The Gospel According to Superman

When all the world is dark, the power lies in looking up, reflects Anthony Castle.

BY ANTHONY CASTLE

I was given something sacred when I was young. I took it in my hands, unfolding a cloth that was stitched together from red, gold, and deep blue. I put it over myself, carrying it on my shoulders. It was a Superman cape.

The homemade costume was sold at the kindergarten fair. The colours weren’t quite right, but I wore that cape sincerely in the morning light, as I did for much of my childhood, occasionally beneath my everyday clothes. I didn’t always know what to make of the world when I was a child, but when I wore that cape, I saw things differently. I could be powerful. I could save the day.

I could be Superman.

The recently released Superman is written and directed by James Gunn, and revisits that core sincerity of the comic book legend. Superman, played by David Corenswet, has his good intentions questioned after billionaire Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult, exposes the secrets of his alien origins and turns public opinion against him.

Superman isn’t really cool these days. The character’s sincerity can seem naïve. He looks silly. He’s not punk rock. Kids don’t really want to be Superman anymore. Even in my own teenage years, I seemed to outgrow the character, and the cape went into a box. Gunn’s film tackles this feeling but also asks a larger question; in a world that can seem so broken and dark, can a childish myth like this still work? Can Superman save the day anymore?

The film’s tagline is ‘look up’, but we first meet our hero crashing back down to earth after losing a battle for the first time, and the attacks continue throughout the film. Superman is beaten, slandered, imprisoned, and cast into an eternal darkness that threatens to divide the world and swallow everything in its wake.

Now that I am a man, I still don’t know what to make of the world. I have watched invasions on my phone, witnessed governments corrupted by billionaires, felt our descent into a post-truth era. The world seems divided. People suffer, children die. I am powerless.

Superman even finds himself interrogated by star reporter and love interest Lois Lane. He believes his role is to do the most good, to serve others, and make the world a better place. Even Lois, played by Rachel Brosnahan, doubts him.

Superman’s story has often had a gospel-like significance, with truth and justice its key values. Created by the children of Jewish immigrants, the character borrowed motifs from biblical characters like Moses and Samson and later accrued Christ-like significance. Gunn’s film feels more similar to the Book of Job, with Superman’s goodness put to the test as his suffering seems too much to bear.

The film is a morality tale, revolving around the symbols of sight and blindness, light and dark. Superman is powered by the sun, but at one point darkness wraps itself around him, suffocating him and blinding his eyes. Superman is trying to save a world that doubts his goodness, that even attacks him. If Superman can’t save the day, who can?

Now that I am a man, I still don’t know what to make of the world. I have watched invasions on my phone, witnessed governments corrupted by billionaires, felt our descent into a post-truth era. The world seems divided. People suffer, children die. I am powerless.

Gunn’s film wrestles with this same feeling. It is a bombastic comic book world with robots and monsters, but the violence and corruption it depicts reflects our own. Superman is even deemed an illegal alien, arrested by masked agents, and locked up in a foreign gulag without due process.

None of us can be Superman, but Gunn’s film knows this. It isn’t necessarily Superman who exposes the billionaire, protects civilians, and faces the darkness breaking the world apart. Superman doesn’t actually save the day. Other people do, when they look to his goodness and start to choose it for themselves.

Superman is powered by light, but his greatest strength seems to come from how he sees things. In the scene where Lois questions Superman, she explains her own cynicism; I’m punk rock. I question everything. You trust everyone and think everyone you meet is beautiful. Superman’s answer is simple; maybe that’s the real punk rock.

I take a familiar fold of cloth from an old box. I still have the cape, though it’s been in my children’s bedroom for years now. I hold in my hands one more time, and my daughter, the same age now as I was when I first wore it, looks up; you want to be Superman. I give the cape to her to wear now. More than anything.

None of us are faster than a speeding bullet. We can’t leap over a tall building in a single bound. There are some things we can do though. We can see beauty, believe in good. We can speak the truth, act for justice, even if people think it naïve, even if we look silly.

I don’t wear a cape beneath my clothes anymore, but this childish myth did give me something sacred, that I still keep on the inside. We choose the values we dress ourselves in. We can choose to carry them on our shoulders each morning, revealing them, when everything seems too much to bear.

We don’t stop believing in good because the world is broken. Precisely because the world is so broken is why we believe in good. When it’s dark is when we look up. That’s the gospel according to Superman, the simple power we’ve had all along.

That’s the real punk rock.