Sometimes an idea becomes something much bigger than that original idea. It becomes an ideal. That thing by which all other things are graded. It doesn’t happen very often. Oar maybe it happens so often that we’re less impressed by it now than we were as a people at one point or another. Either way, it’s a rarity.

Recently, I’ve been having a conversation about this exact happening with a close, albeit new, friend of mine. We’ve been talking about things that we want to pass on to our kids. Specifically in my my instance, to Isaac. Ideals, morals, foundations rooted in honesty and integrity not popular consumerism and flavor of the month lovers.

But the world is changing. All the time. For better and for worse.
TOMS shoes. Buy a pair and provide a pair for a needy child. Better.
New shows on network television about the “glorious 60s and the rise of a media market for Playboy. Worse.

Times change. Things change. People change. But we want out ideals to stay the same.
And I get concerned. Rightfully so. I’m allowed to be concerned about the future now. I’m a dad. Dads inherently (possibily biologically) want their sons to be better than them. I know I want that for Isaac.

But what happens when the ideals change?

I’m not talking about the church…
Or a continually rising focus on objectifying women and sex on tv…
Or about people making a difference…

I’m talking about Superman.

Prepare yourself to be invited into the inner-nerddom of my mind…

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If you’re still reading this than you’re one of 2 types of people:
1. A fan of idealistic superheroes saving the day because they feel the obligation to help.
2. or, you’re looking for cannon fodder to belittle me at a later point in time.

Either way, I don’t care. It’s my blog. Not yours.

It’s really a pretty simple thing. In a few hours DC Comics is restarting the Superman story. And it concerns me. I’m all for modern story telling, getting new readers, and getting rid of the under-roos on the outside of the tights (I think we can all agree the tights themselves are a bit outplayed). But I get concerned at the ideals of Superman changing.

Maybe they won’t. Who knows. Everything I’ve read says they’re changing his back story. Still from Krypton, still adopted by the Kents, but then at some point becomes an orphan forcing him to deal more with the “I’m the last of a dead race” issues than the “how does a mid-west boy make it in the big city and keep his nose and everyone else’s clean” while he does it. Taking away his foundation in the Kents has some major implications to the story for me.

I remember a shift when I read comics as a kid (and into high school proving that my powers of hiding my inner nerd were better off than most people realized) when Supes and Lois started hooking up for the occasional booty call. It never got graphic but you knew. Drank Cane & Terri Hatcher proved it on TV. That was odd to me then because of all of the things that I thought Superman stood for.

Times change. Story telling changes. I get it. Bring in more readers.

But the Superman that I idealized as a kid (and still do) did the right things because it’s the right thing to do. It wasn’t showy (except for the tights). It was “truth and justice.” Pure and simple.

But here’s what I’m finding now: Superman has always been this adopted kid that was made to feel like part of the family by his adopted parents. Clark Kent was was actually Superman’s disguise because he was a super man. Nothing happened to him to make him super. He just was. But it’s also who he was raised to be. Pure and simple truth and justice depicted by the honesty and sincerity of an adopted couple’s love for their chosen son. I’m down with that.

Recently I read a graphic novel compilation of a comics series that ran a few years ago called Superman: Secret Origins that made me realize a whole new side to my fascination. The adoption. I found myself crying and relating to characters in new ways and seeing that things that make the characters real… It was stories about people. One specific chapter primarily focusied on the relationship between a son and his dad. Adopted, they chose each other. It was heart felt and honest. Scary and exciting all at the same time for some of those “adoption conversations” that I know I’m headed for.

I found a connection to a lot of things through Clark’s story. I’ve always felt like I’ve had to hold back. Like GOD created us for more and I limited it. I always felt like a bit of an outsider adapting from group to group and sometimes even in my own family. But, it’s what I want Isaac to know about himself that I’m connecting with more now.

He’s loved.
He’s accepted.
He’s chosen.
He has always been and will always be my son.
He has been created for more.
He is from too different “worlds.”
But he shouldn’t ever feel like an outsider.
He doesn’t have to limit himself.
And he will never have to guess where he stands with me.

So, pardon the ramblings of a sentimental 30-year-old “fanboy” dad.
I just hope that as the new stories unfold, there will be those same ideals of pure and simple truth and justice because a kindly couple took in a little boy they knew very little about and raised him like their own because it was the right thing to do…
And he was better for it…
And so were they.

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PJ