Truth, Justice, and the American Way

ID: I know this is my interview, but, frankly, I don’t feel comfortable controlling it. This feels like Frost/Nixon, but I don’t think I’m up to really being Frost.

S: Which is good because I don’t think my Nixon is ready for prime time.

ID: But what I mean is, this is potentially the last interview for the Last Son of Krypton. I’m okay with being here to keep it objective, and provide the human perspective, but really, I’m interested in what you want to say. Because I think there’s a reason you came to me- I’m a relative unknown, and I’m not your wife and I’m not your alter ego, either. You wanted someone fresh and… well, as unbiased as a person can get talking to Superman.

S: Okay, well, first off, I’ve never been comfortable with that name. I know Lois had the best of intentions, and I guess a man who can fly is likely to get some appellations regarding his metahuman abilities, but I’ve never really felt “super.”

ID: In fairness to your wife, we should note that you were already wearing a big “S” on your shirt.

S: Well, it is and it isn’t. It’s my family’s crest. On Krypton, it’s, and I say this while cringing a bit, but it’s the symbol for hope. I come from a long line of scientists and leaders, and at some point, that family tradition became part of the crest. But super… I’ve always felt that implied that other people were less than me. And I’ve never been comfortable with that.

ID: So you don’t feel, being a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, married to probably the hottest Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, with the strength to huck the Earth into the sun… none of that ever makes you feel greater than any other human being?

S: No. Because my parents taught me that the value of a human being isn’t in the gifts they were given, it’s not even in the things they’ve been able to accomplish- it’s in their potential. I tried to live up to my potential, which I understand is maybe more potent than some, but any random person you run into on the street- they could be the one who cures cancer, and saves more lives than I ever will; it might not even be a scientific breakthrough they pioneer, it could just be a small genetic mutation they carry that affords us a cure. Or if you want to stick with the metahuman angle, I’ve learned through the years that just because someone is, if you’ll pardon the term, normal, today, it doesn’t mean they won’t be growing to the size of skyscrapers and kicking parademons in the crotch by next summer. The world is not a snapshot of this moment. It’s this moment, and everything this moment and its momentum are building towards.

ID: A sentiment befitting the Man of Tomorrow.

S: I’ve often been said to be a proponent of “truth, justice and the American way.” Truth, I believe in above everything but my family’s safety; it’s the only reason I have for misleading people about Clark Kent, and while it’s a lie I’ve always regretted, it’s one that was necessary, and given the opportunity I’d do it all over again, because Lois, and my parents, it’s kept them safe. Justice… that’s a concept too big even for a Superman, even for the ideal I know others placed on my shoulders. I tried to be just, and that’s all I can really say about it. But the American way is something I’ve struggled with, especially in the last few years. There was a time when I thought I’d get to be a beacon forever, which might have been youthful exuberance, but I relished the idea of trying to show a country I dearly love, that I came to see as my home, the example my parents had given me. And it's an adjustment, recognizing your own impending mortality, that there are things you'll leave unfinished, goals and dreams unfulfilled. But I think I'm getting away from myself... what I was getting at is America's had a rough patch lately.

ID: That's being diplomatic.

S: And I hate to betray even a little of my politics, but I think America can and should be Reagan’s City on a Hill- and I say that because we were. We were the measuring stick to which every nation, every society, pressed its best and brightest. We weren’t always right, but we always tried to be right.

And it seems like lately, we’ve been content to be profitable and safe. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be those things, it’s just not enough. America means more than that. And because I’ve been so tied to the soul of this nation, usually to my benefit, our country’s problems in the last decade hurt me personally. The world doesn’t look up to America they way it used to, and people have lost the twinkle in their eye when they wonder if that thing in the sky is a bird or a plane.

But that isn't an epitaph, or a eulogy. The headline here isn't, “Superman Loses Faith in America.” We’re a good nation, a good people. But we should be great. We can still be great. I believe in my heart we will be great again… I just don’t know that I’ll be alive to see it. And more than just about anything, that is what sucks about dying.

Maybe it's a new day dawning already. We elected a black man president. I remember talking to my wife at the beginning of the primaries; she was an ardent Hillary supporter, as her Planet blog attests. I remember the conversation we had, then. I thought that, because Hillary was who she was, because America so fondly remembered the Clinton years, that she might be able to be the first woman president, probably years ahead of her time. We both thought Colin Powell, pre-UN/WMD scandal, was the only African American who could do the same- and I came to that conclusion heavily, because I liked a lot of what Obama had to say. I mean, remember what my family crest means- hope isn't just a buzzword to me. So his election, and impending inauguration, that means something for America.

So I hope I've seen the sun rise, I hope that things are taking a turn, and I pray things turn out well. When they do, remember to enjoy the sun for me.

We’ll be trying to bring you a new section to the interview every Monday. Some of the questions have already been prepared by the interviewer, but to ask Superman a question, leave a comment or send an email to DeathofSuperman@gmail.com.