SUPERMAN was not a product of a more optimistic time; quite the contrary. Like Star Trek 30 years later, he was a call to optimism in a time that had desperate need of it.
By far the most interesting, and most super thing about Superman is his choice to be kind and moral, and to wrestle with issues where the right choice is not clear. He rejected Nietzsche’s concept of a superman, substituting one that resonated with his upbringing. I’ve always felt he carried at least some metaphor for an ideal that should have guided American postwar power.
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