The Immigrant Superman

Posted on Thursday, September 1

The Immigrant Superman
By Alexander Perry

This September, DC Comics will relaunch their entire comic book line to offer a fresh start to new readers. As part of this relaunch effort, a stellar team of artists, writers, and editors are re-imagining Superman, their flagship character, for the 21st century. Our world- with its global Great Recession and deadly wars, its rancorous debates about immigration, and its banking scandals, war profiteers, and corrupt politicians- looks eerily like the world in which Superman first appeared.

Superman exploded onto the scene in 1938 by headlining a comic book anthology called Action Comics. The first superhero, clad in strongman tights, a billowing noble cape, and holding an unwavering conviction in truth, justice, and hope stood out as a radically bold idea for a society mired in the Great Depression that was fast approaching a harrowing World War. In his debut story (numbering only 13 short pages), Superman swiftly fought a wife-beater, stormed the Governor’s mansion to stop the execution of an innocent woman, fought a few gangsters, and uncovered the corrupting influence of war profiteers in the Senate. This was a Superman for the people, a Superman that fought against war profiteers, corruption, and injustice by standing up for the poor, the innocent, and the abused. This was a Superman flying out of the depths of economic uncertainty and military strife into a hopeful future.

Accompanying this action-packed tale in 1938 was an exceptionally brief, one page origin story. Readers discovered that Superman was born on a now dead world, traveling the immense and dangerous vastness of space to land on Earth. Raised by a kindly couple in Kansas, the immigrant called Kal-El was given a human name, Clark Kent. Eventually, Clark Kent/Kal-El would move from the country to the bustling urban sprawl of Metropolis. Right from the start, Superman had two identities to reconcile: that of his alien and earthly cultures. Superman- the archetypal super-hero- was also the ultimate immigrant hero.

While the character over the next seventy five years would transform at times into a symbol of the status quo, this early Superman embodied the immigrant narrative in big, bold mythic terms. It should be no surprise that the creators of Superman- and most of those working in comics during its nascent times- were themselves the sons of immigrants. Oftentimes concealing their immigrant heritage with more easily pronounceable pseudonyms, these artists (like many immigrants today) lived with their own secret identities, masks, and origins that come from straddling two cultures.

It is this early Superman of the late 1930’s that DC Comics seeks to reintroduce to the 21st century. Coincidentally, many of the creative forces behind this relaunch are immigrants or children of immigrants themselves. Of the four writers and artists on the Superman titles alone, three are Latino. As well, one of the main people in charge of the relaunch is Executive Editor Eddie Berganza, who came to the United States when he was seven or eight from Guatemala.
“The idea that he is the ultimate immigrant” is what hooked Eddie as a kid to Superman’s dynamic, wide-screened adventures. Eddie explains that Superman, like him, “did come from somewhere else and he is trying to assimilate into a whole different world. For myself, as a Guatemalan coming to New York, I really identified with that. On top of that, you can take him as the guy growing up on the farm, being thrown into the city. With all of his super-senses it had to be even more overwhelming. For me, coming from a pretty much tropical place, the sky was falling.”

 

In the Superman stories, he found a character who was going through the same things he was. “From comics I could learn things, I could get a sense of the world.” The character’s journey helped frame his own immigrant experience into a narrative he could understand, into a story that was hopeful and exciting.

“The appeal of Superman is that you are talking about a very lonely person, one of a kind. And that loneliness, you know, anybody coming from a different country you have that initial feeling until you discover ‘oh no, there are other people like me’ even if they’re not from the same place. And that’s the kind of thing we explore with a book like Justice League. It’s the same sense of when you’re in school and you’re alone until you find your place.”

“It’s the experience of ‘I am an alien.’ That’s the appeal- whether you are an actual immigrant or not- you are going to have that feeling of being alienated. Part of the reason this character has lasted so long is that he embodies that. Everybody looks at his powers, but what makes him last is his weaknesses: the fact that he does feel, that he has emotion, how human in fact he is.”

The Superman comics and TV show also provided a bridge between his life in Guatemala and his life in the United States. “My tia, my aunt, would buy me comics back in Guatemala in Spanish.” When Eddie’s family moved to the United States, the comics he read were in “English because there weren’t any Spanish comics here at that time. So that began to influence language really quickly through reading.”

It is this global, cross-cultural experience that Berganza sees as the key ingredient to the Superman relaunch. A major part of DC Comics’ publishing initiative is a big push for digital comics. Called “day and date,” digital comics will now be released on the same day as print comics. The magnitude of this is staggering. Whether in Guatemala or the United States, readers across the globe can now read and follow along the same story.

“Our world is getting smaller,” Berganza explains. No longer is the talent pool located in one city. “The doors are so wide open now.” Talented artists from around the world, from Latin America to Spain, are now able to network and get exposure through the internet. “And with day and date, it’s going right back out.” Global, collective storytelling through the digital medium may help provide radical new narratives and ways we understand ourselves and our world. While there are no specific details he could share about the translation of digital comics into Spanish in order to appeal to this global audience, there are definitely things in the works. “It’s coming.”

As for Eddie, he is excited to share his iconic hero with the world. “Superman is larger than life. He means so many things, and this is all about reintroducing him to a whole new audience: as a young man trying to figure out his life.” Eddie knows that “when you couple these really great stories with really great images” it is sure to hook new readers in. However, “the scope of the story has to be played on a massive canvas- we know our competition in movies and video games- but it doesn’t mean anything if it’s not about character.”

The DC Comics and Superman relaunch begins this September online.

Images courtesy of DC Comics.