Open Letter to Superman Haters

Here is my rant and I feel it's something we've all heard at some point. You'll be talking about comics, what are the odds this is happening, and then you'll hear someone's utter disgust in Superman not only as a comic, but as a character. This has always irked me to no end because it seems silly to hate Superman. Such a large part of popular culture is Superman he's like the Simpsons, or Godzilla. It's usually people I work with in some comic related thing or another. I assumed that people who worked in comics and loved comics would have a better understanding of comics. Yet hating Superman to me is just like hating comics.

The lack of historical comic book understanding by up and coming comic creators is apparent by how they feel about Superman. Superman is the first superhero which started the gold rush to create other superheroes. In a matter of years after his first appearance in Action Comics #1 he became the most recognizable fictional characters in western civilization. Comics before Superman were "funny books" usually under ten pages and less funny than the worst issue of Archie.

The Golden Age of Comic Books starts with Action Comics #1 for a reason. The superhero which is now standard was unheard of at the time and a brand new idea. Through the depression until now Action Comics featuring Superman has had an almost uninterrupted run. The only other comic with a longer run is Detective Comics by one year and didn't feature Batman until 1939.

So for one character to become the most recognizable fictional character in the world, have a series since 1938 with no signs of stopping, an uncountable number of spin offs, countless projects in other medias, and the basis for an entire comic universe it stands to reason that he must be important.

Aspiring comic creators do not enjoy Superman for obvious reasons he's become a bit trite and they being adults enjoy more adult books; although they do not respect him either. They seem him as the model, "Dumb corny hero." Many of them even express a desire for his, Superman's, story to end.

Now why would people wishing to enter a field not even want to acknowledge its founding idea? People who make cars don't hate Ford. Modern Philosophers don't hate the Greeks. Stephen Hawkins doesn't hate Albert Einstein. Yet in comics there is a general, "Superman is lame and did nothing for me or our profession."

The only way they cannot see what he has done is their lack of understanding of comics or even comic history. To put another way would-be comic professionals are in reality pop culture junkies who feel that their eclectic tastes are the only real art to be championed. I don't mean to say that everyone should be able to name the three companies that formed together to make DC Comics, or should know that DC once printed Marvel Comics, but it would be nice. If these pseudo-intellectuals feel that Superman is so unimportant then they would try to live their lives without using anything that has been affected by Superman. Sure they could do almost everything they usually do, but read comics.

I understand that using the term pop culture might raise a few eyebrows because if Superman is so important as I have said then wouldn't he be a part of it? He is a large part of popular culture. The popular cultures I speak of above are an underground popular culture, yet of course still part of the standard popular culture. An example of this would be Reality Shows are a part of popular culture, but not everyone likes them, yet they can still enjoy popular culture status. The underground or indy titles is a self proclaimed status by many comic fans and creators. Characters like Superman are used to be the opposite in such movements. By setting Superman as an example shows that he is still important because you're still using him. We've all run into the concept of liking something because it is unknown by the masses. The hypocrisy of this can be often apparent with some things right away. If something is underground such as Johnny the Homicidal Maniac then how does it sell so much? Isn't really just a mislabel it's popular of course because it sells so much it's really just against the grain, but that doesn't mean it and Superhero comics can't coexist.

It is like a modern artist hating classical art because it isn't like art he likes today. If we heard that we would consider, I hope, him silly and failing to see the point. Everything works on stone on top of the other. If we were unable to stand on the shoulders of our formers then we would be unable to see.

Now why are my colleagues, the would-be comic creators, denying their past? Do they fail to see the natural progression in any creative medium? If this were the bible it would go like this: Superman begat The JSA, The Golden Age, and the rest of the Golden Age characters; The Golden Age begat the Sliver Age, which begat The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Avengers, and the idea the superheroes can be people and have modern problems. I could keep going with this generalized view of the evolution of comics, but I feel my point is made. It all started with Superman on any time line of comic history his name is first and in bold not because of his popularity, but because of his massive impact on the industry and art.

I've even heard people proclaim that Superman and other heroes like him are the reason for the decline of comic books. According to Wikipedia, "They do not take into account the rise in comic prices due to a nationwide paper shortage, increasing production values, and the minimal profit incentive for stores to stock comic books (due to the small unit price of an individual comic book relative to a magazine)."

If there wasn't a Superman we would be doing one of two things: still making "funny books" or creating Superman. I don't think it is important to like Superman just understand his importance. I just think that the largest part of our collective history is Superman and without him the backbone upon which the American Comic Industry is built would crumble.

If the fan boys/girls (pop culture junkies) have little or no respect for Superman, doesn't that reflect how they feel about comic books in general? Seeing as Superman is to comics as wheel is to transportation. You can still love comics without the love of Superman, but you can't just deny his affect on them.