PART 2: KAL-EL

In part one of this series I described Clark as someone who puts on a happy face, while struggling with his identity under the surface.  Kal-El is the next part of the story.  Kal-El represents the revelation of where we really come from. This is difficult to relate to anyone who has not met their parents later in life, but it is something I can identify with clearly.

When I was 22 years old, I was engaged to my wife, and headed towards the first day of the rest of my life.  I was raised by my mom and my step-dad, who were married when I was 2 years old.  I had never met, or even seen pictures of, my biological dad.  All I knew was what I was told about him, but these stories did nothing to tell me anything about myself.  What kind of a man was he?  What motivated him?  Where was he?  Why wasn’t he around?  What was he like?  Was I like him?

When I finally got the chance to meet him, I was initially angry.  I said things like I don’t owe you anything, you’re not my dad, and I called him things like anonymous sperm-donor.  However, these were written reactions to receiving a letter from him when I was 19.  It wasn’t until I was 22 that my oldest brother told me it I would be a good idea to meet him, and I finally did.  I met this idea of a man face-to-face. And this encounter with him, this truth about where I come from, answered questions I didn’t know I had.

Clark was young and different, isolated, and alone.  Kal-El was set apart.  He was no longer an orphan who was found, but a son who was sent; sent away from death, and given an opportunity to live.

 The Kal-El of the Dadhood

In the Dadhood, Kal-El is an idea most men can understand.  Once you have a new child for the first time and you experience the influence you have in the life of a  new human being, you are changed forever.  In an even more profound way than meeting my dad, my kids changed me.  It was sudden an lasting.  I could see the changed happening with my wife, but I couldn’t understand them.  I could be supportive, but I couldn’t empathize.  It wasn’t until I held, and kissed, and felt that tiny body in my hands that I understood what I was supposed to do.  All of a sudden, the idea of being a dad became real, and I knew what was needed of me.

That is how I would describe Kal-El: a revelation of the truth of who we are, and the power we  hold. 

Do you agree with how I see this character?  Comment below, and comeback for Part 3 (Superman).

-JB

Created in the 1930s, Superman was a beacon of hope for a [American] society that was struggling through The Great Depression.  In contrast to Captain America who “was an American response that the Perfect Human Specimen would be against they evil [Nazis] were pushing across Europe”, Superman was a light shining for us to continue to strive to be like.  The history of Superman is convoluted, because he was subject to strong cultural influences of the time he was created in and to the cultural influences of the two who created him.  He has gone through a several iterations before settling into the origin story we commonly know of today.  However, much of his original influences are still present, and he is the solid, unshakable moral center of the DC Comics universe.

PART 1: CLARK KENT

I’m looking at this character as more than a matter of whether Clark is the disguise for Superman, or if Superman is the disguise for Clark.  The way I see Clark Kent, is that of a boy who is externally invincible, but internally fractured.  As young Clark begins to manifest different new abilities, they create confusion from within; the more powerful he becomes the more he is fighting with who he is on the inside.

In our adolescent youth, we all already struggle with feelings of isolation and feeling as though no one can understand us.  Clark was fortunate to have had very supportive parents who did their best to help him through it.  They encouraged him, and taught him a work-ethic, and rooted him in a set of values that allowed him to grow to be a decent young man.  But there was still something missing; there was still another side of Clark that was unfamiliar to his parents and to him.  So he searched for an acceptable place in the world.

I have heard people say that Clark Kent is actually how Superman views humanity, I would disagree with it.  The argument is that he sees us as weak, fumbling, and incapable of helping ourselves.  If that were the case, then he would not see us as a people worth saving.  This negative take on the relationship between Superman and his humanity (Clark Kent) does not fit the character.  The way I see it, Clark is only the first piece of the puzzle.  He represents the person we are told we are at a young age.  He is the part of ourselves we show others that we don’t want to let in to who we really are.  Clark is the politically correct version of ourselves.

 The Clark Kent of The Dadhood:

By our own fathers (whether they were present and engaged or not) and father-figures, we are told of the kind of  dad we are to become.  Without fully understanding what it means to be a father, we begin to assimilate the norms of behaviors that we have seen or that will help us to blend in to our new World of Fatherhood.  We don’t yet know what is a caricature of fatherhood, because we roll our eyes at the things our own dads do that annoy us without knowing that we will someday be just as annoying.  With a pregnant wife, we are purely reactionary and wearing the new label of Dad-To-Be on the outside without truly feeling like a dad on the inside.

That is how I would describe Clark Kent: an attempt to blend in to a world without feeling like you belong on the inside.

Do you agree with how I see this character?  Comment below, and comeback for Parts 2 (Kal-El) and 3 (Superman).

-JB