Superman, Superboy, and the Nature of Duality

I want to write comic books. Yeah, that should be pretty obvious. To that end, I often write up brief outlines for characters or series that I'd one day like to script. Sometimes these are little capsules, sometimes they're character studies, sometimes they're even full arc outlines. This is what I do in boring classes when doodling isn't enough.

Anyway, the first Blue Prints references my thoughts on Superboy's character, and how he relates to Superman, which I detailed in one of these outlines. Rather than padding out that entry with unnecessary explanation, I thought it merited its own post.

Superman is a collection of opposing dualities, held together by a strength of character far greater than the strength required to stop runaway trains or leap tall buildings. He's a wide-eyed farm boy and a streetwise city dweller, a sharp-minded investigative reporter and a heroic leader, an orphan and a family man, a godlike alien and a down-to-earth human. He is Clark Kent of Smallville, KS, a one-time athletic social outcast who became a world-renowned syndicated columnist and world-class investigative journalist. He is Kal-El, the last son of a dead world, the final (well, almost) heir to a millennia-old legacy. He is Superman, the primary-colored boy scout who led the second generation of Earth's superheroes. Clark may be the most honest expression of his personalities and abilities, but when people say that Clark Kent is the real person and Superman is the mask (or vice versa--curse you, David Carradine!) they're missing a part of the point. Superman is the sum of his identities: Clark's upbringing, Kal-El's legacy, and Superman's incredible abilities.

Superboy, on the other hand, is torn between his dualities. First it was inexperience and immaturity vs. a desire to be seen as an adult, then it was superheroics vs. a desire to be normal, a maturing personality vs. physical agelessness, civilian life vs. superheroic life, responsibility vs. fun, orphan clone vs. youth with a family, nature vs. nurture, Superman vs. Lex Luthor...every stage of Kon's life has been plagued by these oppositions. He hasn't yet matured enough to straddle these worlds, to relish in them the way Superman does, but he's still young, still new to this sense of identity and to the dual responsibilities of civilian and superhero life. Eventually, he'll find the balance, and he'll find that what is important is not what he is, but who he is.

I think this is a major part of why Superboy belongs in the modern Superman mythos. He's not just "Superman when he was a boy," he's "Superman when he hadn't figured out exactly what that meant yet." He's Clark's younger brother, looking for guidance and acceptance, trying to fill Clark's shoes and find his own way at the same time. Supergirl doesn't even have a secret identity now; she's content being a full-time superhero. Superboy comes from a different background and point of view, and he brings a wealth of new and different character opportunities to the Superman family.

A Geekend in Nerdvana

This past weekend was a geekfest. I geeked out. James Kakalios warned me not to have a geekgasm. I played a wine glass. I moderated a trivia contest where the answer to one question was "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas." I watched people explode five gallons of non-dairy creamer. The nerd gods smiled upon me and granted me a weekend that somehow incorporated physics, comic books, video games, epic literature, and blowing stuff up.

Friday night, we began the Society of Physics Students Zone 9 meeting, a semi-annual event which Augie decided to hold this time 'round. We had a decent buffet dinner, a panel discussion featuring folks from a variety of colleges 'round the midwest discussing grad school admissions (yeah, something that would have been useful last year), and then James Kakalios gave a speech about the Physics of Superheroes.

I only started reading his book on Thursday, even though Jon got it for me back in December. What can I say, I'm far behind on reading for class; I barely have time to finish the comics I get every week, reading for pleasure has fallen by the wayside. I'm happy to say that it wasn't what I expected it to be. I own Mark Wolverton's The Science of Superman, which started from Superman's basic (modern era) power set and the proposed in-comic explanations for those powers, then explains how they might realistically function, so I expected this to be more of the same.

Instead, Dr. Kakalios starts from the position of a Physics Professor trying to make Physics class interesting to bored students, so he uses examples of where superhero comic books got their Physics right. He starts from real life science, and uses superheroes to explain it. In other words, this is more a science book than a superhero one, a good primer on basic Physics concepts seen through the lens of superheroics. Speaking as a Physics major and Comics fan, it's fantastic. It's the perfect merger of two of my favorite things.

It's also one of two books I have signed by Physicists. The other is Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. I like Dr. Kakalios much better (to be honest, Greene was quite the giant douche). Here's the awesometastic autograph:

To Tom - From your friendly neighborhood physics professor, James Kakalios
His speech was mostly material from the book, but the flourishes he adds in person really make the experience (like when he pulls out a pipe, mentioning that when you become a real scientist, they give you a pipe. Incidentally, between the pipe and the tweed jacket, he looked quite a bit like Doc Magnus). I was in dork heaven for an hour and a half. It wouldn't be far off to say that he's the best there is at what he does, and what he does is awesome.
I got to chat quite a bit with Dr. Kakalios before and after the speech, generally geeking out, bringing up classic quandaries like "how does the Thing swim" and "DC or Marvel?" He's a supremely nice guy, and it was a real honor to meet him.
Overall, it was one of the most entertaining evenings I've had in a long time. I wish I could have talked with Dr. Kakalios more, maybe gotten a picture with him, but there'll be time for that when I'm in a doctoral program. Remind me to add University of Minnesota to the list.

The Physics Zone Meeting continued the next day with a few student presentations and a trivia contest co-moderated by yours truly. Said contest wasn't nearly as fun as I'd hoped, and the physics students not nearly as geeky. Usually, I don't overestimate the dorkiness of fellow science majors.

Sunday, various members of our Physics club traveled out to some place in Iowa and learned how to make (some) and set off fireworks. Once the forms come in the mail, I will be certified to handle and fire certain explosives (at least, under certain circumstances). I hope I'll eventually be able to put up some pictures of the various explosions, as some were very unconventional and spectacular.

Comic books, physics, trivia, and blowing stuff up. What more could I have asked for in a weekend?

Well, time for one. It's because of the way Sunday was gobbled up by fireworks that I've been playing homework catch-up all week, and haven't been able to finish any of my blog posts. More forthcoming, though, including the start of Blue Prints!

If you happen to be in town...

If you happen to be in the Quad City Area today, drop by Augustana College in Rock Island, IL 'round about 8:00 PM. Augustana Physics Club presents James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota, speaking about the Science of Superheroes, in Science Building Room 304. I've been enjoying his recent book, The Physics of Superheroes, so I'm psyched.

This whole event (a larger Physics conference with a superhero theme, due to the keynote speaker's specialty) has been one big geek-out for yours truly. I got to design the Physics Club t-shirt, and I'm in charge of the trivia (with two superhero categories) and I'll be supplying several comic-based movies for later tonight. I'll have pictures soon, I guarantee it.

DC Solicit Snark

Wow, they sure cancelled JSA quietly.
Looks like the rumors of Vandal Savage's death were greatly exaggerated.
And the award for least dynamic cover ever goes to...
Looks like Dick Grayson's in the market for a new first name. Honestly, how many Nightwings does one book need?
What an ugly, ugly cover. Note to Michael Turner: please don't try to draw perspective. Ever.
Looks like Snapper Carr is controlling the new OMAC. "Eye dig that crazy hot rod, Creator-O! Eye'm buggin' out!"
I believe this is what happens when Ethan Van Sciver vomits onto a canvas. Ye gods, I think he looked at this and said "Wow, that cover's so awful that I bet I could put Ghost Rider right in the middle of it, and no one would even notice."
52 Looks like it's going to be a blast, and that's no snark.

Read More!

You won't have Luthor to kick around anymore

Jon, following my explanation of the President Luthor storyline:

"So it's like, at the end of 'All the President's Men,' Nixon put on a battle suit to fight Woodward and Bernstein."

Telegram to Frank Miller

Frank Miller STOP
Please stop STOP

P.S. stop STOP

I can't wait to see what the legion of feminist bloggers has to say about this latest travesty.

First Comic Week

Seems like everybody remembers their first comic. I feel a little left out, to be honest. I have no idea what my first comic was.

Well, that's not entirely true. I imagine that my first comic was one of the many that came with the He-Man figures. I remember my dad reading them to me in bed when I was much younger, at my request, I'm sure. I still have all of mine in a tin that once held Danish butter cookies.

I know that my parents both collected comics at one point; my dad's, like so many others, were thrown out by his parents, but many of my mom's survived. Both my parents had once been avid readers, especially of science fiction. My dad had always gotten flak for that from my grandpa, who thought it was garbage, so I managed to never get any of the "rot your brain" speeches.

For years, I read my mom's comics in secret. They were under the bed in the guest room, for unfathomable reasons, and so I thought that I wasn't supposed to look at them. I couldn't tell you what indivicual issues were there except Superman #230 and Adventure Comics #397, the ones that I still remember the covers for. But I remember most of the stories. There were some 80-page giants with Metamorpho and Green Arrow tales, there was at least one Johnny Quick back-up story, there was one story where Superman fought Green Lantern and used the yellow shield on his cape to block his ring's effects. There were a bunch of Legion of Super-Heroes stories: one where Princess Projectra and Saturn Girl return to Legion headquarters, only to find that no one remembers them, and they've been replaced with Prince Projectra and Saturn Boy. I remember the one where the Legionnaires get imprisoned by three-eyed aliens led by evil Nardo, Matter-Eater Lad gets fat, and Blockade Boy dies. The ones I remember most, though, were the Super-Sons: Batman Jr. and Superman Jr. If you want to see Superman at his dickiest, watch him knock his son down with super-breath during a potato sack race; watch him take away Clark Jr.'s powers with gold Kryptonite for no good reason, then guiltily transfer his own powers to the boy. Good times.

I know the first comics I ever picked out for myself included a couple of Thundercats issues and Adventures of Superman #429. It always bothered me that the Thundercats comics were so poorly colored, and that they couldn't get the chant right (Thunder x3, Thundercats Ho!). I know that the first places where I'd buy comics were Books, Comics, and Things and Scott's grocery store in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I started buying Batman 'round the 480s, where it was mostly Denny O'Neil and Tom Mandrake and Jim Aparo and such. I picked up quite a few Marvel Tales featuring Spider-Man and X-Men Classics and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.

At some point, I got a couple of boxes of random comics out of a Sears catalog, and that started my collection in earnest. Before long, I was subscribed to Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil. When we moved to Ohio, I dropped the Spider-Man subscription for the four Superman books, right 'round the time of his death (I even registered on a waiting list for Superman #75 at some comic shop around Cuyahoga Falls). Over 13 years later I'm still subscribed, though I'm nowhere near Cuyahoga Falls.

So, yeah, first comic? You got me. I can't remember my first kiss, either. In the end, the firsts aren't what really matter, though, are they? It's what comes after.

Read More!

There should still be an Electric Superman

I first heard about Superman's new costume on some vapid conservative talk radio show that my mom was listening to in the car. The host was ranting about how they were going to give Superman a new blue-and-white costume to match the U.N. colors. I laughed the whole story off as ridiculous; at best the guy must have misunderstood some press release or something.

Eventually, ads started showing up, and the storyline began in earnest. Superman started passing through things, electronics went nuts around him, that sort of thing. I was upset at first, but once I saw that they hadn't changed the title of "Superman: The Man of Steel," I realized that it'd be a temporary change. I'd come a long way since I was convinced that the Cyborg was the real Superman.

Once I'd come to terms with the temporary nature of the story, I thought it had a lot of potential. Sadly, much of that potential was lost in a sea of inconsistencies and dropped subplots. Superman's new powers were ill-defined; sometimes he couldn't touch things, other times he could; sometimes he couldn't fly and could only bolt from place to place, other times he could fly normally, other times he could fly but had a hard time doing other things. Eventually he got sent to the Source Wall and torn in half and fought the Millennium Giants and whatnot, and anything interesting that could have happened in the books went away.

But I really dig the costume (it even follows the Ron Frenz rule of costume design! Ron Frenz drew that cover!), and I think the powers are interesting, despite the fact that it became business as usual after a few issues. They brought the outfit back for Strange Visitor, but that was an awkward name for a character, and she was so tied up in cosmic mumbo-jumbo and weird time travel nuttiness that it's probably best for everyone that she died in Our Worlds at War. Even with the burden of those two semi-failures, I think it's a shame to let such cool character potential go to waste.

So, let's bring back the Electric Superman. No, no, I'm not suggesting that Superman return to the blue-and-white, that's just a bad idea all around. But there's nothing to stop us from getting some new blue. With a little more planning as far as what the character's powers actually are, and with some solid story threads to explore, I think we could turn Superman Blue into a viable, interesting character, and a worthy addition to the Superman family.

Let's face it, the Superman family ain't exactly as big as it used to be.

So, over the next several days I'll post a variety of character proposals designed to bring back the Blue. I think I'll call the feature "Blue Prints."