Superman and Smallville Sure Have Changed

I grew up with Superman. I had every issue of the comic up until 1969 when I went to the Navy. Unfortunately, my mother discarded them when she cleaned out my room or I would be richer today. But the superman of my youth would be amazed at what television and the movies has done to him. You see, back in the original comic (and T.V. series, for that matter) he was just a man from a planet with much higher gravity which gave him super strength. He couldn't fly or levitate, he leaped tall buildings. To fly required a running start and landing was a real jolt. Oh, yes, he had x-ray vision which could produce heat and see through everything except lead. He couldn't run at super speed in regular clothing. Regular clothing would blow off at super speeds as we all know. Everything was explained in the original comics. His glasses didn't melt because they were made from the windshield of his spacecraft. His costume didn't burn or tear because it was made from the blanket he was wrapped in on the ship.

Ma and Pa Kent were old when he arrived on earth, not in their thirties as on the show. His ship never flew again after crashing and was never meant to. Kryptonite was very rare back then, not found everywhere like now. LexLuther wasn't a school hood friend. He didn't meet Lois Lane until he became a reporter for The Daily Planet. Ma and Pa Kent didn't keep a chunk of the green around to keep him in line and he never even knew about the "Phantom Zone" until he was an adult.

So much has changed since George Reeves portrayed the man of steel in black and white T.V.. So much that I'll never really enjoy the "new" version. To me, it's like changing history and turning fact into fiction almost. The original comic even had a reader feedback section to catch anomalies which the writers missed. Everything had an explanation and a reason then and Superman was every boy's hero, never bad or mean or even jealous. The epitome of the all American Dream. Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's Superman! Who is this strange visitor from another planet with powers far beyond those of mortal men? Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. And who, disguised as mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.