Not So Super Being Super

I think we can all agree that Batman is awesome, and if you disagree shut the hell up because no one really cares what you think. However Bats best super bud Superman gets a lot of shit from respectable intelligent people who unfortunately become idiots when it comes to dealing with the man. I have a close friend who finds Supes completely unrelatable, and believes that he is a dull character who doesn't have to worry about anything because he goes into fights knowing that he cannot lose. You know what I used to be one of those people too, because why cheer for the God who cannot be killed through earthly means, when I can cheer for a guy who puts on a mask and risks his life night after night. Then a friend of mine explained to me why exactly superman was his favorite superhero. I don't have the time or the effort to go into the details but it is the first time that I saw Superman as being deeper and more complex than he first appears to be. He is an incredibly complex character with amazing abilities but also with incredible faults, and weaknesses other than kryptonite. Christopher Nolan has been quoted as stating that Batman is how the World sees the United States and Superman is how the United States sees the United States. I think Superman is much more than that though. Superman is the United States. He is a person that as a child emigrated from his homeland because it was in ruins to America. He was raised in a secluded rural society where he showed potential of being the Superman of the future. After he becomes independent from his mother and moves away from her, he doesn't automatically go to Metropolis and becomes Superman. He instead moves away from the world creates the fortress of solitude where he focuses on bettering himself, and his understanding of his own power, and the world. He then leaves his isolation to literally become the World's greatest superpower. That is seriously a brief and simplified version of the History of the United States. So anyone American that has a sense of American history should be able to relate to Superman. Now I know that not everyone is a history buff like I am and would say something along the lines of "Pat, no one besides you likes history, its a stupid subject that doesn't mean anything, and I cannot relate to the very closed minded people of the past." I would then stop talking to them at that point, but I do understand what they are getting at and just because Superman resembles the history of our great nation doesn't mean everyone has to relate to him. I'm a 19 year old kid with a pretty total understanding of only two things: Stress and Pressure. Imagine just for one second that you are Superman. You would think its great wouldn't you? You can practically do anything because their is absolutely no limit to your potential and power. Then out of no where with you supersonic hearing you hear someone scream HELP! from the other side of the country. You fly as fast as you absolutely can to the place where you heard the scream come from and when you arrive you get there just in time to see a train completely run through a Semi-Truck that was caught on the tracks. This force of the impact causes this passenger train to derail and kill over a hundred innocent lives. Do you know who is going to take the blame? It won't be the semi driver, it won't be the train conductor, it will be you Superman. It will be your fault you didn't save all those people. You have one job and one job only and you failed. This is Superman's life. Everyone has this idea that he cannot lose, and that he will never lose, and if he does lose everyone will hate him. Superman might be your all around greatest Superhero, but he carries the entire weight of the world on his shoulders. When Batman doesn't get there in time its ok because no one expects Batman to be able to save everyone. Except everyone expects that out of Superman. The amount of pressure on Superman everyday is incredible. However who hasn't felt that way in there life at some point. A feeling that if you mess up, your life will be ruined, that its a no lose situation, this is everything from getting into a good college, getting a good job,maintaining that job, climbing up the corporate latter. Being in charge of people who you have to lead into combat. Superman's pressure is more than anyone has experienced, but the fact that we have all experienced pressure and the stress that comes with the desire to succeed gives us an understanding what it is like to be Supermen. "Alright Pat, whatever, he still cannot physically lose a fight. Unless there is Kryptonite, but thats unlikely, why would he care about pressure when nothing will ever effect him?" My response other than to really quit talking to people who speak utter nonsense would be that Superman does have a consciousness. He is still a being who thinks and feels. Superman isn't invincible, he can be driven to the absolute brink of his mentality. If you set off bombs because you hate Superman and thousands die he still feels the result of the that. He feels the guilt, the depression, the hopelessness. However he cannot show that side of himself because if Superman is in a panic then shit will really hit the fan. He has to hide his fears, and doubts, and weakness and give off this air of superiority and calmness, so that the world doesn't fall apart around him. There must be times he feels like he must fly away and leave earth because it is so daunting on him but you would never know because he hides that so that you can feel safe knowing Superman is there to protect you. I think a lot of people in leadership positions can get an idea of what Superman feels like. If they show the people they are leading that they are afraid that they don't know what they are doing is the really right then a panic will in sue. We hide our true faces so that everyone feels safe and sound. Who has never felt alone. I know Superman has. Growing up he had to feel like what was happening to him and to his body was only happening to him. Now I want everyone to look back on their years in middle school and tell me that you didn't have this thought, because you did; because everyone did. Even as an adult Superman must look at the entire human race, and see our friendships, our families, our communities, our societies, and our identity as human beings and feel like he is just outside that. That he tries so hard to fit in, but at the end of the day he cannot because he is ultimately different. He is the last of his kind, and he loves humans, and earth, but he must feel like their is something missing in his life, and that he is truly alone in this world. I know I have felt that I am the only person who has understood me, that I am alone even though I am surrounded by people who care and love me. I have felt like something was missing, and I think I am not the only person who has felt these things. Superman is a character for the lonely for those who feel left outside of society and hurt by it. There is a reason why Superman is from a different planet and did not gain his powers because of a reason on earth. That is reason is because there is only about one man in the entire galaxy that can take all the stress, and all the pressure, and all the loneliness and not only preserve and endure it but accepts it. He realizes that he is a faulted man that even though he may be physically invulnerable, he is still suspectible to mental and emotional damage and weakness. He is Superman not because of his physicality, but because of the amount of will, determination, moral fortitude, mental and emotional strength and courage to be him for one day that they only way to describe it is SUPER. Stay Hungry My Friends.