New & now: Superman

Back in my younger days, I preferred Batman over Superman. Or at least, I claimed I did. Batman was mysterious, complicated, cool, whereas with Superman, what you saw was what you got: an all-American (by way of Krypton) hero, uncomplicated, very corny, deeply uncool. The fact that Superman probably hasn't cared one single minute of his life about looking cool makes him cool by default, but when I was young and dumb and didn't think much about these things, I only went by what was on the surface.

Eventually, when I too stopped caring about looking cool, I embraced Superman's wholesomeness. and his commitment to just being a good person who cared about other people. That's who he is as a character, and why Man of Steel, Zack Snyder's Watchmenification of Superman, was such an unpleasant slog. I rejected Pa Kent's Ayn Rand-esque speech about how Superman should hide his powers, because the world will resent and hate him for them. I didn't want to see a scowling, brooding Superman, I wanted Christopher Reeve staring directly into the camera and flashing a million dollar grin before flying away, probably on his way to rescue some orphans from a fire. I wanted him to be nice.

"Nice" would be the last word you'd use to describe the people who took up "Release the Snyder cut" as a cause with the ferocity other, more normal people direct towards, say, being against the bombing of hospitals. I'm not sure if any of those people know any version of Superman beyond the Libertarian wet dream presented in Man of Steel. They're certainly not the target audience for James Gunn's take on Superman, which presents Supes not as a tormented god amongst puny humans, but as a big, lovable lug who embraces his role as a symbol of goodness and decency even at our darkest hour.

And wow, it certainly does feel like we might be in our darkest hour, no? I don't know about you (though, frankly, it's weird if you're not), I've been struggling with keeping hope alive, at least as far as the world at large. But I'm not ashamed to admit that, after seeing Superman on Sunday afternoon, I came away from it moved, and even a little reinvigorated. You can't lose hope, not entirely. You can be scared. You can be angry. But you can't be hopeless. And, above all else, you have to be willing to help people. You have to be good.

I'm not going to explain the plot, because (a) you can read it on Wikipedia, and (b) it's a Superman movie, you can probably guess the salient points. So instead I'll focus on one scene, when Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan, gorgeous) and Superman (David Corenswet, a face lovingly hand-sculpted by angels) talk about their blossoming relationship. Lois believes that while they have chemistry (woof, do they have chemistry), they're too different, describing herself as a "punk rock kid," whereas Superman is whatever the opposite of that is (apparently it's being a fan of a fictitious pop-punk group called The Mighty Crabjoys). She's cynical, he's not. She's an investigative journalist who's seen too much of the corrupt side of things, and he thinks "everything and everyone is beautiful."

"Maybe that's the real punk rock," Superman replies, and you know what? Goddamn if he isn't right.

Surprising absolutely no one, when it got out that Superman was going to return to its pre-Snyderverse values of goodness and decency towards all, no matter what they look like, right-wingers snidely referred to it as "Superwoke," and predicted that it would flop at the box office (it very much did not). Let's be clear: other than in the Snyderverse, Superman has always been on the side of good, and defending the disenfranchised. He was the first superhero to confront Adolf Hitler. He took on the Ku Klux Klan. He literally appeared on a poster describing discrimination as anti-American, all the way back in 1950.

Insisting that this is some new, namby-pamby bleeding heart leftist take on Superman reflects the current Republican Party's willful ignorance. They know that many of their constituents have such short-term memories that they now believe Biden was President at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Why wouldn't they believe the Henry Cavill Superman was the correct version, and not this beta soy cuck, who probably owns a "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" t-shirt?

Sneering at this "new" version of Superman also reflects the current Republican Party's fascinating and unsettling turn towards openly (if not gleefully) embracing callous disregard for other human beings, while still claiming to be the party of Christian values. The heroes of the story, as it were.

Yes, yes, I know. "But Gena, they've always been like this." That's the thing, though, they haven't. Their politics were still rotten, obviously, but they kept the gleefulness to themselves. They used to hide this shit. The masks slipped a bit during the AIDS crisis, I'll give you that one. But generally, Reagan and Bush-era Republicans at least attempted to maintain a sense of decorum. Now they're selling concentration camp merch. When people expressed concern to Joni Ernst about the impact of Medicaid cuts, she replied "Well, we're all going to die." In reference to those same Medicaid cuts, the Republican response was first to deny that they were going to happen in the first place, then to simply shrug and say "Well, I guess those people better get a job." "Those people," you'll note, are predominantly children and the elderly.

Then, of course, there's the mascot of the Republican party (or at least, he was until a couple weeks ago), the richest boy in all the land, Elon Musk, who described federal employees as "the parasite class." Elon Musk, who not too long ago gave an interview in which he said "The fundamental weakness of western civilization is empathy," which, honestly, sounds like something Patrick Bateman would say.

But, you know, it's not just Elon. You see it on social media all the time, this brutally cynical notion that kindness is merely a tool we use to take advantage of each other. Friendships are "transactional," being there for someone when they're going through a rough time is providing "emotional labor," asking for or offering help should be viewed with suspicion. If you think I'm making this up, look up the "chili lady" incident on the former Twitter to see how poisoned people's brains are against the idea that people sometimes do things for others just to be nice, without expecting something in return, or worse, to do active harm.

I encountered a woman on Threads last year posting that she refused to let her husband help a female neighbor move a television, because she "just didn't trust her." While a fair number of people (myself included) commented that it was a bizarre reaction, more people than I would have ever expected agreed that she had made the right call, suggesting either that the neighbor likely would have hit on the husband, or kept "bothering them" for more help. How the hell did we get here? Just immediately shutting down a neighbor who needs help because God fucking forbid they might need your help for something again later? First it's moving a television, then you're holding her mail while she's away, then it's anarchy! How do we immediately dismiss our fellow citizens as potential burdens and impositions on our time, and still view ourselves as one of the "good guys"?

I'm digressing, but not really. James Gunn's superhero movies all end with an appreciation for found family, the people who care about and look out for us by choice, not obligation. We need them, and they need us, especially now, when things are so uncertain and scary. To quote one of the best episodes of BoJack Horseman, "in this terrifying world, all we have are the connections that we make." Not caring about other people isn't a strength, and it doesn't mean you're smarter than anyone else. It just frees you from the responsibility of being there when times are particularly tough, which, when it comes down to it, makes you a coward.

Raging against the machine doesn't always have to involve anger. It can be love, and being the light, and thinking everything and everyone is beautiful. It flies in the face of those who are seeking to subjugate us. Superman gets it. Caring about people is punk rock. It's necessary. It's the only way we're going to get through this.