Tag Archives: dc-comics

And So It Goes

Today is Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Despite fervent backlash against a movie, a fucking movie, by Dump’s red hats, Superman has soared to first place among millions of Americans who have made this film this country’s No. 1 film in terms of summer revenue. Severely criticized by bigoted MAGAts for its embrace of immigrants, the film’s more all-embracing theme of kindness and charity toward the “other” has been accepted by moviegoers everywhere. In an online article for Daily Kos by Oliver Willis entitled “Americans reject MAGA meanness as ‘Superman’ soars,” the reality of the mean and stupid embrace of xenophobia has been totally rejected by those millions of Americans who have metaphorically flown to theaters across the country to see the film. This has made the film the No. 1 movie in the United States.

The movie’s success is another humiliating loss for the MAGA movement which campaigned against the film’s proimmigrant themes. Here is a direct quote from the article: “But the film is also a resounding rejection of the bitter, cynical meanness that’s been a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term.”

Since its release on July 11, the production has earned more than $122 million and received a rating of 83 percent from critics and 93 percent from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. That resounding success comes on the heels of the right’s full-throated attack on the film for its being “woke” and their predicting overall failure for the film, which certainly hasn’t come true. Conservatives or the far right – “red hats,” as I call them – were angered by director James Gunn’s description of the film as an “immigrant that came from other places.” However, these idiots don’t know the origin story of the superhero as I know it since I’ve been buying Superman comics for a very long time. Of course, he’s an immigrant and is not from this Earth.

Those on the right were woefully wrong in predicting the movie’s failure, as in Fox News pundit Tami Lahren forecasting the “woke” film’s demise. This noncritic said this about the film: “The new ‘Superman’ movie went woke and will probably flop.” Boy, I wonder how this clueless host feels now since the film has literally soared since it was released?

For those who need a crash course on the history of the comics’ best-known creation, Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938. Superman is the sole survivor of the planet Krypton who landed in Kansas in a rocket designed by his father Jor-El and was adopted by a farm couple who pass him off as their own child, Martha and Jonathan Kent. The writer states uncategorically, “Superman is an undocumented immigrant – and he has been for all 87 years of his existence.”

The superhero is described as a “champion of the oppressed” and a champion of social justice since the very beginning of his launch.

As for the filming of this new incarnation of Superman, it was written and filmed before the Orange Ogre won the 2024 election, “but audiences can see the clear contrast between the film’s embrace of kindness and the daily meanness of the Trump administration.”

For Dump, cruelty is the point. But for Superman, that is absolutely not the way.

Thus Superman stands for truth and justice – the complete opposite of what MAGA is all about. Unfortunately, this comic book character is a fantasy, an ideal that doesn’t exist in the real world. And one must wonder why this stupid MAGA community got all ruffled over an ideal, a fantasy, anyway. Don’t they have other more serious things to worry about like losing their Medicaid, their Social Security benefits, and so on?

As for myself, I was almost ready to see Superman myself and I was looking forward to writing a review for it in this blog, but I didn’t go. My new friend from the Austin Street Diner who I’ll call “James” couldn’t commit himself to go and see it in the afternoon. So I’ll have to wait for another time. Be patient! I will get there eventually.

Tomorrow Elliot and I will be finally dining with my cousins “Rivka” and “Dillon.” We were supposed to have gotten together a little over a week ago, but we canceled owing to the severe weather forecast for that night and the extreme heat.

Have a good Wednesday.

I will also take the car out for a spin and I’m a little apprehensive since I’m driving to my comic bookstore, the site where the car was dented last Friday. I’ll be on the alert, but I have no control over what might happen to the vehicle once it’s parked. I have to believe what happened was quite rare.

Have a good Wednesday then.

Another little car trip is planned for Thursday, July 17, till Friday, July 18. We’re driving to Princeton, New Jersey, to visit “Zander” and his wife “Nalah,” as well as their two-year-old daughter “Naomi.”

So I’m not sure when I’ll see you again. If not tomorrow, then it’ll have to be either Friday or Saturday.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Saturday, December 7, 2024, the 83rd anniversary of America’s entry into the Second World War with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. As then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) said about this earth-shattering incident, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” This line is from FDR’s speech to Congress on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is often referred to as the “Day of Infamy” speech, as taken from the citation mentioned in Google. There is some controversy over whether January 6, 2021, could be another day of infamy, but I think it certainly is, despite how one political party has desperately tried to rewrite the history surrounding it. History will factually judge the moment for what it truly represented long after despots and other political leaders are dead and buried. That’s what I believe.

From this serious beginning, I can now wholeheartedly recommend an excellent and moving documentary on the actor who first portrayed the comic book hero Superman in movies in 1978, Christopher Reeve. The documentary is entitled Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and it’s the work of filmmakers Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui who were also responsible for 2018’s look at fashion designer Alexander McQueen in the documentary McQueen. This intimate look of relative unknown Reeve before his attaining superstardom with the role of Superman in 1978, playing alongside movie heavyweights as Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, is fascinating and downright poignant, as it traces his life before and after the tragic accident that defined his life after 1995 in which he broke his neck in a horse-riding accident leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Even though he was unable to do so many things that he took pride in formally doing like skiing, sailing, and even piloting planes, it provided him with new purpose and motivation to become an advocate for the disabled. I guarantee that you cannot watch this movie without resorting to dabbing your eyes with Kleenex.

The film does not skip over Reeve’s many foibles and flaws, especially when he was younger and was the product of a fractured upbringing defined by an overbearing father and early divorce. The production is flavored with many interviews with his adult three children and Hollywood actors who knew the remarkable man while alive, people like Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels (who starred with Reeve in a very early off-Broadway play), Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, and others. What is especially poignant is the relationship between Reeve and the late comedian/actor Robin Williams that is portrayed very honestly here. I think it was Close who posits that Williams would still be alive today if his very good friend did not die before him. Every memory offers up a fresh perspective of the complex man known as Christopher Reeve and touches on the tragedy of that impending incident.

The audience is also provided with Reeve’s own voiceovers with regard to how he dealt with the tragedy of never walking again and his adjustment to being in a wheelchair. In addition to the Reeve’s family’s contributions here, there was additional access to the Warner Bros. archives that shows how truly inspiring Reeve’s Superman films continue to be. As a devotee of the character of Superman all my life, I certainly have memories of rushing to the movies to see this first version of Superman when it first came out. I also reacted with horror when I learned about the actor’s terrible plunge off a horse in 1995.

The documentary honestly deals with Reeve’s uphill battle after accepting the iconic film role and how his movie career actually suffered as a result of this typecasting. It seems that his casting as mild-mannered Clark Kent/Superman made audiences unwilling to accept him in anything else. Even though he accepted roles out of the box like the religious drama Monsignor and the thriller Deathtrap opposite Michael Caine. Reeve could not shake that image of squeaky-clean Superman from his resume after appearing in four Superman films. He did get excellent reviews on Broadway in 1980’s Fifth of July opposite Jeff Daniels who talks movingly of him in the documentary. The film makes it clear that the shadow of Superman plagued Reeves wherever he went. That drastically changed after his accident in 1995.

Then we are plunged into the darker side of what befell the handsome actor who played the part of Superman when he was only 24. His daily struggles with his disability are shown in archival footage, as his second wife Dana Reeve, is his rock and anchor. His children Alexandra, Will, and Matthew all play prominent roles in the film, as they reminisce about their famous father and how the accident loomed large in their lives. At some point, you hear Reeve talk about what is important in one’s life and you see how he changed his perspective once he lost his mobility. It goes something like this: when he was younger, it was being driven to do the best in physical activities like sailing, skiing, and horseback riding, but when he was immobilized, he realized it’s the connection with family that is much more important. Soon he becomes a very strong advocate for spinal cord injury research and for finding a cure. A Christopher Reeve Foundation is formed to raise money and the public’s awareness of spinal cord injuries.

In a very different way, Reeve’s injury turned the deeply passionate actor into another sort of Superman, a true hero, to those struggling with disability without the fame of someone like Reeve in their purview. The film really shows how Reeve persevered in times of adversity and how he came out swinging for those without a voice. I loved this concluding quote from a review of the film in CBR: “After seeing the documentary, people will not only believe a man can fly, but they might just think he can walk again as well, because they’ve seen Christopher Reeve become a hero without a cape.”

Christopher Reeve succumbed to his injuries at the age of 52 in 2004; his devoted wife Dana tragically followed him just two years later, in 2006, when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. (A friend being interviewed said that Dana never even smoked.) As I said earlier, have a box of tissues available when watching this touching documentary. It’s being shown on HBO or Max if you have the streaming service.

Have a good Sunday.

And so it went!