Superman has always been 'woke'

I'm pumped for the new Superman movie, more than I have been for earlier film treatments of the character. This current moment in history feels like it needs role models, even fictional ones, to inspire us to be better, individually and societally. 

The new film has been taking some knocks in certain quarters for being "woke." For people who use the term negatively, I guess this means that Superman is overly concerned with other people's feelings and emotions, that he is too soft and leans too far left. 

Being woke, to me, basically means giving a shit about other people and being aware of injustices that affect certain individuals and groups. This could be women, minorities, impoverished people, veterans, whoever. 

I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can't say if this new Superman is "woke" or not, but I assume he is. Superman has always focused on the downtrodden, on helping people who can't help themselves. 

The often-reprinted panels above (click on them to enlarge) are from the character's first appearance in Action Comics #1, cover dated June 1938. Superman is rather dramatically inserting himself into the crime of domestic violence. His comment, "You're not fighting a woman, now!" is certainly not enlightened, but his actions are what count.   

The next three panels show the aftermath, and a keen psychological awareness on the part of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the two young men who created Superman. Abusers are cowards who punch down, and when they encounter somebody stronger, they wilt. 

Siegel and Shuster were young Jewish men living in Cleveland when they dreamed up their now-iconic character, so they undoubtedly knew a thing or two about being on the outskirts of society, looking in. 

So, yeah, this newest iteration of Superman will probably be "woke." But that's not a new thing; the trait has been baked into the character since the start. Also, it's an odd characteristic to be seen as negative. Shouldn't we all care about each other? Shouldn't we all want to lift others up? 

Of course, it's okay to dislike a new movie. Like what you like, after all. But if you're hating on a character who's always cared a lot for the marginalized because he's caring a lot for the marginalized, and if you feel that way before you've even seen the movie ... well, I just think that's an odd flex. It might say more about you than about a movie, a character, or a studio. 

One more image. This one originally was used as one of those classic brown-paper-bag book covers, distributed to school kids by an arm of the Anti-Defamation League in the 1950s. Eight years ago, DC Comics restored and colored it. The message is as important—and as "woke"—today as it was seventy-five years ago. 

Stay woke, Superman. The world needs you. 

 

Jurassic World: Rebirth

 I'm an easy mark where dinosaur movies are concerned. Just give me some big critters chasing tiny folks and I'm happy. 

Since Jurassic World: Rebirth serves up plenty of that, I left satisfied. Screenwriter David Koepp provides a decent-enough plot to hang the dino action on, and director Gareth Edwards keeps the action brisk. Actors Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey are fine as two mercenaries and a paleontologist, respectively, sent to extract dinosaur DNA from the remaining Jurassic giants congregating along the equator. Rupert Friend is the capitalist villain (almost a redundant description) who wants the DNA to create a cure for heart disease, but only after his company profits first. 

A large portion of the movie—too much, in retrospect—is spent on the water, where our blood-extracting heroes chase down a Mesosaur and rescue the hapless Delgado family (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, and Audrina Miranda) after their boat overturns. This sequence plays like a love letter to Jaws, complete with Johansson doing her best imitation of Quint, firing harpoons from the bow of the ship. 

After that, the crew and its rescued additions are off to a conveniently located island that once housed an InGen research facility. Plenty of dinosaurs are still skulking about, including a Distortus rex (I had to Google it), a mutated dinosaur that should have 20th Century Fox issuing a cease-and-desist because of its similarity to the critter from the Alien franchise. 

My favorite scene involves the Delgados in a dangerous river escape, pursued by an angry Tyrannosaurus rex. It's reminiscent of a scene from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novel that has never been featured in any of the movies, until now. 

Some of the dinosaur scenes in this franchise may be showing their age (pun intended), but they still provide the requisite thrills and fun. And, yep, if this spawns an eighth movie, I'll be there, natural selection willing.