It’s a little surprising that this is only the second story I’ve seen touching upon the supposed religious aspects of the Superman story (here’s the first). I was certain religion and features reporters would be all over this in the weeks leading up to Superman Returns.

Here, Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist David Waters looks at claims of religious overtones by the likes of Simcha Weinstein (“the comic book rabbi”) and Stephen Skelton, and rolls his eyes.

“Superman and his nebbish alter ego, Clark Kent, are now recognized, in retrospect, as a complex symbol of immigrant identity and assimilation, the embodiment of the American Dream, as imagined by two second-generation Jewish kids,” Weinstein writes on his website.

“The story of Superman bears some incredible parallels to the story of the Super Man, Jesus Christ,” Skelton writes in his book, The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero.

Waters refers to it as “popcorn theology.” But it’s fun popcorn theology, isn’t it?

Metropolis prepares for big crowds

As Waters scratches his head over questions of faith and Spandex, the people of Metropolis, Ill., have much more important things on their minds: namely, the four-day Superman Celebration, which kicks off today.

“With the movie coming out, it’s going to be crazy,” celebration chairwoman Karla Ogle told The Associated Press. “We’re just not sure how crazy. It’s going to be big.”

This year’s guest list includes comic creators Marv Wolfman and Steve Rude, and actors Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor from Smallville), Noel Neill (Lois Lane from The Adventures of Superman) and Stephen Bender (young Clark Kent from Superman Returns).

Previous festivals usually drew about 40,000 people. This year, organizers expect between 60,000 and 80,000.

Essex: the capital of Bizarro World

Of the countless Superman Returns tie-ins, the Superman Effervescent multivitamin may be the strangest — not so much for the product itself, but for the press release and, well, I’ll get to the other part in the second. Let’s look at the press release first.

It starts out a little hyperbolic — “Give you child a super-human start to the day” — but, hey, it’s a press release. Skip past all of that, though, and you’re treated to “Notes to the editor,” which explains “What Superman Means To the World”:

He’s the embodiment of justice, honesty, integrity and the power of achievement; the standard for all other heroes.

He is morally incorruptible; a role model to all with super powers: super strength, super speed and x-ray vision, and he has 100% worldwide awareness – he’s truly a global icon.

After that, things return to normal, plugging the U.K. premiere of Superman Returns. But for those two paragraphs, it was like the Gospel of Superman.

Oh, and the other weird thing — the website testimonial from little Matthew Jones of Bizarro World Essex, London: “Fantastic I want to be like Superman when I get older cannot wait for the film to come out.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 8:38 am and is filed under DC Comics, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.