Superman and the Mask

I’m not a comic book guy (much less a Comic Book Guy), so I tread here carefully.

A while back, I quoted an article about Superman that concluded:

It almost goes without saying, but if your hero cannot possibly be killed in any instance which does not somehow involve an incredibly rare space-rock, then you’ve got one boring-ass hero. It’s sort of like watching Neo fight all the agent Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded: we know our hero can’t possibly die, and he doesn’t act like he’s in any danger whatsoever, so the entire fight is a foregone conclusion and the audience becomes bored out of their skulls.

And at the time, this made sense to me—in theory.  But the more I thought about it, the more wrong it seems, at least in fact.  Superman has always been the most popular comic book hero, perhaps not always in terms of sales, but always in terms of culture.  Everyone knows his story, his powers, his love life, his secret identity, his place of employment, his weakness, his enemy.  This is not true of Spider-Man or Batman, even though their most recent movies have grossed considerably more than the most recent Superman.  

Moreover, the facts about Superman slide easily into our lives … ready metaphors for common things.   You can call your work-place enemy your Lex Luther, and people will know what you mean.  Try calling him your Doctor Octopus, or the Riddler … and you’ll only confuse.  Your unrequited love is your Lois Lane; I’ve seen every Batman movie, but I can’t remember the name of a single love interest in them.   And everyone talks about Kryptonite:

  • Kryptonite was used in a rap song called Kryptonite by rapper Big Boi, but in the song kryptonite means marijuana because they are both green.
  • Kryptonite also appears in the 2000 3 Doors Down hit by the same title as well as the Five For Fighting 2000 song “Superman.” Both songs deal with the often over-looked difficulties in being a superhero, depicting a trend in the superhero genre where these classic heroes—once seen as untouchable and, indeed, superhuman—are portrayed as flawed and troubled.
  • Kryptonite was used as a double entendre on the album Pocket Full of Kryptonite and song “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” by the rock band Spin Doctors.
  • “Black Kryptonite” was what Will Smith described the Men in Black to be in the soundtrack to Men in Black II.
  • Professional wrestler Mike Bucci, who performed under a superhero gimmick called Super Nova, named his finishing move the “Kryptonite Krunch”.
  • In the TV series Empty Nest, the main character, a pediatrician, facetiously speculates that kryptonite, though harmful to Superman, may be of medical benefit to Spider-Man.

Or how about these headlines in the news these days:  Steelers Find Sproles Kryptonite; Normal West gym is Raiders’ kryptonite; Tebow’s Kryptonite; and my favorite, Pasta is Posh’s ‘kryptonite’.

So how did Superman become the superhero gold standard, especially if he’s so invincible that he’s supposed to be boring?  Why did Superman transcend the comic to become iconic?  Surely, part of it was timing … he came before most of the others.  And part of it is probably aspirational … because Superman came first (or almost first), he laid claim to the coolest powers, the ones that we’d want to have ourselves.  Ask a kid (or an adult, or yourself) who he’d want to be, and he’ll probably say Superman—not Batman, not Spiderman, not the Hulk, or the Flash, or the Green Arrow.  We all want to be Superman.

But there’s more at play than mere attraction to his superpowers.  I think the key to Superman lies in his personality.  Or rather, I should say, in his personalities.  Superman has two clear and distinct personalities … the cool, suave Superman, and the uptight, nervous Clark Kent.  And when Christopher Reeve played him, these personalities were complete and fully-formed.  In a way, that’s remarkable.  We know that Superman is the real personality, and that the Clark Kent personality is just a cover.  Yet, when Reeve plays Clark Kent, we totally buy it … it doesn’t feel like someone playing a nerd[1], it feels like a real nerd.  Yes, we know that he’s only acting like a nerd for Lois and Perry and Jimmy, but it’s so convincing that it fools us too.  And partly, this is because he fears being discovered, and that creates an actual nervousness in his character that happens to fit Clark Kent perfectly.  

Superman needs his two personalities because he does so very little to hide his identity otherwise.  Of course, it’s ludicrous that people don’t recognize Clark as Superman, but we accept this, and we accept it in part because Reeve does such a good job of projecting the Clark Kent personality that it appears to have physical manifestation.  Clark looks different beyond just the hair and glasses.  It’s his posture, and voice, and walk … but it’s something more.  Reeve makes Clark Kent real.

Both personalities—Clark’s and Superman’s—are completely likable.  And this gives the Superman an edge over some of the other superheroes.  Spider-Man and Peter Parker share one personality.  That’s why he needs the full body costume—his only mask is physical.  Thus, when Toby McGuire has to create only one personality with his performance.  The same is true for Batman, although arguably, Christian Bale actually gives us no personality, for either of his identities.  Robert Downey gives us plenty of personality in Iron Man, but it’s the same whether he’s in the suit or out of it.

By masking with personality instead of coverings, Superman gives us something wonderful.  He gives us the chance to see him react to everything that’s happening around him.  We see his smile; we see his fear; we see his joys and sorrow.  And because of this, I think we feel a little closer to him than we do to the others.  Think of the most moving, gripping moment of the Spider-Man trilogy.  Isn’t it from Spider-Man 2, when he stops the train while his mask is off?  We like to see what’s going on under the mask.  Superman never wears one.
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1.  ”Nerd” isn’t quite precise here, but I’ll use it as a shorthand.  You know what I mean.

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