stupid. 

During the Great Depression, he was born out of a need for a hero. But I can’t help but feel like he became a propaganda tool. Used to support the U.S., yes, but ultimately an unbeatable character that was over commercialized and pumped into by big corporations. I thought he seemed like a Boomer’s superhero, where they needed an underdog in someone like Superman, but now he is this behemoth titan hanging over all the weaker, new heroes of today. Think about it: for the last nearly 100 years Superman has been THE superhero. How many new heroes and stories have missed their chance to flourish because of Superman’s control of comic and superhero media? What about Speedball⁠01 After a freak accident involving a particle accelerator, Robbie Baldwin receives the power to reflect kinetic energy. His story follows him learning how to use his power in a low stakes opening series before he gets thrusted into the high octane and cataclysmic chaos of his Penance Arc. Phenomenal story of perseverance. ? I bet you don’t know who that is. Or Dennis Sykes⁠02 After getting into a terrible accident, Dennis Sykes gets the reality-warping power to manipulate matter and the physical world. But with this newfound power, he also discovers that he has multiple forms of cancer and at best one month to live. After quitting his job to spend more time with his wife and niece, he sets out to use his powers to create the change he so desperately wanted to see in the world and make every second count. ? What about Detective Chimp⁠03 I think that this one speaks for itself. ? Why haven’t we seen more stuff about these characters with equally interesting stories? If Superman wasn’t so over milked then maybe other lesser known heroes could get a shot. 

The only comic I had read of Superman that I remember actually enjoying was the Superman Doomsday: Death of Superman comics. It’s ironic: I liked him best when he could actually die. 

I never liked Superman.

…

I started running recently.  

I came home from college having all these plans for how I would grow so much during these months at home. I’d have a job, I’d make lots of music, and I’d blog all the time, I thought. But this is hard. It’s hard to create a coherent thought for an entire blog post. Especially with the never ending, ever expanding existence of social media. I could go on (another) ten page rant about social media and the Erosion of Deep Literacy and my opinion on it all. It’s only getting more and more difficult to get out of it. We are literally fighting an algorithm designed to keep a chokehold on our attention, and it’s an uphill, losing battle. Day by day it only gets harder and harder to focus and ignore the distraction. It’s so easy to take the path of least resistance to get entertainment, and avoid monotony or boredom with music or scrolling or anything. I don’t think I’ve driven more than 2 hours in my entire life without listening to music. Is that bad? I don’t know. I just know that I’d rather not be alone with my own thoughts, so I listen to music to avoid it. I feel trapped. 

My brother is jacked. Coming home and seeing him made me want to improve myself so I wouldn’t look so pale in comparison to him. At first I hated running, but I enjoy it now. I’ve created a habit⁠04 I heard somewhere that it takes 60 days of consecutive, regular practice for a habit to form. Hopefully going back to MIT time won’t ruin this habit. of running every night when it gets cooler, and I always borrow my brother’s airpods⁠05 because I'm broke and a bum to listen to music. One day, I was sick of feeling like I had to have a distraction to exist, and I was tired of being afraid of being bored. I didn’t take the airpods and ran without them. 

I had been tossing around the idea of hating superman for a few days at this point. I thought about the way he looked in the justice league movie – a movie i haven’t watched except in passing. He was beating the Justice League on his own. He was one wrong move away from being a villain. He felt too powerful, too upright and just, too much. 

As I thought about this, I ran over the hill in my neighborhood, and saw the sky above. It was awe inspiring⁠06 And I think trying to capture it in my cell phone didn't do it justice. I can't compress everything that was to a 1080p photo. . I don’t know if the sky had ever looked like that at MIT, or if I’ve just never cared enough to look.  I was always too busy distracting myself from being bored by work or the lack of it. At that moment, I wished that I could just jump over all the houses and see above the clouds. I wished that I wasn’t so tired from running. I wished that I was Superman. 

It was at that moment that I realized that I don’t hate Superman; I was jealous. I am jealous. I wish that I was Superman. I wish that I was as strong as him and I had a purpose and I didn’t feel pain or weakness. I wish I could do what he does and fly up into the sky and see the earth from his point of view.  wish I was Superman.

…

I started watching My Adventures with Superman. This show is awesome! It portrays Superman not as the hundred-year-old behemoth I had pictured in my mind, but as a young adult who was unsure of himself, and is still figuring out how to be not only Superman, but also Clark Kent. He is actually a person that struggles with things like everyone else: With his powers and his relationships, and with becoming the person that he wants to be. He’s not too strong or a boomer’s superhero. He’s awesome. 

I didn’t like Superman, but I never really got to know him. My opinion was based on the little bit that I had seen, and the image I had made in my mind. And even the one thing I actually dug into, the Death of Superman comic, I thought was incredible! I didn’t even give him a chance, and I never went back to learn the life of Superman. He came from a small town in Kansas, living on a farm with a humble beginning. He had a weight on his shoulders, the weight of the literal world. Sure, he’s a titan, but he’s also Clark Kent, reporter for the daily planet. And I didn’t take the time to learn who Clark was. 

Now when I think about Superman, I don’t think of the titan or the behemoth or the monster, I think of this panel. 

There really are a lot of super things about Superman.