Superman hasn’t changed.
You have.
Since the Man of Steel’s newest film dropped last week, there have been cries of unfairness from the right-wingers among us. They found, they claim, a message of compassion and empathy for immigrants within the new “Superman” movie, and MAGA world is unhappy.
Superman has gone woke, they say.
But they … are morons.
Overly sensitive, hyper-hateful, thoroughly disgusting, ravenously racist morons who believe that they are entitled to have the world not only bend to their whims and fancies, but also coddle them and snuggle them whenever they have the misfortune of looking in a mirror.
That’s what happened with Superman.
He didn’t go woke. He didn’t espouse pro-immigrant rhetoric. He’s the same kind, compassionate, “we’re all humans, let’s get along together and be decent to one another” guy that he’s always been.
He hasn’t changed.
Your reception of his message has changed.
And somehow you’re mad because the whole rest of the world didn’t go with you to the dark side.
I mean, seriously, take a look around. You all are cozying up to dictators and embracing insane billionaires. You’ve taken the side of the Empire and shunned the Resistance. You’ve turned Lex Luthor (Elon Musk) into your idol.
(Come on, y’all, you’ve got to see that Musk is a movie-level villain, right? He’s a hysterically-laughing billionaire who launches rockets and is taking advantage of the narcissistic dope president to steal everyone’s personal data. It’s like a comic book came to life before our eyes.)
None of these movies – these childhood institutions that held our life lessons – have changed. They still teach us about good vs. evil and right vs. wrong. They still romanticize the underdog and turn the average joe trying to do good into the hero. They still tell us that the folks working hard on the floor are more heroic than the billionaire in the penthouse trying to squeeze every dime out of them. And most of all – certainly in almost every Disney and superhero movie – they teach us that treating each other with dignity and respect, no matter what we look like or where we come from or how much money we have, is the true test of goodness in this world.
These are the lessons that we all grew up with. These are the lessons that we used to lean into. You know, back before it became the norm to shun and shame transgender and gay kids, to literally chase immigrant children from schools and to elect a president who mocks a disabled person.
I can’t tell you how many times, as I’ve watched one of the classic movies we grew up, that I wondered how in the hell did so many people who grew up watching the same movies and TV shows so thoroughly and completely either miss the message or ignore it outright.
(I have similar thoughts when these same people mention their Christian faith. But then, I’ve also heard that Jesus fella is too woke these days too.)
From Cinderella’s kindness to the message of not judging outward appearances in Beauty and the Beast to the empathy of Wonder Woman to the compassion of Captain America to the message of standing up for the weak and marginalized that’s in pretty much every superhero movie, the movies we loved as children taught every single one of us to behave a helluva lot differently than what we’re seeing today.
That’s why Superman is such a tough watch, particularly for those who have spent the last few years vilifying the Hispanic immigrants who now call America home. The movie, without even trying, holds up a giant mirror to the abhorrent behavior that has been prevalent among a large number of people in this country.
For those who have spent their days whining constantly about the “invasion” of “vermin” at the border and pretending that a working-class human from a different place is your enemy, that mirror had to hold a nightmarish reality. Particularly when a character in the movie reminds you that your actions and deeds, and nothing else, determine who you are.
Yeah, the picture in that mirror must be tough to see.
But now you know what the rest of us have been looking at all this time.
