Bill O’Reilly, the man who alerted us to “the War on Christmas,” discovers that Superman Returns dropped “the American way” from the Man of Steel’s motto. This, unsurprisingly, displeases Mr. O’Reilly, who sees it as indicative of something larger and more troubling:
It’s bad enough Superman was raised in the Midwest, we can’t have the hero actually stand for the American way now, can we? Some jihadist in Pakistan might throw popcorn at the screen.
You don’t need X-ray vision to know that things have changed drastically in America in the past five years. When Superman left to go visit the planet of this birthplace, the USA was not engaged in a terror war; the country was merrily drifting along hoping that rap music would follow Monica Lewinsky into obscurity.
But that was then. Now, America is a divided country. We are fighting a fierce war on terror overseas, and an intense culture war at home. No longer is the “American way” something to be proud of. Today, forces abroad and at home believe we are a deeply flawed nation that is a danger to the world.
O’Reilly then launches into something about “the rise of a well-funded and well-organized secular-progressive movement,” and loses my interest completely.
July 7th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
But…but…according to all the press reports, SUPERMAN is JESUS now! Isn’t that MORE IMPORTANT than the American Way?
July 7th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Oddly enough, the Fleischer/Famous cartoons dropped the “American Way” bit as well, during that highly unpatriotic era known as World War 2….
July 7th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Yeah, they laid the messiah undertones on a bit thick. If Jor-el is God, and Superman is Jesus, who’s the Holy Spirit? The Phantom Zone? The Eradicator?
If there is a nugget of truth in Mr. O’Reily’s screed, it’s that there is a conscious effort to distance Supes with the word America. Foriegn markets are a big part of the movie business now. I could understand, given the U.S.’s unpopularity in the rest of the world. It just feels a little like selling out.
July 7th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Wasn’t “The American Way” added for the TV show, well after the Fleisher toons?
July 7th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
You mean the “war on Christmas” that didn’t actually exist?
July 7th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Yes, that very one.
July 7th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
This guy kills me. I honestly think that he just needs to get laid.
July 7th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
He’s tried that, I think.
More on topic, wasn’t it “the Terran Way” for a while in the ’70s? I seem to remember at least one reference, in the first Superman vs. Spider-Man book.
July 7th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Possibly my imagination, but it seems like a lot of people feel the need for Superman to be on ‘their’ side; whether that is gay, straight, Christian, Jewish, left-wing, right-wing, or anywhere in between. People invest themselves in Superman, and for in return they want him for themselves. Thus, Superman would both validate their beliefs, and be a platform to spread the word.
Or is O’Reilly just a tool, and I’m overthinking this?
July 7th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
O’Reilly’s a head case anyway. What’s slightly amusing is that if we went by the logic of his and his crew about immigrations, Supes would’ve been rocketed back into space. Remember he’s an illegal!
July 7th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
“The American Way,” if memory serves, was added to “Truth and Justice” in the intro to Superman’s radio series after the U.S. entered World War II. The phrase, like so much Superman lore, originated there.
You haven’t really heard the saying until you hear the show’s announcer, Jackson Beck, blast it out.
July 7th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Christ, I hate him. Did anyone catch his segment on why gay men can’t play straight lead roles?
On top of that, doesn’t he belong to all of us?
http://nevernews.squarespace.com/main/2006/6/27/superman-he-belongs-to-each-and-every-one-of-us.html
July 7th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
“This guy kills me. I honestly think that he just needs to get laid.”
Does creepy, harassing, late-night phone sex with disinterested/unwilling female subordinates from work count?
July 8th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Superman is notan immigrant, he’s a refeugee.
If there is a nugget of truth in Mr. O’Reily’s screed, it’s that there
is a conscious effort to distance Supes with the word America. Foriegn
markets are a big part of the movie business now. I could understand,
given the U.S.’s unpopularity in the rest of the world. It just feels
a little like selling out.
And if Jor-El is God, and Superman is Jesus, who’s the Holy Spirit? The Phantom Zone?
The Eradicator?
July 8th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
the reason is that the phrase “American way” has become synonymous with brutality, stupidity, selfishness, arrogance, or intolerance. The US has become the “evil” empire, the lone super power. Hell, O’Reily is proof of it.
July 8th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
“the reason is that the phrase “American way” has become synonymous with brutality, stupidity, selfishness, arrogance, or intolerance.”
The American Way has ALWAYS been synonymous with the things you mentioned, just ask Native Americans, African Americans, and pretty much any non-white, non-Christian minority group. Or you could ask the labor organizers of the early 20th century who were murdered for trying to form unions, Jewish Americans who were ghettoized by the larger “Christian” culture, or ethnic Europeans who came to America only to be harassed, insulted, and economically exploited.
Superman is a funny book character who flies around in tights and a cape, and who beats up other, garishly dressed people. The only thing “Superman” represents is a way to make a buck.
July 9th, 2006 at 12:22 am
IttoDaigoro
yeah, that’s right :sarcasm: it wasn’t the british/French/spanish/insert european country doing those things too… you know very well what the phrase “American Way” first meant, don’t be a self-rightous douchebag.
July 9th, 2006 at 2:04 am
I always found it strange for Superman to have been proclaimed to stand up only for “The American Way”. Yes it’s true he was created in America by Americans, but by the very virtue of his creation, his exceptional abilities, and his all encompassing pursuit for what is good and just, he became a citizen of the Earth first and foremost, and not just of America.
It’s difficult to imagine that a being from another world, to have those kinds of abilities to stand only for a relatively small section of the world. He should stand for all those who need him, all those who are oppressed, all across the world. For *everybody*. I believe Superman to be an ideal that’s beyond race, color and boundaries.
As a Filipino, it was what I felt when I had the opporunity to work as an inker on Superman on Superman: Birthright. Superman is my all time favorite superhero, bar none. Because unlike other superheroes, he alone seems to be the one that someone from halfway across the world could look up to, be inspired by, and be comforted with the fantasy that if Superman were real, he would be there for me too. No matter what country I’m in.
July 9th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
brutality – Like liberating Hitler’s death camps?
stupidity – Like conquering space, etc.?
selfishness – Marshall Plan, foreign aid?
arrogance – Got me. I think the USA is peachy keen.
intolerance – Sheesh! Half the world is trying to exterminate some race, group or another.
“American Way” was dropped so as not to offend America-hating moonbats who buy movie tickets.
July 9th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Kal-Elly
notice those examples were things that America did in the past. now all we do is have wars for oil, get fat on mcdonalds, and smoke our lives away.
July 9th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Got me. Next time I pick some examples of things we did in the future.
July 10th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Speaking as a non-American, most of the qualities associated with “the American way”, you know, things like truth, justice, liberty, free speech, democracy, are qualities that many non-Americans associate with their own countries. You wouldn’t find a Frenchman saying, “truth & justice? No, that’s the “American way”, we prefer lies & injustice.”
So it does seem relatively chauvinistic for an American to imply that such qualities are exclusively American. And therefore sensible to drop that kind of reference from a film which you want to put bums on seats in the 75% of the world economy that’s outside the US.
July 10th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Provided the Canadian connection to the creation of Superman, how about “Truth, Justice and the Canadian Way eh?”