帝王会所

Can Superman save the movies?

The will fly onto movie screens around the world this week and the movie has received a great deal of attention already.

But is a character from another planet who was first introduced in 1938 still relevant today? Can Superman still help the summer box office numbers, or will the movie be destroyed by its arch-enemy, unrealistic expectations?

And how do comic book characters such as Superman fit in with American literature?

For answers to these questions and many more, we turned to 帝王会所 Associate Professor of English Edmond Chang.

A winner of several teaching awards, including the prestigious University Professor Award in 2024, Chang teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in OHIO鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences. His areas of expertise include American literature, popular culture and media studies, and he has often used graphic novels and young adult novels in his classes. He has also focused his teaching at times on popular culture characters such as Buffy the Vampire.

In addition, he is currently planning for his University Professor course on video game studies.

鈥淚 try to incorporate some sort of popular culture wherever I can,鈥� Chang explained. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe in 鈥榟igh鈥� or 鈥榣ow鈥� literature, it鈥檚 all art, it鈥檚 all part of culture and it鈥檚 all literature.鈥�

And while Chang said that his expertise is not in comic books, he does have a lot of interest in Superman and was happy to answer a few questions about the character for this mild-mannered reporter.

This looks like a job for an English professor!

Superman, who has strong ties to the state of 帝王会所, was created in 1938 by . The two collaborators originally met as teenagers at Glenville High School on the east side of Cleveland. (Parts of the new movie feature , as well as .)

The character has starred in numerous comic books, television shows and movies over the years, but will it still resonate with audiences today, when the world is very different from 1938?

Chang explained that the character still has a lot to say, in part because it is not just a story about a superhero.

鈥淚 think Superman as a character is rather interesting because in a lot of ways, this is a story about a person trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world,鈥� Chang said.

Many stories about superheroes revolve around how they use their powers to contribute to the world they live in, but Chang sees the character of Superman a little differently.

鈥淗e鈥檚 nearly indestructible, he鈥檚 super strong and he comes from another planet. He has all of these things, but yet at the same time, he has humility and he cares deeply,鈥� Chang said. In the original versions, Superman also does not kill. His hope for the new movie is a more hopeful Superman, Chang said.

鈥淪uperman for a lot of people represents hope, represents what possibilities are out there,鈥� he said. 

And if you take away the part that he is from another planet, the story revolves around a character who grew up on a farm in rural America and moved to the big city to find out who he is, Chang explained.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of his mainstream appeal, Superman as an 鈥榚veryman,鈥欌�� Chang said.

The mass popularity also includes the fact that he is a strong, conventionally attractive cisgender male, he added.

鈥淎s a kid, I always loved superhero stuff, fantasy and genre fiction. In a weird way, he was one version of masculinity that I could look at and try to either emulate or observe or be attracted to,鈥� Chang said. 鈥淏ut what if there鈥檚 more beneath the spandex?鈥�

The combination of a character that is in one aspect an 鈥渆veryman,鈥� but in other aspects is totally unique due to his superpowers and alien heritage, makes him one that can be read in specific and critical ways, Chang said.

鈥淏eing an 鈥榚veryman鈥� is boring, but he鈥檚 not an 鈥榚veryman鈥� is he? He鈥檚 literally super. Is there a way to take this conventionally attractive superhero and think about how radical he might actually be? (I mean he punches nazis after all),鈥� Chang said. 

Is Superman too hopeful and straitlaced for today鈥檚 audiences?

鈥淚 think anyone can be one note, anyone can be flat or a caricature,鈥� Chang said. One key, though, and what we have seen in other Superman stories, is to focus not on his superpowers but on his humanity.

The stories are not really about the superpowers, but about everything else.

鈥淲hat does it mean to be a man in the world today. What does it mean to lose someone like a parent? What does it mean to not be able to save people? And in a lot of stories like Superman stories, what does it mean to even have the responsibility of being Superman?鈥� Chang said. Some stories look at these issues very well, and others not as well.

If the character always saved people, he would not be as interesting, but Superman and other characters have to deal with challenges and failure, just as everyone does.

鈥淭his is what superhero comic books do and that media does,鈥� Chang said. They look at questions such as what does it mean to be a part of today鈥檚 America.

And with Superman, you have the added aspect that he is an alien with superpowers, raised by humans and trying to fit in with America in 2025.

鈥淗e鈥檚 not technically a citizen of the United States, and how do you negotiate that?鈥� Chang said.

As the last survivor of the planet Krypton, he is also the last of his kind.

鈥淚f I am the last of my kind, where do I fit in? What type of connections do I make? What kind of bridges can I build?鈥� Chang asked.

You can look at Superman as a straight, white man who can fly and is super strong, or you can look Superman as you would look at any person looking for family or connections, or even looking for new possibilities, new worlds and new opportunities.

鈥淚 think that can be really helpful for everyone who is looking for different possibilities and worlds,鈥� Chang said.

How do comic book stories fit in with literature?

鈥淔or me, these stories are occasions for asking questions about the world we live in,鈥� Chang said. They are also a way to engage with others in an imagined world.

And with comic books and graphic novels, you also get images in addition to the text. 

鈥淲e have to challenge these notions of what the literary canon is,鈥� Chang said. The stories have their own importance and add to today鈥檚 culture.

A Shakespeare professor once told him that in literature, no matter what the story may be about, it  is actually about the time it was produced. You can see that in all of literature, but in particular with some comic book stories that have been around for decades.

鈥淚f you pull a Superman comic from the 1930s, it鈥檚 trying to think about the 鈥�30s in a very particular way that鈥檚 very different from a comic book from 2025,鈥� Chang said. You can also see this in the daily newspaper comic strips that were once very common for superheroes and other characters.

Many of the stories may show general tropes, but they also give a kind of immediate response to whatever else is happening in the world at the time. Whether Superman is involved in World War II, reacting to climate change or dealing with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the character is responding to the realities of the day.

Comic books can also focus on imagined possibilities of the future. You may see this in the new Superman movie, or in the coming out later in August, which depicts the superheroes in an imagined universe different than ours.

How will fans react to Superman and why are some so hard on superheroes and other parts of popular culture?

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Chang is very interested in how people will react to the movie, as he studies the reactions of fans to popular culture and has an essay coming out later this year on toxic fandom.

Fans often hold onto their ideas about characters and stories, and when they hold onto them too tightly it can cause problems. It鈥檚 ironic, he added, that toxic fandom can lead people to act out in ways very differently from the characters they are following.

鈥淲hen we hold so tightly to something, it can produce the things that Superman is not about, which I think is curiosity, empathy, humility and kindness,鈥� Chang said.

The toxic fans are often a loud minority of fans, and Chang added these individuals often make him more interested in supporting the projects they are upset about.

鈥淚 will watch anything the toxic fans hate,鈥� he said. 

He wants, and he believes most people want, stories that provide challenges to the readers or the audience members.

鈥淚 want to be entertained, but I want also to think about things,鈥� Chang said. That is his hope for the new Superman movie, and he said that if it accomplishes that, it has a great chance to fly high at the summer box office.