Saturday, December 26, 2009

Eulogy

Excerpted from the Daily Planet, December 21, written by Perry White:

This morning at 2:31 AM Eastern Standard Time Clark Kent, known to most of the world as Superman, passed away due to complications from cancer at Metropolis General Hospital. Kent is survived by his wife, Lois Lane-Kent, and mother, Martha. His loss will be felt for years.


Clark will be buried in an open funeral in Metropolis Gardens Cemetery at 11 AM on Saturday. He will be eulogized by Bruce Wayne, popularly known as the Batman, who will break ground on a “functional” monument to Superman, the country’s largest homeless and civic center, at the end of the ceremony. The text of his eulogy is posted below:

Not all of you knew Clark Kent. Some of you knew him only from his reporting, or as that man in the sky with the “S” on his chest, but those were just the tip of the spear. Clark was always more than the sum of his parts, more than a godlike alien, or a farmboy from Kansas, an urban reporter, a hero- even a husband, son and friend.

I’ve been privileged, more than perhaps any other human being, because I’ve known Clark in many of those capacities. I served with him proudly in the Justice League, and I’ll say it now that I was proud to call him my friend. I even had the opportunity, as owner of the Daily Planet, to see him work, and on a few occasions I was graced to dine with his family and his wife.

But the one thing everyone should know about Clark Kent: his most amazing ability was his humanity. A lot of people, and I would probably count myself among them, are better in adversity. But Clark was the opposite. When bad things happened, he was absolutely the person you wanted to have around, but it was in the down time that he thrived.

I remember we were in Jarhanpur, and buildings were collapsing. It’s true, when a building is falling over, Superman is invaluable, but Flash, Diana, J’onn, whatever Green Lantern you have in tow- they’re all good at pulling people out of falling buildings. But afterwards, when there were still people missing in the rubble, when we needed someone who could look at the survivors and say, “Don’t lose hope-” that was Clark. And there is no one who will ever be able to say it like he could, no one who can make even me believe.

And that’s just it. In the days, weeks and years that come, people will remember him for his strength, his speed, and his amazing abilities. But what we’ve lost here isn’t a superhuman, because there are many left who will fill that void; what we’ve lost is the most human person I’ve ever known.

There was a time or two I joked with him about that, how he always elevated the man above the super; I suggested he start wearing an “M” on his chest instead. He laughed, and said then people would start calling him Marvel Man, and there’d be another legal battle with Captain Marvel.

It’s okay to laugh; Clark would have wanted us to.

Clark loved all of us; I don’t say that with an ounce of hyperbole, and despite its messianic overtones. Perhaps because he was not literally human, he was granted perspective, on all of our faults, our failings; he loved humanity for all the potential we possessed, despite all the times we squander it.

I remember the first time I saw him cry. He was struggling with the totality of the responsibility he’d undertaken. He’d tried listening to the sounds of the city, all of the fights and petty bickering, the mistrust and lies; he was thinking about being more proactive, going after crime before it became violent, intervening before punches were thrown. And it overwhelmed him.

He asked, “Why can’t things- why can’t people- be better?” I remember I laughed at him, and thought he was naïve. But there were moments when those words came back to me, when I thought, “Why can’t they?” So I tried to be better. I tried to do more. To encourage more.

There were times when I wanted to be him. Not for the power, but because he had one ability I could never match, for all the cleverness of my engineers, for all the tricks I could pull there was one thing I could only encourage him to do because I couldn’t: inspire.

And he inspired a generation, a whole generation of people only some of whom were foolish enough to adopt his fashion sense and leap off rooftops, but a generation of people who work in soup kitchens and volunteer, who work to build a better world than the one they found. A generation who made him proud of his adoptive world.

Clark’s only super power that ever surprised me was his ability to be better every day. He raised the bar for excellence, and every day he surpassed it. And I know that Clark didn’t do it because he had abilities beyond what most people can fathom, but because of who he was. He excelled by being kinder, or more understanding, by consistently putting the needs of others before his own. The only time he’s let me down, the only time he truly disappointed me, was by dying; it’s hard to fathom the possibility of a world without a Superman, and I’m disappointed that we’ll all now have to try.

I didn’t come here to bury my friend, but to tell you who he was. But I think he has one last power, because I don’t think Clark Kent has died. I think what he accomplished will live in our memories far beyond mortal leaders. I believe in our next generation, our children won’t look to us and say they want to be President, because they’ve seen a better purpose and a better office than that. They’ll say, “I want to be Superman.”

And that world would very definitely be a better one than the one that Clark found. Lois, Martha, I speak for all of us when I say you’ll be in our hearts; we love you as surely as we loved him.