It’s Not Easy Being Super, Man or What Do You Do with The Man of Tomorrow When Tomorrow Comes Today?
Happy 70th Birthday, Superman!
Superman is 70? Seriously? He looks pretty good for a guy his age. No longer the freshman reporter from Smallville, Kansas, Clark Kent is now a seasoned Metropolitan; there is nothing that, either as Superman or Clark Kent, he hasn’t seen before or done twice already, only backwards and with heels on.
This is a problem.
Writing Superman has to be the hardest gig in comics because everything that you can do with the character has already been done before. Hell, writer Steven T. Seagle even wrote a whole damn graphic novel about how difficult it was to tackle Superman (It’s a Bird)…and then he went on to write Superman. Ironically enough, his run is best remembered more for the graphic novel than by anything that actually happened in the book during his time there. But still, it simply goes to show how tough writing the Man of Steel really is. I mean, what do you get somebody who already has everything? What can you possibly do with someone who has done it all? What do you do with the “Man of Tomorrow” when tomorrow comes today?