Bendis Makes Light of "Coming Out" In Superman #18
The other day was the anniversary of one of the most influential films in the superhero genre: Richard Donner's Superman 1978. As such I was planning on releasing two pieces to commemorate the film, one was a review I did of the movie for a film appreciation course I took, and the other was a review of the final issue of Tom King's Up in the Sky story, which may be one of the purest Superman stories I have read. However, this week marked the release of Bendis' latest issue on his run on Superman, a run that I forsook shortly after it began due to the man's incessant ability to commit character assassination, and the 18th issue of this run would be when Bendis had Superman reveal his identity to the world. I'm sure you're wondering, why should I care if I gave up on it so long ago? And that's a fair question, initially, I just saw this as another shitty ploy of Bendis to get rid of yet another facet of this character that he no longer felt comfortable writing. However, it was so much worse than anything I could have ever imagined. I had made my peace with his character assassination of Lois Lane (after how writers like Peter J Tomasi made her an empowered female figure by pushing her role as a strong mother), I had made peace with the fact that he ruined Johnathan Kent by writing him like a little brat and then aging him up in a convoluted storyline just because Bendis doesn't feel comfortable writing kids, but I never would have guessed that Bendis would be so awful as to turn the target of his bullshit around on Superman himself. Yesterday's issue of Superman was not just simply Clark revealing his identity, it was Brian Michael Bendis forcing this event to be an allegory for members of the LGBTQ community and their struggle with coming out of the closet, and this made me sick with anger.
I remember the day one of my closest friends from college called me to come out as trans. We hadn't talked in a while, I looked at my phone and found myself very surprised to be on the receiving end of a phone call for a change, (those who know me can attest that I am constantly calling if ever so poorly timed). When I answered the phone, I remember their voice shaking, I remember how nervous they were. I remember trying to calm them, thinking that maybe they had lost a close family member. Then after the brief exchange of pleasantries, the words came out: "I have something I need to tell you, I'm... I think I'm trans." And I stayed quiet and listened to everything they had to say, and by the time they had finished, I told them that it didn't matter. They were my friend and even more than that they were family and that being trans wouldn't change the place I had for them in my heart one bit. Then the sigh of relief that came through the phone, I don't know if they had other phone calls that did not go as well, but the relief of not losing someone so close to them, I could only imagine how liberating it must have been. It is one of the bravest, simple acts I have seen in my life. So to see Brian Michael Bendis cheapen that act by likening it to something so inconsequential and tiny, it made my blood boil.
The choice to keep his identity a secret was not one of fear, it was not because Superman was afraid of being accepted. The part of Superman that's hard to accept had already been accepted by the entire world! So what is so brave about coming out as Clark Kent to the world? What is so brave about facing the world and saying: "Hi, on my offtime I go by Clark Kent, I was raised by a loving family in Smallville, Kansas. I have a fantastic job as a lead journalist at the Daily Planet where I have won a Pulitzer or two. I'm married to Lois Lane, the bombshell star reporter of the same newspaper, and oh by the way we have a kid who's on his way to being as awesome as me. Thanks for letting me unburden myself to you on my perfectly assembled, happy life." That's not brave, it's not a pure and honest moment, and when you take in account the fact that his secret identity has been maintained for so long to protect those closest to him from being targeted by the likes of people like Lex Luthor, it's selfish and cowardly. It's not at all like the struggle of finding out that according to society, you don't love the people you're "supposed to," that you don't feel comfortable in your own skin, and to risk telling your family and friends these truths with the chance of losing them because they cannot come to terms or understand is a flagrant insult.
The concept of a hero coming to terms with their own identity is the crux of a hero's journey. That identity should include their sexual one, it's a part of who we are, who we love. What's more is that these stories, comics, mirror the fables, myths, and romances of old. They are filled with adventure, and struggle, but also with love and intimacy. A character coming out to the world about who they are shouldn't be this cheap. Brian Michael Bendis tries to pride himself as a defender of the disenfranchised, but in all truth, he's just another middle-aged white man who's allied himself with a topical agenda in order to put himself above his peers. This story shows that in spades. Just as an example, Brian Michael Bendis had John age up to a teenager recently, how much better of a story would it have been for a confused Johnathan Kent struggling with feelings of intimacy, coming to his parents and being utterly terrified by that concept. That way the people who Bendis is trying to connect with could see a bit of themselves in that hero. They remember going through puberty and being terrified of all these questions and the answers they may find in them, in fact, that's a struggle that just about everyone can relate to because we've all been there. I hope this piece finds it way to the likes of Bendis and editor Dan Didio, it's not bad enough that you have worked so hard to destroyed everything built up in these properties over the past few years, but to do something like this. It's not poetic, it's insulting. Yes, the allegory is there, but it's utterly hollow and has the sincerity of Kevin Spacey's coming out to distract from his sexual assault of a minor.
To end on a bit more of an upswing I will still be posting my review of Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve, and depending on how I am doing, I may also write my Tom King Up in the Sky piece if I am feeling a little less revolted.
I remember the day one of my closest friends from college called me to come out as trans. We hadn't talked in a while, I looked at my phone and found myself very surprised to be on the receiving end of a phone call for a change, (those who know me can attest that I am constantly calling if ever so poorly timed). When I answered the phone, I remember their voice shaking, I remember how nervous they were. I remember trying to calm them, thinking that maybe they had lost a close family member. Then after the brief exchange of pleasantries, the words came out: "I have something I need to tell you, I'm... I think I'm trans." And I stayed quiet and listened to everything they had to say, and by the time they had finished, I told them that it didn't matter. They were my friend and even more than that they were family and that being trans wouldn't change the place I had for them in my heart one bit. Then the sigh of relief that came through the phone, I don't know if they had other phone calls that did not go as well, but the relief of not losing someone so close to them, I could only imagine how liberating it must have been. It is one of the bravest, simple acts I have seen in my life. So to see Brian Michael Bendis cheapen that act by likening it to something so inconsequential and tiny, it made my blood boil.
The choice to keep his identity a secret was not one of fear, it was not because Superman was afraid of being accepted. The part of Superman that's hard to accept had already been accepted by the entire world! So what is so brave about coming out as Clark Kent to the world? What is so brave about facing the world and saying: "Hi, on my offtime I go by Clark Kent, I was raised by a loving family in Smallville, Kansas. I have a fantastic job as a lead journalist at the Daily Planet where I have won a Pulitzer or two. I'm married to Lois Lane, the bombshell star reporter of the same newspaper, and oh by the way we have a kid who's on his way to being as awesome as me. Thanks for letting me unburden myself to you on my perfectly assembled, happy life." That's not brave, it's not a pure and honest moment, and when you take in account the fact that his secret identity has been maintained for so long to protect those closest to him from being targeted by the likes of people like Lex Luthor, it's selfish and cowardly. It's not at all like the struggle of finding out that according to society, you don't love the people you're "supposed to," that you don't feel comfortable in your own skin, and to risk telling your family and friends these truths with the chance of losing them because they cannot come to terms or understand is a flagrant insult.
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| Clark Comes Out as Superman to Perry White... |
To end on a bit more of an upswing I will still be posting my review of Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve, and depending on how I am doing, I may also write my Tom King Up in the Sky piece if I am feeling a little less revolted.
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