When the comic book writers Jeri Seigel and Joe Shuster introduced the red-captive crusader in ‘Action Comics #1’ in 1938, Superman was a requirement. He was a collective champion that was a ray of hope for less lucky children; A preacher shone Light on a world from economic depression; A Jewish icon against the anti-Jews; A foreigner who broke the misconceptions associated with immigrants; A lawyer of the American Dream, and a powerful voice against injustice offered a fictional escape to the working class. Born in one of the weakest ages in modern history, he had to become a perfect hero, so correct that this earth is nothing, such as cryptonite from the world of their home, can weaken them.
The irony is that a lot of society that once needed an ideal superhero, has now considered it irrelevant on a large scale. In 2025, Superman is often dismissed as an old fantasy. Compared to ‘real’ superheroes from DC and Marvel, they are often criticized as a product of an absurd myth – superhero original stories now need to be on Earth – and as an overpowerful unit that is very different for our reality.
But Superman critics often miss: “Man of Steel” has a weakness – not a cryptonite – but needs to be a binding, and for those for those who stand out in a world that stands out.
Quiet exile
“Completeism,” American clinical psychological and writer Anne Wilson Chef says, “is the highest order self-use.” Live in a society that constantly establishes ideals to live, we try to be the correct version of the fact that we and others think that we should be. It is a cage that we put in ourselves – a single pursuit of an impossible, abstract ideal. Life as a human being can make it feel so delicate that failing in daily routine seems like the end of the world.
From ‘Superman’ (1978) still. Photo Credit: Warner Brothers Pictures
Superman has always reflected this complex compulsion. He is internal a character designed to repeat the perception of society’s perfection – chisel jaw, fit body, beautiful, gentle form, and a farm boy who has touched the grass and can see right from wrong. In Richard Donor Overman (1978), recurrence of Christopher Rev, suffering from the death of her beloved Lois Lane, even breaks the cosmic laws to bring her back. In zack snider Batman V Superman: Don of Justice (2016), Henry Cavill’s Superman of Batman from Batman, his adopted mother, in a weak moment, paints him as a sad person, who paints herself to not be able to save his adopted father, Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner). Unlike other superheroes, being invincible is non-paralysis for Superman.
“Superman cannot kill” – This is a code that has followed every portrayal of superheroes. When the fiction decides to break the code, it is often pushed to another extreme, alternative illustrations such as a demon such as brightburn, homelander (Boys) And omni-man (UnstoppableIn DC, even the wicked Superman in Donor’s third film does not go to the limits of murder; While the rule of Zack Snyder now ended in Defunct DCEU, we could see an evil superman (indicated in the nightmare sequence BVS), The scene in which Superman reluctantly kills General Zod, reflects this moral quarrel. In fact, unlike most superheroes, Superman can never let himself be it that he really is or uses his powers for his full potential.
Loneliness of being very good
“The last son of Crypton” is often depicted as an God -like unit, which should learn to live slowly among delicate creatures. But rarely films depict the fear of separation and frustration which comes from not allowing itself to be. Superman’s ego, as Clarke Kent, has to avoid using his full potential – even a glass of water can be troubled by getting very tightly – to avoid detection. He should also press parts of himself with Lois.
Attractively, it is not always about protecting their identity.
In the 1978 film, the first dialogue his father told him, “Showing a little, are you not, son?” He draws on his friends for an incompatible mischief. Clarke replied, “Is it showing whether someone is doing the work that he is able to do? Does a bird appear when he fly away?” Is Superman showing whether he is … Superman? Jonathan replied, “When you came to us for the first time, we thought that people will come and take you away, because when they came to know, you know, the things you can do … and it makes us very worried. But then a man gets old, and he starts thinking differently, and things start thinking differently, and things become very clear and one thing that I know, son, and you are for one reason, you are for one reason.”
Still from ‘Man of Steel’. Photo Credit: Warner Brothers Pictures
Clarke can also be seen as a mask that needs to be worn on a misfit. Even his reluctance to open to Lois painted him as a tragic person, who should wear a journalist’s cap to fit. This is his only living strategy and the only way that can be ‘tolerated them’. In a world that demands analogity and separates misfits, Clarke is the only way to deal with loneliness that comes with being great compared to the rest. It’s easy to be what they want – wear a pair of glasses, And they will see a person who disappears in the crowd.
Whenever things get out of the order, Superman needs to retreat in his Clarke Kent Identification. In Dawn of justiceThe Senate is shaken by bombing and media trial, superman internal rejection and questions his own purpose. Usually increasing a strong moral compass, he is more impressed as to how others see him, reflect an internal crisis, between which he wants to be and who is expected to be.
Comes in an attractive parallel Superman II (1980), where Clarke is left bloodshed at once. His feeling of self-values ​​is broken. He finds out that Clarke is not what he is considered, it is a re -use.
Alternatively, Superman’s struggle as an ideal is well pronounced when supervisors envy their image as the leader of mankind. In James Gun’s upcoming Superman film, Lex Luther’s struggle allegedly stems from the belief that he – not Superman (David Konswetws) – is better suited to lead mankind.
Superman is a symbol of perfection, an eccentric that is not allowed to be, and it makes him the rarity of superheroes in the history of imagination. You do not need a spear of cryptonite to threaten her. He is already his cryptonite.
Published – July 11, 2025 11:57 am IST
