Superman and the American Way – Mike Nelson

This iconic threefold motto was first used in 1942, four years after the character was first introduced in Action Comics, and at a time when America was also being called on to use our power for good. This motto became so identified with the hero that some viewers recoiled when, in 2006, Frank Langella’s Perry White asked his Daily Planet reporters to find out if Superman still stands for “truth, justice, and all that stuff.”

The somewhat dismissive statement by White was one of many recent attempts to modify or “soften” the classic motto. DC Comics officially changed the motto to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow” in 2021, and the lead-up to the debut of the most recent movie included a Superman bobblehead with packaging that proclaimed the hero stands for “truth, justice, and the human way.” 

These modifications may be attempting to suggest a more global connectedness and shared universal values. But that overly simplistic and, quite frankly, wishful way of looking at things waters down both the virtue of Superman’s cause and the unique character of the United States. 

Indeed, both the United States and Superman represent departures from “the human way.” Human nature, as demonstrated throughout history, has often been to collect power and use it for control and self interest. While it’s easy to take for granted that there are so many liberal democracies in the world today, at our Founding, the idea of a government restraining its power and returning it to citizens was truly revolutionary. Likewise, the idea of an extraterrestrial being using his near limitless power to protect and serve mankind, as opposed to conquering it, is something more rooted in human ideals than human nature. And there is no country more firmly based upon ideals than America. 

Not only is Superman a symbol of the country in which Clark Kent was raised, he is a product of it. Had his spaceship not landed in Smallville, Kansas, and had he not been raised with Jonathan and Martha Kent as models for upright behavior and moral values (they themselves believers in the American way), Kal-El’s development and ultimate role would have been very different. In fact, DC Comics provided us with just such a thought experiment with the 2003 Red Son alternate storyline, wherein Kal-El’s spaceship lands in the Soviet Union and he grows up to fight for “Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact.”

The people writing these new slogans are, in many cases, products of the same America that produced Clark Kent. But they may be too close and too used to the freedom, liberty, and virtue produced by the American experiment, brought forth almost 250 years ago, to realize its truly remarkable nature. The United States, like Superman, represents something born with greatness (the beliefs enshrined in our founding documents in America’s case and the superpowers in Superman’s case), but both must continue to choose to strive for virtue, to use their strengths for good, and to be worthy of the power they enjoy.

Beyond those who find Superman’s patriotism outdated or cringe-worthy, there are others who don’t find it believable. Junot Díaz wrote in the New York Times that he finds versions of an all-powerful superhero who are either mad with power (e.g. Homelander from The Boys) or overly destructive (e.g. Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Miracleman) to be the more credible outcomes if superhuman beings existed. But this is exactly the point. It is more likely that such a being would abuse their power, just as it is more likely that a hegemonic superpower would use its might to conquer. This is, in the end, what makes Superman and the United States so unique, and so linked—each one representative of the best traits of the other. 

I imagine Mr. Diaz and I would disagree about historical examples of American use of power, in that I believe our country has acted benevolently more often than not. But I believe we would agree that discussion of how America does use its power is an essential conversation now, as there are some who wish America would act more “as we can” rather than “as we should.”

Cynicism is easy, and deep belief is often mocked, but Superman is meant to make us believe—and Gunn’s Superman does call us to overcome our cynicism (made stark in Clark and Lois’s conversation in the middle of the 2025 movie on the very topic). It’s worth nothing that Superman’s first appearance on the big screen in 1978 came in the midst of a nadir in American pride—due to demoralization from the Vietnam War, rising crime, lack of trust in institutions after the Watergate scandal, and economic and energy crises. Despite these, American audiences were able to look at Christopher Reeve’s Superman and believe in the values and virtues he exuded. Superman demonstrates that we can rise above our nature and our interests for the common good—for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. In Superman Returns, Brandon Routh’s Superman confronts Lois Lane over her Pulitzer Prize-winning column, “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman.” 

“You wrote that the world doesn’t need a savior,” he says. “But every day I hear people crying for one.” 

Superman is a symbol, but he’s also a representative of us, of our ability to share a belief in good. And despite the cynicism by those who mock the idea of patriotic pride and America acting as a force for good around the world (from those would say the world doesn’t need America, despite the fact that we hear people cry out for it), a belief in good does not disappear as long as there are those who hold it dear.

In the words of Superman as he says goodbye to Lois at the end of Superman Returns, “I’m always around.”