The Lord Helps a Superman Who Helps Himself

Brian Doherty | February 14, 2005

Comic writer Mark Waid, who re-imagined the Superman legend in the DC comic Superman: Birthright, explains how, as he sees it, the seemingly altruistic Man of Tomorrow has always just been following his own enlightened self-interest.

[Link thanks to Jeff Patterson.]

Comments

Franklin Harris|2.14.05 @ 7:58PM|#

Libertarian philospher Aeon Skoble contributed a paper on "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" to the same book.

|2.14.05 @ 8:19PM|#

You know those blue and red Superman T-shirts with the S inside the diamond-pentagon? I really, really want a black and red one with a Ü For Übermensch. Yeah.

Does ANYONE knoew where I can get such a thing?

|2.14.05 @ 8:20PM|#

Well, that didnt turn out... its supposed to be a U with the dot thingies.

|2.14.05 @ 8:30PM|#

Lord, it's called an umlaut.

And the Silver Surfer would wipe the floor with Superman.

Jeff|2.14.05 @ 9:19PM|#

Yes, but Norrid Radd would then stare at a Kirby-esque starscape and bemoan the cosmic cruelty of having to defeat another being who'd lost his world. Meanwhile Lobo would sneak up and spraypaint "Galactus' Bitch" on his shiny back.

Jeff|2.14.05 @ 9:20PM|#

Sorry, "Norrin Radd."

|2.15.05 @ 12:06AM|#

Marianne Williamson?!!!!!!!!!!!!!....

Ach!!! Ptuii!!!!!!!

Sorry about that. Waid's take is interesting, however he was inspired to it. So, Superman is a persona by which Kal-El can exercise his eudaemonism. I can dig it.

Denny O'Neil's stories in the 70's had this take: as Krypton's Last Son*, Superman was especially motivated to see that Earth was not similarly destroyed by some natural disaster, alien attack, or by our own mortal foolishness. SUPERMAN 238 - Menace At 1000 Degrees! - put it this way:

Fear and memory push The Man of Steel like a wind...for he remembers another world -- his native planet, called Krypton -- a lovely globe
which vanished in a single shattering
explosion, years ago -- and he is determined
that this adopted planet, this Earth,
will not perish similarly --

(This second person reverie occurs while a temprarily underpowered Supes dives after a nuclear device which, should it explode near the Earth's crust, might conceivably split our planet in two.)
http://superman.ws/tales4/sand/6/?page=14
SUPERMAN (V.1) #238, 1971; by Denny O'Neil, Curt Swan (pencils) & Murphy Anderson (inks).

Some even go as far as to explain Supes' heroism as Super Survival Guilt.

Kevin

*Though Kara Zor-El was its Last Daughter, and Kandor was its Last Million Tiny Sons and Daughters, and the Phantom Zoners were its Last Discorporate Criminals. :)

|2.15.05 @ 1:13AM|#

kevrob noted:
"Though Kara Zor-El was its Last Daughter, and Kandor was its Last Million Tiny Sons and Daughters, and the Phantom Zoners were its Last Discorporate Criminals."


By the time Supes was rebooted in the late '80s, the only confirmed casualties of Krypton's Big Bang were Ma and Pa El. Wiping that silliness away was probably the best aspect of the reboot.

|2.15.05 @ 2:37AM|#

Everyone knows that Wolverine would whoop ass on all of them. :)

|2.15.05 @ 3:15AM|#

BTW, I watched Alien v. Predator on DVD over the weekend. Is Fox simply bent on destroying the Alien franchise or what?

Jeff|2.15.05 @ 8:13AM|#

Dark Horse comics did a number of AvP comics in the 90s, and even the worst of them were an order of magnitude better than the movie. Hollywood is hopeless.
I recall Ari Avad and Bryan Singer once mentioning that the studio almost didn't make X-Men because they considered superhero films risky after the poor performance of the second Power Rangers movie.

|2.15.05 @ 10:28AM|#

There were also two Superman/Aliens graphic albums, and one Superman vs. Predator. There are also permutations pitting The Batman against these beasties. One fanboy made a list.

http://tinyurl.com/4l2oa or

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9M6HNC6EWG/reasonmagazineA/

Kevin

|2.15.05 @ 10:34AM|#

Lord Duppy, Your best bet would be to get some of the inkjet transfer paper for a dark shirt and print it yourself. Or you could have it done by cafe press by they only do white shirts. I have a design if you need it.