January 2012. I ejected the last DVD and breathed a satisfied sigh. I had finished the tenth and final season of Smallville. The journey that had begun when some friends introduced me to this television retelling of Superman’s teenage years had come to a close. Sort of. Because, on the way, I had been instilled with a deep love of Superman aka Kal-El aka Clark Kent. This led me to dabble in some of the comics, go back and watch the original movies, and even have a book of the Sunday classics that sits above my desk.
June 2013. I find myself in a friend’s car on the way home after viewing the latest rendition of the man in the red cape, Man of Steel. It was more than satisfying; it was a rollicking ride of epic moments (albeit with a little too much gratuitous destruction for my taste) that lived up to the heavy task of rebooting a well-storied franchise.
Cards on the table, I am a fully fledged Superman fan. Not just because he is super, morally pure, and always gets the girl, but also because the Superman mythology has parallels with the Christian story that have drawn me in and kept me engaged where other superheroes have not.
Parallels, of course, are nice things. It gives us warm fuzzies to engage with stories that we recognize. As a result, if you run a search on “Man of Steel & Christianity”, you quickly find a number of articles that provide a list of these parallels. However the existence of parallels is not, in itself, that interesting. It is something we would expect in a Western society whose stories have been deeply Christianized. What makes those parallels interesting is this question: how do they illuminate or remind us of truths about Christ? In other words, do these parallels actually have the potential to provide spiritual edification?
The reality is that Superman is not Jesus — even though Man of Steel went so far as to feature a shot with Superman’s face in the foreground and a stained-glass portrayal of Jesus praying in Gethsemane in the background. Sure, maybe they both fly (the ascension, anyone?) and yes, they are both involved in major salvation projects, but Jesus certainly never took center stage the way Superman does and neither, to the best of my knowledge, did Jesus have heat vision. Nevertheless, I think there are three major things that the Christian can take away from any interaction with Superman that can remind us of truths about Jesus and impress them upon us in new ways, beyond just “oh-hey-wow-that-guy-in-the-tights-is-kind-of-like-Jesus-cool!”
Quest for Identity
First, the Superman-Christ parallels remind us that both are oriented around showing us what it means to be human. For Superman, this comes as a result of his own quest for identity. He is an alien (literally) in a human world. Born to Kryptonians but raised by human parents, Superman must navigate what he is to adopt about each world and what he is to lay aside. In Man of Steel Jor-El, Superman’s Kryptonian father, tells him, “You are as much a son of earth now as you are of Krypton. You can embody the best of both worlds.” Along these lines, Zach Snyder, Man of Steel’s director, comments that Superman “has come to earth to remind us of ourselves.” As a result, Superman becomes humanity’s moral compass, always pointing north and serving as an inspiration to humanity to be their best self.
This parallels Jesus’ own mission in some significant ways and, read in light of Christ, the Superman narrative highlights this revelatory function powerfully. Yes, Jesus comes to make a way to the Father but his mission also includes teaching and showing what humanity looks like when in proper relationship to God, other humans, and the world; in other words, Jesus shows us what it means to be human. Jesus, like Superman, shows us this by being like us, yet also above us. The book of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus underwent temptation and trial just as we do so that he might be like us (Hebrews 4:15), and as a result, us like him. The vision of the New Testament is also one in which humanity is transformed into the image of Jesus (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18), not because humanity needs to become something other, but because this man is exactly what humanity is supposed to be: walking in step with the Spirit in utter dependence upon the Father.
Concern for Individuals
The second thing that the Superman-Christ parallel particularly illuminates is that salvation is intensely personal. While Superman and Christ do have concerns about humanity as a whole, they both also have deep concern for individuals. One need only observe Superman for a short amount of time before he is seen rescuing Lois Lane or preventing a Kryptonian warrior from destroying a single jet fighter with a terrified pilot inside. Is it really worth Superman’s time to save individuals in this manner? Should he just engage with large scale problems where he’s guaranteed to help the most people? Time and again, Superman’s chooses the individual. In a similar way, Jesus’ ministry (both past and present) is also intensely personal. One is reminded of John 4 and Jesus’ willingness to engage a single Samaritan woman in a conversation that revolutionizes her life. Yes, Jesus came to redeem humanity at large, but he also came for the individual.
Love for Humanity
Third, for both Superman and Christ, a love for humanity outweighs the love for self. In Man of Steel and various other Superman iterations, the Kryptonian hero forgoes not just his own satisfaction but the future of his entire race for the sake of humanity. The point is not that he desires to destroy the heritage of Krypton but that he values humanity too intensely. Similarly Jesus, in an even more significant way, gave up the right to ultimate power and authority in order to save humanity. The motivating force, as we know from that most famous of verses, John 3:16, was love. Just as Superman’s love for the world leads to his giving up his interests for the sake of others, so did a love for the world motivate Jesus to bear the even more severe pain of the cross.
None of these things are new truths. Neither are they things that we could not know if we did not compare the Superman and Christian stories side by side. However, the Superman mythology offers Christians a unique opportunity to engage critically with popular cutlure and actually walk away with spiritual edification. In other words, our viewing of Man of Steel or any of the other Superman stories need not be merely entertaining. It can actually, in some qualified ways, be spiritually edifying. As we are viscerally impacted by the visual effects and the musical tone-setting that highlights Superman’s humanity, care for individuals, and self-sacrificing ways, we can be reminded and pointed towards Christ allowing those parallel truths to resonate more deeply. May such parallels not simply be interesting or neat, but actually lead us up, up…and into closer relationship with Christ himself.
Flickr photo (cc) by Greenog
