My Sister-in-law and Superman

Recently my sister-in-law made a great observation over on her blog. She talks a little bit about the fact that the super-hero so closely associated with "the American Way," is an illegal alien, and the irony of that, given the current immigration debate.

The funny thing about Kal-el, Superman, or Clark Kent...whichever name you choose to use, is that he's not just any illegal alien. He is the ultimate illegal alien. He's not even of this world, let alone this country.

Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both sons of Jewish immigrants of European descent, Superman's alien heritage can be thought of as highly symbolic of not just their backgrounds, but the backbone upon which all of the United States was built. It was no accident that the character was written as an alien.

The funny thing is, when taken as a whole - the heroes we read about in the comic books as we grew up were all criminals. Just look at DC's line-up - Superman, Wonder Woman, and J'onn J'onzz were all illegal immigrants, or aliens. All, including Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and others, are vigilantes - behavior considered criminal by law.

Consider the further irony of the saber-rattlers who wrap themselves in the flag and call for English to be declared the official language, and who want to close our borders. Let's just take English. Last I checked, they speak German in Germany, Japanese in Japan, and Italian in Italy - yet in America, we speak English - a language this country inherited from another country. If we really want to be AMERICAN, maybe we should look at the languages and dialects of the Cherokee, or Sioux, or Huron.

They were here long before whites...which brings me to my next point.

We are the cast-offs of the rest of the world, other country's refuse. Without immigration, legal or otherwise, we would not have Albert Einstein (would not have won World War II), Ayn Rand, Carnegie-Mellon University, John F. Kennedy, pizza, or hot dogs (a close relative of the German bratwurst). Those are just a fraction of the things and people we would be without. Hell, even our language is a mish-mash of German, French, Latin, and the old Anglo-Saxon languages.

Let's look at, say, Ron Lewandowski - a regional director with the Minutemen, a self-appointed group of America's protectors. The last time I checked, Lewandowski was a Polish name. Not exactly Native American, if you know what I mean.

Personally, I have grandparents who arrived on these shores by way of Italy and Ireland.

Is there a better way for these people to come into the country? It's hard to say - but I do know that trying to close our borders and rounding up millions of illegal immigrants is kind of like sticking your thumb in a leaky dike as a tsunami is about to crash.

If, as a people, we let the concept of isolationism take over and allow small minded bigots to pass legislation that destroys any chance for these people to become legal citizens, we should remove the sign from the Statue of Liberty that exhorts other countries to give us their poor, sick, and huddled masses. Remove it and replace it with a sign that reads "foreigners go home." And then we should tell the writers throughout the comic book industry to go to hell, because the criminals they write about don't reflect the "American Way."

Super Teams, the new frontier for Hollywood...

The dominoes appear to be falling.

With the The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer about to be released, rumors that the Watchmen is floating into the casting stages, additional rumors about an Avengers movie, a script in the can for the Justice League, and three X-Men movies, and The Fantastic Four, not to mention The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen under the belts of Hollywood studios in recent years, it looks like the movie mill is really just now ramping up its foray into the world of super teams. But how many could they do, and how successful will they really be?

Hollywood is two for five in quality entertainment with the super groups, producing decent films in only the first two X-Men films.

We have yet to see Hollywood produce a decent product from an Alan Moore work, so I have relatively low expectations on the long-rumored Watchmen movie, particularly considering what is leaking about casting choices which include Keanu Reeves as the favored actor to play Dr. Manhattan.

As for the Avengers, there is no script yet, although there is a writer who has discussed working on an Avengers movie.

The Justice League is another matter.

Even though, according to reports, a script has been turned in, with DC tied up in Superman and Batman projects, this could either be a long wait before we see anything made, or it could be that there will be several re-writes of the script which is said to include both of DC's heavy hitters.

This is one of those projects that I would love to see made, but doubt it would be done right (anyone who has seen clips of the ill-fated and never aired pilot of the Justice League television show shot in the late 90's on youtube knows of which I speak). I first really got into the JL while reading Batman in the mid-1980's. I thought highly of Keith Geffen's writing and enjoyed many of the satellite characters like Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, and of course J'onn J'onz.

The title itself was not terribly popular, getting canceled after a 10-year run (although not terribly unpopular, either), but, as always, was reincarnated as the Justice League of America. The JLofA was more serious, leaving behind some of the humor that laced the pages of its 1980's counterpart. One of the questions becomes, what incarnation of the league will the movie tackle?

Without Batman or Superman, the major characters, probably in order of recognition for the non-comic book fan become Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. That begs the question of marketability with the general public in the eyes of the producers.

I leave you with this question - can a Justice League film without Superman or Batman be worth the investment of cash into big name actors if the Superman and Batman are written out of the script?