On November 9th, 2025, this blog will be 20 years old. Over the course of those 20 years, I’ve written and shared my opinions on a lot of subjects. Sadly, I’ve discovered that age doesn’t always bring wisdom, but in the end, it always brings clarity.
Back in 2011, I wrote a post responding to DC Comics’ Action Comics #900. The 96 page comic can be found here. Inside the issue was a short story, The Incident, written by David Goyer. In the story, Superman appears at a protest demonstration in Iran. He is condemned by both the United States and Iranian governments for appearing to be an agent of U.S. foreign policy. In response, (I personally believe) to the U.S. positioning snipers armed with Kryptonite bullets around him while he met with the President’s National Security Advisor to explain what happened, Superman renounces his U.S. citizenship.
DC Comics later backtracked on this story, but it was too late. The damage was done. Right-wing media slammed Superman for not valuing his U.S. citizenship. And regretfully, so did I. But I know now I was wrong.
With age comes clarity (also forgetfulness, since I’m repeating a sentence I wrote earlier). In 2011, I was upset because as a child of the 50’s, I grew up reading Superman comics. He was the embodiment of “Truth, Justice and the American Way.” I mean if Superman was giving up on the “American Way,” why shouldn’t I?
Sadly, I didn’t understand then that Superman wasn’t abandoning his adopted home. After all, Clark Kent was still going to be a U.S. citizen. He just didn’t want his actions interpreted world-wide as being U.S. sanctioned or sponsored. I now admit I was wrong to interpret this any other way. And I now think DC Comics was seriously wrong to remove this story from canon.
So why do I bring this up now? Because the new James Gunn Superman movie is very good in reminding us that Superman is an immigrant – a refugee. This movie is, as is every Superman movie ever made, an immigrant story. It’s a story about how your legal status doesn’t determine your worth and value as a person. It’s a story about an refugee who wants to make the world better, not just the United States and its “American Way.”
Because of that, some on the political right are having a cow over it. To them, I say, “Sit down! Be quiet and read the source material again. You can start with the part about a childless couple adopting a refugee, raising him as their own and teaching him to care about all life, even the life of a squirrel.”
The Superman story has always been about hope and doing what’s right. I was wrong in 2011 because I didn’t/couldn’t see at the time that Superman was doing what he thought was right. But I do see that now in 2025. I can also see that Superman was always an immigrant projecting hope to all he came in contact with.
After all, that’s what the “S” on his chest stands for. And I thank James Gunn for reminding me of that.
