“Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul, I swear… until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share — I’ll never stop fighting.”
“You’ll believe a man can fly.” That was the tagline for the 1978 Superman. I was probably 7 or 8 when I watched the film for the first time. I’m 24 now and I have to tell you why I still believe.
I struggled with the idea of when to release this article. April 18th is the release date of Action Comics #1000, June 12th is largely considered to be Superman Day because that’s the assumed release date of Action Comics #1 in 1938(No one knows for sure.) and December 15th is the 40th anniversary of Superman : The Movie. Clearly this entire year is a big year for me because Superman is my favorite hero. Many people are stunned by this when I say that Superman is my favorite hero and honestly, I can’t blame most of them for the simple reason that most people haven’t had a good image of Superman : the 1978 film is good but it’s campy by today’s standards, The Superman Animated series was good but it pales in comparison to Batman’s, Smallville has some great moments but ultimately it’s still a teen drama, The Justice Leagues features a lot of great Superman moments but his power set is toned down to make him relatable but instead he looks weak throughout multiple episodes, Superman Returns has a few good scenes but ultimately it’s boring to most people and then of course, we come to The latest incarnation of Superman : Man Of Steel. Now, my problems with this version have been stated before and I won’t go into it again. If you would like to know more then let me know in the comments.
Now. all of those versions had at least two or three scenes that I genuinely enjoyed but I fully understand people’s complaints with them. My real love of Superman originated in Smallville and The Justice League cartoon. As I got older, I started to appreciate him more in the 1978 film and in the comics themselves. Superman is just the ultimate hero. No matter your feelings toward him, we need Superman and we always have.
In 1938, the first thing that Superman does is stop a man from beating his wife. It’s sad that 80 years later that this scene is still so relevant but it’s also important to understand that his morals and the backbone of who and what Superman is hasn’t changed. He’s still the defender of the people and he always will be. Ultimately certain views of his will never change and they shouldn’t. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this 1950’s poster :
Is it cheesy? Maybe a little but it’s message is something that we could absolutely use more of in 2018. Honestly that’s why I love him. I’ve always been a bit more old fashioned in many of my beliefs and I look at the state of our world and realize that so human decency is considered an old fashioned term. What if we had a hero guiding us with a different lifestyle? What if this hero actually taught us to care for one another? We would have a Superman. That’s why he’s my favorite hero. Not because he can fly and he can lift cars but because he’s the kind of person that I aspire to be and he’s the kind that I still believe in.
