Remembering the original Superman

Even before the latest Superman film premiered, it was already deemed controversial. A rather innocuous comment by director James Gunn referencing Superman’s backstory as an “immigrant that came from other places” was enough to spark a backlash among conservatives who called the movie “woke” and vowed to boycott it.

Why all the anger when this is indeed Superman’s origin story? He is sent to Earth as a refugee from a planet that is about to die.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created Superman in the 1930s, were both sons of Jewish immigrants to the United States and Canada, respectively. The two projected onto Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego, their experiences, fears and longing as two shy young men of immigrant backgrounds who struggled to fit in. Like them, their hero does not quite feel he belongs – neither as Clark, who is timid and lacks the confidence to speak up or approach others, nor as Superman, who is feared by some for being an alien.

Growing up, reading the comics, I saw in Clark Kent someone I knew too well – a hesitant, modest man, shrinking himself to fit in. I saw myself. I too was an immigrant, and I too had had to leave my country before it started falling apart.

And so, I looked forward to seeing the new Superman film, hoping to see a return to the original premise. My children and I counted down to the premiere together, watching trailers and reading interviews. We went to see the film, and I felt a genuine sense of recognition. It was great to see the core of Superman’s story pushed to the fore once again.

But why did some see the immigrant backstory in Superman as a threat? As an attempt to make their favourite superhero “woke”?

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that for a long time, Superman was whitewashed into a pliant superhero who worked with and represented American power. How did it get to that?

When their creation became too popular, Siegel and Shuster lost control over it because their publisher decided to sideline them.

“Jack Liebowitz, the president of DC [Comics], sees that they can sell Superman pillowcases and pyjamas – but if Superman’s running around throwing people out of windows and threatening to wrap iron bars around their necks, it isn’t going to work,” Paul S Hirsch, author of Pulp Empire: A Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism, told the BBC.