Lex Luthor's Grand Revelation

I'm a cartoonist. So it should come as no surprise that I enjoy superhero movies and cartoons. Well, the other night I watched a movie called All Star Superman, based on a comic by the same name, and it brought home why I've always identified with Superman more than with Batman. I mean the darkness does have its allure, and I even remember a childhood dream where I was Batman, but I just am not a creature of the darkness -- of the night. And it's interesting that Batman's totem is the symbol for shamanic death -- which is a transitional state. I have been through the dark, but I don't live there.

On the other hand this movie brought to light, literally, what things look like from Superman's perspective. In fact, it was the undoing of Lex Luthor, Superman's Arch nemesis. The main point that I love about the story is that Lex concocts a serum that will give him Superman's power for 24 hours. As he is poised and on the brink of taking over the world, he stops. Suddenly he can see the world the way Superman sees it all the time -- the entire electromagnetic spectrum, atoms, clouds of possibilities and the fact that every thing -- every one -- is connected.  Suddenly there is no point to taking over the world.  How can you be anything but benevolent when you can see -- physically see -- that we are all one? What is left to take over?


                  

I love when spirituality/quantum-physics shows up in our modern mythology of movies, television, books, and comics.  In a way superheroes are some of the gods of our age, whose stories thrill us, and teach us, just as stories around the campfire have done for countless eons.  They give us a glimpse into our humanness as well as give us not just the inspiration to move beyond our perceived limits, but the blue-print on how to do it.

So, speaking from my comic-book-geek-fan-boy, I understand now being more drawn to Superman, whose world view is based on unity and wholeness, than Batman, whose world view is based on separation.

And then there's Wonder Woman.  She is something else all together.  But I will reserve that, as well as Batman and Shamanic Death, for another time.  :)