Superman as a god

*Originally published on 11/30/09



While most Superman stories just feature a straight up superhero adventure, other writers have tried to examine the impact such a being really would have on the world. The DCAU examined the political implications of such a being (as well as a veritable army like the Justice League) and some writers have examined the religious implications, most notably in Kingdom Come as well as Grant Morrison's run on JLA.

It's not difficult to make religious parallels with Superman. His origin story draws very much from the story of Moses, which isn't surprising given that both are Jewish.

What is surprising, and kind of ironic if you think about it, is the Christ parallel that many writers have used for the man of tomorrow. It's not difficult to see really, both were sent to Earth by their fathers from the heavens, both have powers beyond those of mortal men, both were raised in a sort of blue collar working class environment, Jesus being a carpenter's son and Kal-El being raised on a farm, and both dedicated their lives to spreading a positive message of hope to try and make the world a better place.

When Superman died and came back to life back in the '90s that only furthered that parallel. OK, a ton of characters have died and come back to life, and they tried to hand-wave it by saying that Superman wasn't quite dead, only in a sort of coma type state, but the idea still stands that Superman rose from the dead with nary an explanation (until the Superboy prime thing anyway).

Back when Action Comics was a weekly serial comic, they introduced a plot thread in the Superman strips that involved a cult of people who really did worship Superman as a god. Suffice it to say, he wasn't exactly comfortable with it.

This also raises the issue of semantics. I mean, how do you define a god? Take Darkseid for example, he's a creation of Jack Kirby and one of the "New Gods" and yet you could make the argument that he's just a very powerful alien on a planet that may or may not be in another dimension. So where do you draw the line?

I'm not saying this to be blasphemous, it's just one of those metaphysical things that you start to wonder about from time to time.

Moving back to Superman though, the "god" angle has been played up a lot recently. A lot of people complain that that is what he, essentially is and as such there's no connection. On the other side of the spectrum, some fans argue that the angle isn't played up enough. This sentiment is expressed by Batman in Infinite Crisis when he says that the last time Superman inspired anyone was when he died. This is kind of ironic as Batman constantly chides Clark for his power.

I think the problem is that the term "god" refers to both literal examples like Thor or Gozer and metaphorical examples. Thus the term becomes tenuous in instances like this where he is, in a metaphorical sense, a god, but he isn't one in the literal sense.