Recently I read Superman for Tomorrow, Volume 1. It’s a fascinating read and is largely set as a conversation between Superman and a young priest. It exists as a type of confession and addresses the question – ‘what happens when Superman fails?’

In the two part story of Superman for Tomorrow he fails to stop an act of global terror and is left questioning himself, his purpose and his powers. He plays out that questioning with the priest.

There is one part of the dialogue that particularly caught my attention:

Superman: The last time I was here I mentioned my sin…

Priest: …trying to save the world. Better men than you have tried and failed.

Superman: Better than me?

Priest: Well, they were just men.

Superman: Why do you think they failed?

Priest: Because no matter how many people a man tries to save, his own life will ultimately prove to be the most important one to him.

Superman: Hmm. So if you dedicate your life to humanity, eventually you will regard yourself as the one most purely human? …that’s food for thought.

There are a number of different ways to approach and interpret that final statement as it relates to Superman, but the premise is interesting in the face of the priest’s final statement. The idea, as I read it, is that when one devotes their life to serving humanity one will reach a point where they see themselves as the one most purely human and therefore the only one worth saving – the life of the self becomes the most important.

I understand where the thought comes from in Superman for Tomorrow, but I disagree – or more to the point, I agree but believe there are ways to work against it or approaches to serving that negate that pitfall. One of those is the natural examination of one’s own humanity that takes place when one lives in service to humanity. For one to truly serve humanity, one must be seeking to understand it. Such an understanding cannot come without an examination of the self and the realization of our own individual pitfalls and contribution to the problem. The bottom line is that if one is truly serving humanity then one will come to a realization of the brokenness of the self.

The second point that comes from the conversation is an interesting one in the light of Christian theology. The priest’s assertion is that the reason all those potential saviours failed was because, ultimately, they regarded their own lives as more important than those they served and therefore sought to save themselves. Superman asserts that this is the natural end of dedicating one’s life to humanity.

Here is where Jesus naturally enters the picture (not in Superman for Tomorrow though… just in my thinking) because the natural trajectory of Jesus’ service is the cross – death, the sacrifice of his own life in service to humanity – the exact opposite of the failing the priest points out. Also, relating the comic to Jesus, Christian theology asserts that Jesus IS the one most purely human, but this does not lead him to saving his own life, instead it leads him to give it up. The one most purely human sacrifices himself in his bid to save humanity and in so doing, a new world opens up.

Food for thought.

Now I need to read Volume 2 of Superman for Tomorrow.