He was vengeance. He was the night. He was Superman.
The Man of Steel was the original Dark Knight.
There’s been a longstanding consensus for decades now that Batman is the favorite over Superman. But I contest that our willingness to dismiss the boy in blue has mostly been shaped by a farce. In a case of subtle yet unrelenting identity theft, the Man of Steel has become a caricature of himself — a shell of who he once was.
A closer look back.
Let’s turn back the clock to the very first full-length issue of a… “different” iconic character. A perfect model of the anti-hero, this heroic figure was described within the delicate pages of the comic as a “hidden figure in the night”, “dark shadow”, “avenging demon” and “mental wonder”. He solved a murder case, intimidated criminals with force, verbally threatened their lives, eavesdropped for information, went undercover and quickly spread fear throughout the city’s mafia.
While you may be thinking this particular vigilante sounds an awful lot like Batman, it isn’t. Bruce Wayne’s big debut wouldn’t be published for another year. The surprising truth is that these earliest adventures belong to none other than the Man of Steel himself! *Dramatic Music*
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had created one bad Mamba Jamba for 1938.
Max Fleischer’s animated series from the 1940’s also kept right in line with that same theme. He approached Superman’s exciting adventures with a hint of the eery mystery that comes with film noir. There was a certain mystique surrounding the city of Metropolis and their hero in acrobatic tights. At this point in time, the Man of Steel was known to the general public as a self-made mythic figure in a gritty fight against evil and corruption found both in America and abroad. It was a very human struggle for a character that felt very far from alien.
A lot has changed since then though. Those swash-buckling days are behind him. Superman is now a stoic god. And as such, he can only be a symbol of righteousness and hope lest he become a villain. He does everything upright and respectfully. He is optimistic, if not even a bit naive. He is the Big Blue Boy-scout, and we should all be proud of it!
There’s a consensus that Superman’s stories are routinely bogged down by self-loathing, sci-fi exposition, or over-the-top action sequences with little to no sense of peril. That “hidden figure in the night” has slowly become the “heavenly figure in the sky.”
Why did this evolution occur? Why did he have to become so alien? Why did his stories get boring?
Well, the answer is: Someone crashed Superman’s party.
Enter the Caped Crusader.
When Bruce Wayne came onto the scene in 1939 as “The World’s Greatest Detective”, he was part of the new superhero era (with underwear on the outside and all). DC Comics was growing their line-up and distinctions would need to be made between characters. Since Batman was the newer entry, it was Superman who would need to slowly be amended. And with that, his stories would have to depart from the similarities found within the two hero’s journeys. They couldn’t both be vigilantes in the night.
So, although his Kryptonian backstory had previously been treated as a mere launchpad and explanation for his earthly adventures, it would now be used as a centerpiece that distinguished the genres. While this wasn’t an instantaneous shift, it was certainly steady and unyielding. Once it took hold, the science-fiction dial would be turned all the way up to 11.
And that is the Man of Steel’s greatest weakness. Not Kryptonite. From the start, the developing character of the Dark Knight was what incrementally robbed Superman of some of his most compelling attributes. So now, today, while Superman is busy wrestling with the internal struggles of a guardian over all humankind, Batman remains comfortably earthbound and relatable.
The Dark Knight forced Superman out of the shadows of crimefighting and into the limelight of sci-fi do-gooder with a little melancholy sprinkled throughout.
A snooze fest.
To the victor go the spoils.
Superman fans tend to blame the modern culture for not accepting their beloved hero the way the culture of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s did. But I don’t think of it so much as a morality shift. As I see it, in the golden age, the culture was still looking at a Superman that was far more similar to Batman than what we have today. I believe they liked Superman then for the same reasons we like Batman now.
Overall, I think it’s safe to assume that the natural growth of the comic book industry would have led to Superman’s slow dilution. The more characters introduced, including those from Marvel, the more DC writers would have to make adjustments to Superman. The more superheroes that challenged his supremacy, the more his power levels would have to rise to the occasion. It was inevitable. Yeah. Sure. Inevitable.
BUT, that being said, it does not change who it was that threw the first punch and who it still is that challenges the position of Superman in pop culture to this very day.
I’m looking at you, Batman. “World’s Greatest Detective.” Pfft!
Sincerely,
A Superman Fan*
