AS POWERFUL AS HOPE

#TomTaylor #Superman #sonofkalel #Hope

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"He could be the best of us... faster than fate... as powerful as hope." - Wonder Woman

We know the story of the not-so-ordinary boy placed in a rocket ship and blasted off through the universe as the last bastion of hope of the planet Krypton. What we may not connect with is the responsibility of being that uber man's son. Tom Taylor, co-creator of Netflix's The Deep and author of critically acclaimed titles such as: Injustice: Gods Among Us, Seven Secrets, All-New Wolverine, and one of my favorite Alfred Pennyworth stories in Batman Annual #3, introduces us to Jon Kent, Superman, in Superman: Son of Kal-El issue #1 in Herculean fashion - the story of his birth, and his father being so occupied with the attempted alien invasion that he almost arrives late.

Immediately, expectations are being placed upon an unborn child, fairly or unfairly - that's for you to decide. Wonder Woman believes the son of Superman and Lois Lane could be the greatest hero this world has ever seen. Batman has run his tests and come to the conclusion that the child "could be... more than Clark." These are your Nobel Prize winning aunt and uncle deciding to which Ivy League school you will become valedictorian before you've learned to properly latch on. The weight is heavy. Every action you take is in service of meeting some tacit hope that if you fail to meet, one day the smiles are a little more forced, your favorite meal is no longer set out when you arrive home from a long day of work, and you'll be left wondering what you could have done to earn this person's love. Or, perhaps if you are one of the unluckily super-powered, you fail to save the son of the Senator and you're now complicit in his murder - that sort of thing.

If you have the power to change the world, should you?

Jon is now Superman. His mother's fierce determination and his father's unyielding compassion drive this new Superman in his battle, not against Brainiac or Luthor, but an infernal blaze caused by a combustible man who is unable to control his emotions. Jon's abilities to speak and listen win the day where the military's firepower failed (maybe Tom's got something to say). This man on fire is more than a fire hazard in the woods; he's the incarnation of the question, "If you have the power, do you continue to fight the symptoms, or do you eradicate the problem?" It's the Batman and the Joker. It's the atom bomb and Hiroshima. It's God and Satan. It's you.

Superman's name implies that he is more than a man, hovering above the physical, emotional, and yes, even spiritual constructs that compel and moderate our actions. He has the ability to operate outside of that which we find reassuring. But will he? Is it right for him to act in accordance with his abilities and understanding of morality, moving us around like pieces on a chessboard? In this fictitious case, Superman is the son of an alien and an Earth native. So, his claim to act on behalf of earthlings is far greater than that of his father.

So, what of you? Is your use of power and authority as a police officer, a school teacher, CPA, or a parent warranted simply because you currently have the power? Be you God or Satan, the Allied forces behind the atom bomb or Hiroshima, Batman or Red Hood (okay, Joker), you have a responsibility to answer these questions that Tom Taylor has posed.

If you were the Ruler of the World and everyone trusted you to solve their problems, would you?

If you were the Ruler of the World and possessed the answer to their problems, but only half of the world wanted you act, would you?