Indirect Distraction: I kind of feel like we’ve been straying from the point- it’s interesting to hear you talk, candidly, about your relationships, but I think we should refocus. You’ve been called ‘the man of tomorrow’ and ‘the last son of Krypton,’ but how do you think your illness impacts either of these?
Superman: I think there was still a sense, when I first, um, arrived on the scene, as it were, that we were still on the cusp of the future. That jetpacks and an end to disease were coming, soon, if we could just hold our breath a little longer. I think that’s where the whole ‘man of tomorrow’ thing comes from. People thought, in a few years, that will be me, or at the least in a few years that’ll be my kids. When people learned that I was from another planet, that I had future technology in my hands, well, that just played into it all the more.
As to being the last son of Krypton… I’m not. At least, not strictly. Because there’s Kara.
ID: Your cousin, Supergirl.
S: That’s… always a really weird thing for me to hear her called. I don’t remember much about Krypton- at that age the world was mostly shapes and colors- but I remember quite distinctly my mother, my father, and Kara. She used to, I guess babysit, would be the word. And when my father sent me to Earth in a rocket, he sent Kara, too, to look after me. It was rotten luck that caused her ship to be damaged in the planet’s explosion. At the time, physically, and emotionally, she was about the equivalent of 16. So at least chronologically, she’s older than I am- it’s odd for me to think of her as a girl.
ID: Yet she is a girl, though she’s blossoming, becoming a woman. How’s, how is your relationship, now? Do you find yourself mentoring her?
S: Obviously, yes. It’s a very odd state of affairs. When it comes to Krypton or things Kryptonian, when I’m with her, I feel very much like I’m a Native American kid raised off the reservation, who’s been playing cowboys and Indians because that’s the closest reasonable facsimile I had. But she knows the people and the culture that I largely missed out on. The robots and the technology my father sent me with taught me how to read, write and speak Kryptonese, but she taught me my first Kryptonian swear words, and tells me stories about Kryptonian food, the way it tasted, the way it smelled. She’s still working with Earth ingredients, trying to capture the proper flavor and texture. Kara really is the last Kryptonian survivor- and I’m happy its legacy rests with her- I always felt like I was a fake- I know Krypton from books and pictures, and video archives- she smelled its air, felt its wind on her skin- Krypton’s a fairy tale to me, but for Kara, it was home.
Of course on Earth, especially interacting with humans, the tables are completely reversed. I’ve lived on Earth more than twice as long as she was on Krypton- and I was raised by human beings. And she has lots of questions, which she’s finally gotten comfortable enough to ask- though it’s mostly just culture shock.
ID: About that, I actually sort of wanted to ask, who was responsible for the design of her costume, or is it based on traditional Kryptonian garb, and the planet really was the paradise it’s sometimes described as?
S: Careful.
ID: Aww- you’re defending your cousin’s honor.
S: Not at all. Kara’s a big girl- with an exceptional left hook. I speak with absolutely no hyperbole when I say she could take your jaw clean off- and might. She’s still learning about human customs and vulnerabilities.
But you’re pouring a bit of salt in a wound there, actually. Kara’s had a rough time adjusting. I don’t want to… go into her past- I think revealing certain things would be breaking her trust. But suffice it to say that she has lingering issues with her father.
ID: All right. Let me ask a hard question. Kara’s certainly had a rough time, including some rather nasty press coverage coming out of the Daily Planet. But putting that S on her chest, it’s a lot to live up to- you’ve made it a lot to live up to. And with your illness, she isn’t just there to augment you, pretty soon she’s going to be the standard bearer of that symbol. Do you think she’s up to the task?
S: I do. I’ve seen a lot of people try to do this, and it’s really, really tough work, emotionally. It grinds some people to dust, and consumes others. But what it takes to succeed in this is an unwillingness to bend in the face of adversity. Kara’s held on a lot longer than most, through some of the toughest times I’ve seen, and I think if she can go just a little longer, she’ll break through, and be the kind of hero she wants to be, which will put her on the path to the hero the world is going to ask her to be.
ID: So you think she’ll make a suitable replacement for you when you’ve passed?
S: God, I hope not. Because Kara’s her own person. I want her to be who she is, to find that place that I’ve been lucky enough to find, where the kind of person the world wants you to be and the kind of person you want to be aren’t mutually exclusive, and at least for me, have been complementary. I don’t want Kara shoe-horned into my roles in the community, because they wouldn’t suit her; she has to find her own path and her own way. I mean, I’m proud of her already, as proud as any father could be, but I’m disappointed, too, that I won’t get to see it all the way through.
ID: God. Um, I’m sorry. I’d forgotten, my condolences, about your own father.
S: Yeah, thank you. He… he was my dad, you know? There were times we disagreed, hell, even fought, over the right direction for me, for my life. But any time we argued, and he didn’t know if I was right, didn’t know if it could ever be right to interfere in such a massive way, I’d tell him, “I may not always be right, dad, but I’ll always do right by those who depend on me. Because that’s the kind of man you raised me to be.” I’m going to miss him, so much.
We’ll be trying to bring you a new section of 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.
