Superheroes as Modern Mythology (Superman as an Analogy for Moses)

Yesterday, my friend Jeff made a post on his social media page to share an article noting that the President of the U.S., having recently been hospitalized with COVID-19, apparently wanted to "rip open his button-down to reveal a Superman T-shirt to surprise people when he left the hospital." 

In his post, my friend asked me some comics related questions about Superman, and in one of my comments, I mentioned the following (edited slightly for this blog): 

"...Superman is an illegal immigrant. 

To take the analogy further, Superman is the story of Moses, placed into a small boat (a spaceship) to protect him, and sent away down the Nile (to earth) where he is saved by the Pharaoh's daughter (a kindly couple) and raised as an Egyptian (earth human) and grows to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt (become a symbol of hope and save humanity from a multitude of threats."

Interestingly, despite me having made somewhat similar comparisons here on my blog and also on my social media accounts before, wherein I mentioned that superheroes are a modern day mythology meant to inspire us to be better, for some reason, this short comment to my friend's post seemed to resonate with people. I got a lot of replies noting things like "I'll never look at Superman the same way again" and "Mind Blown" GIFs. My friend Jeff helped carry the analogy even further, noting that Superman was the creation of two young Jewish kids in America who were looking for a form of wish fulfillment as they worried about their Jewish relatives and friends in an increasingly terrifying environment for them in Nazi-controlled Germany, and that you can find a lot of religious and mythological overtones in the Superman movies as well, including messiah imagery and the story of him dying and coming back to life.

[As a quick aside, I will note that the original Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, was actually for a1933 story entitled "The Reign of the Superman" for a self-published magazine by Jerry Siegel called Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization, five years before the debut of the Superman we know today in Action Comics #1. In this initial story, the "Superman" was actually a bad guy, but that idea was discarded for the more familiar version we know today.]

All of this discussion seem to really open people's eyes to the idea of Superman and how his stories are more than just "a guy in tights and a cape punching bad guys" nor are stories about Superman (or, to me, almost any superhero) supposed to be dark, gritty, and somehow, "realistic." As I've noted on my blog before in this post on the 80th Anniversary of Superman: 

"I subscribe to the premise that superheroes are a new type of American mythology, something that is unique to our cultural make-up. The heroes of Greek myth were not admired because people thought they were real. They were gods and demi-gods with extraordinary powers, and their exploits provided moral life lessons that we could learn from and try to emulate in our daily lives. The 12 Labors of Hercules teach is that, as humans, we need to learn how to control our anger, lest we be consumed by it and do something horrible that we regret while we are in a rage. People didn't hear those stories and think, "I want to be strong enough to kill a lion!" What they got out of that story was that we shouldn't let our emotions control our actions. Superman has the strength to eliminate Lex Luthor and take over the world and run it as a dictatorship (what he would most likely think is a benevolent dictatorship, but that's aside from the point). However, he doesn't do so. Despite his great power, Superman tries to figure out ways to outwit Lex and also to provide proof of Luthor's wrong-doing within the context of the law so that Lex can be punished by a jury of his peers. The lessons we are intended to take from this is that might does not make right." 

I'm glad that some people saw my comments and it gave them an opportunity to rethink their preconceptions about Superman and, hopefully, superheroes in general. There are deeper philosophical issues in comics, even ones about superheroes in masks and capes, that we can use as an opportunity for self-reflection or as the catalyst to an engaging discussion about the world and our place in it, if we just take the time to look for it. 

 While I have had these thoughts for quite a long time, they were reinforced by a free online course I took called "The Rise of Superheroes and their Impact on Pop Culture." You can read more about my experiences with the course by following the link to read my post about it, and you can also sign-up for the course by visiting the Smithsonian's EdX page here. 

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and views on this topic. What are some comic book heroes or stories you like that tell a modern mythological tale, or that have roots in our shared history of stories?

Hanging: Home office (laptop)
Drinking: Tap water
Listening: "I'd Rather Go Blind" by Etta James, from the album "Tell Mama"