VARIETY
SEX AND THE SUPERMAN
No, no, no, Jul'es Feiffer/ you're wrong about Superman not
hankering for Lois Lane. Your whole premise is jeopardized, don't you
see, by slavish adherence to a schizoid diagnosis.
"It
can't be that Kent
wanted Lois to respect him for himself, since himself was Superman.
Then, it appears, he wanted Lois to respect him for his fake S'elf, to love
him
when he acted the coward, to be there when he pretended h'e
needed her.... Superman never n'eeded her, never needed anybody-in
any event, Lois chased
him-so,
of course, he didn't love her. He had
contempt for her. Another typical American romanc'e." No, no, no. One
really expects more sophistication from Mr. Feiffer in this matter. And
this matter is important, you see, for Superman is the most fabulous of
the comic book heroes-part of our folklore already, one might argue.
And the most engaging feature of the Superman stories was surely not
the fellow's prowess at bending bridges into pretzels or dispatching felons
with a flick of his cuticl'e-for, by definition, he was invincible, so what
suspense could there be over the outcome?-but the fruitless romance
between Lois and Superman-Kent.
First, any good logician would have to question the assumption,
p'erpetuated by the comic strip itself, that Superman was real and Clark
Kent was the put-on. It is important to recall the famous episode, re–
printed in Mr. Feiffer's book, describing how Superman got here from
the doomed planet Krypton: "A scientist placed his infant son within an
'experimental rocket-ship, launching it toward earth!" A nice rumpled
couple discover the baby who is shipped to an orphan asylum till that
1 THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES. Compiled, introduced and an–
notated
by
Jules Feiffer. Dial Press. $9.95.
