# The Thing about the character Superman is **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 28, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932 "2025-02-28T17:18:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/81 "2025-03-27T20:46:43Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > And I’m also really tired of how the farm-boy thing has been transformed into the “rural/smalltown people are more moral people than city people and Superman having those values is what makes him better” which has been used too often since then. But that’s what made Clark who he is. It’s intrinsic. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/82 "2025-03-27T20:55:20Z")
He has good values because John and Martha Kent, specifically, raised him with good values. It’s not because they’re rural. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/83 "2025-03-27T21:16:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Superman isn’t a Space-Jesus, he’s Space-Moses. I agree. > [@](#): > > But that’s what made Clark who he is. It’s intrinsic. I disagree entirely. The entire “farm” aspect was only heavily used from the 1978 movie onwards. Originally, it was a one-panel(ish) descriptor that they were farmers - which was by far the most common job at the time, and had no moral messaging (also he was in the city by time he was a small child in another panel in same comic). Heck, Lois’ parents were farmers, too, in the silver age. When we got more background (and his parents actually get names) when we get the Superboy title, at which time we know he did not grow up on a farm, because his parents moved to town and opened a general store when he was quite young. And Smallville was not in the midwest then and was not all that small (v the midwest small towns, I mean). The whole difference-in-small-town-and-big-city values thing, as far as I know was never a thing at all until the 1978 movie. The comics reboot in the mid-80s gave him the raised-on-a-farm-all-his-childhood thing. It’s not him being from a small town or farm that bothers me - it’s the moral messaging that small town values are real values that made the hero (and are vastly superior to the non-existent city values). If it’s just a place that he’s from that’s fine, but that’s not how it’s played all too often. In the beginning, and I would argue until 1978, it was a typical background of a person in an urbanizing nation, and was not touted as being a formative aspect that defined his values as small town value (and those values as superior to urban ones) v. just regular (or later on “American”) values shared amongst good people of many backgrounds. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/84 "2025-03-27T21:28:15Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > The entire “farm” aspect was only heavily used from the 1978 movie onwards. Probably worth noting that a change made to Superman in 1978 means that it’s been that way for more than half the character’s existence. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/85 "2025-03-27T21:33:12Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Probably worth noting that a change made to Superman in 1978 means that it’s been that way for more than half the character’s existence. Yes, it has. But that doesn’t necessarily make it intrinsic, though it is status quo. And, as a rural dweller, the “small town values are the real American values” or “the values of heroes” is really disturbing and troublesome to me. And it’s not there, upfront, every day, but it is used in that manner, way, way, too often. Even worse (though not so applicable to Superman) when modern values (or lack thereof) that’s the problem and old-fashioned values are the way to go. Superman belongs to the city of Tomorrow…yeah, okay, it’s probably been a while since that’s been used, and it certainly not at all intrinsic and I don’t need (or even particularly want) it be used. But foward-looking and optimistic would be a good Superman for me (as long as the point isn’t the optimism being crushed). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/86 "2025-03-27T21:36:58Z")
Feeding into that is the gritty-fication of big city vigilante Batman in contrast to small town Boy Scout Superman. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/87 "2025-03-27T21:41:24Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Feeding into that is the gritty-fication of big city hero Batman in contrast to small town Boy Scout Superman. Definitely. I understand the desire for contrast (especially bronze age and later with them working together), but it’s gone way too extremes sometimes. Of course, Superman had grit in thirties and early forties, just like Batman, and Batman had optimism and light-heartedness in the late-40s-though-mid-60s just like Superman. Now, Superman gets the ridiculous Boyscout title too often (and way too often nerfed and made ineffective compared to Batman) and Gotham has been transformed from a regular big city with attendant crime problems of the era to literal cursed ground. Really don’t like Gotham being made into that either. Sorry for the tangent. And, of course, Batman is actually a rich suburban boy, if we’re comparing childhoods, not a big city boy. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/88 "2025-03-28T16:41:42Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Last night my wife told me a charming idea: do sheep see sheepdogs as Clark Kent? Like, a sheepdog is shaggy and four-legged and trots around doing the same things as them most of the time. I asked my GenX daughter, who is still far more into comics than I ever was, about this. Her response was succinct. “Sheep see sheepdogs as shaggy wolves. What we see as herding is actually sheep running away from the sheepdog, who is chasing them into the pen.” I like @Left_Hand_of_Dorkness wife’s idea better. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/89 "2025-03-28T16:45:26Z")
To be fair, while my wife _is_ totally awesome, it was an idea she read online, not her own invention. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/90 "2025-03-28T16:52:02Z")
But to be even more fair, your wife embraced the whimsy, while my daughter dismissed the idea entirely. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/91 "2025-03-28T16:54:50Z")
Well, then, I’m convinced that his wife isn’t your daughter, even though I’ve never actually seen them in the same room at the same time… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/92 "2025-03-28T17:08:11Z")
I mean, obviously not. @Kent_Clark 's daughter wears glasses; they CAN’T be the same person. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/93 "2025-03-28T17:38:33Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > But to be even more fair, your wife embraced the whimsy, while my daughter dismissed the idea entirely. My wife definitely didn’t embrace the whimsy of Clark Kent being a cannibal. She said I’m why we can’t have nice things. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932/94 "2025-03-28T20:10:13Z")
But since @Chronos and my daughter had the same reaction, one must now wonder if Chronos is actually my daughter, with one of the best kept secret identities EVER. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-thing-about-the-character-superman-is/1014932.md?page=4)