Superman is a comic book character developed in the 1930’s by two guys who liked detective type comics. Jerry Siegle and Joe Shuster. Jerry wrote the stories, and Joe drew the art that gave the image of a man with unbelievable superhuman powers life in the minds of their readers. It was the year 1932 when Superman and all his super strength was first revealed upon the written page to fight crime and evil in the world.
Superman’s "real" (given) name is Kal El. He is from a far away unknown planet called Krypton and the stroy is that he fell to earth as a child, having been released in a capsule by his parents who were hoping to save his life, if not their own, as their planet was about to be destroyed. He traveled through space a little bit like the baby Moses of the Bible, safe in a basket. Moses traveled down the Nile river's waters, baby superman traveled through time and space, his spacecraft like a baby's basket hurling on a trajectory towards planet Earth.
Luckily for Superman, somewhere downstream in the galaxy, in fact, somewhere in the Bible Belt of America’s Midwest, he is found by a poor, childless, older Christian earth couple, who take him in to their home and raise him as their own son, take him to church and raise him with good morals and values. They name him Clark, Clark Kent.
He and his parents cannot help but know he arrived via spacecraft, and even though they know he is a special child, they do not reveal the secret of his super-powers to the world. Clark grow up fairly normal, but comes across as a misfit or a nerd, a clean cut, well-mannered, humble and noble guy, who aspires to help little old ladies cross the street, but secretly is the all-time crime fighter... faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall building with a single bound. Initially, the cartoon Superman did not have the ability to fly through the air, but this ability and many more, (like his allergy to Kryptonite,) have been added over the years to give him more appeal to the masses and keep the story interesting.
But it's no fun being Superman. It's a lot of work to save the world, after all, the world needs him and he beckons at their call, 24/7, because he really cares. The only thing more difficult for Kent than caring about all the people on the planet, is living the lie about his identity to the woman he loves, a woman named Lois; and he can never tell her the truth because, she wouldn't understand.
Superman, is the ultimate fighter of crime. He stop gangsters and people of the baser sort whose morals are out of line from living a life of crime and he puts them behind bars where they belong. Wife-beaters, thugs, thieves, and hoodlums all simply flee at his name, and if he catches them doing something illegal or immoral they are turned in at the local police headquarters so that they could be “locked up for good." He is just the kind of charater any parent would want their child to emulate.
Over the years, people have interpreted the psychological effect of the character known as Superman on the human mind. For some he is nearly a religious icon. Besides being good looking and strong, he is trustworthy and responsible, genuinely concerned for humanity and willing to take action and do something about the plight of evil. Not only that, he has helped sell war bonds, informed humanity about the latest technological threats, even taught us all to consider how such super powers, if some human were to obtain them, would really help to save the world. He even has international appeal, and people do not simly buy the comic books, they flock to theaters to see the Superman come to life on the big screen.
Superman is perhaps the nearest thing to a Jesus that a secular world can really comprehend.
He’s like God in many ways. For example, he has special vision, by which walls become transparent, he can see all things; nothing can escape his X-ray glare. He has super hearing powers too, and can hear people crying out for help, even miles and miles away, and he is compelled to answer their call much the way God listens to and answers prayer.
In his book, The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero, Stephen Skelton goes to great lengths to reveal how writers for Superman intentionally modeled Superman, as a picture of Jesus Christ. He has even written guidance for pastors who want to use the Christ Imagery in the movie Superman Returns in their sermons as the movie hit the theaters in recent years.
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In the 2006 release, Superman Returns, Lois Lane is being awarded the Pulitzer Peace Prize for her latest editorial, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Lex Luthor, the master of Kryptonite, (the only thing that can defeat Superman) is out of prison and this due to the fact that Superman is no where to be found. The audience watches in suspense as Superman, hovering over the Earth in the silence of space, listens to the voice of his father who has been deceased since the planet he was born on blew up in the first movie (when Kal-El was just a baby.) His father says, (reminding him of his mission, "They can be a great people, Kal-El; if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the Way. For this reason, above all their capacity for good, I have sent them you—my only son."
Sound biblical?
The script writers have Jor-El suggest that humans can be a “great people” if someone will be an example for them and that Kal El, came to be that example of all the things humans are capable of being if they simply want to.
Its almost natural to prefer a savior that is everything you think is great, one you can fully understand, one you would even create yourself, if you could, one that would display every inner strength or all the supernatural power that could be imagined or displayed on the Big Screen. But such heroes like Superman, even as closely portrayed to the story of Jesus, are not real. They are imaginary.
But we do need a savior, someone to make the world right.
Our only real hope for the world is in God and in His Son Jesus Christ.
Even the God hater, Neitze would welcome Superman, since he is no doubt, “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,” and "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” Jesus, the real savior of the world, and our example, didn’t do all those things. Yes, he did perform miracles, but Christ the suffering servant, is scandalous foolery for a hero... for what real superhero gets himself hung on a cross?
It's the stumbling block that opposes the wisdom of the world.
Nietzsche, who captured “worldly wisdom” so well for the more progressive humans who dismiss the possibiility in their minds that God exists, judges and will hold man accountable for his behaviors, is often quoted saying, almost rejoicing, “God is dead.”
(Oh that darned Kryptonite!) Yes, the sin of the world was upon Him that day. He was lead, like a lamb to the slaughter.
Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb... suffered and he died... but he rose again, and this according to the scriptures he fulfilled in our hearing...both then, and now.
Raising from such a death, to life again, is something that no human on earth could do, even if they tried. And Jesus did. Jesus wasn't simply someone's imaginary character in a comic book. He's real and part of our human story, our history. He is God.
You can't keep a good man down.
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