What We Swear By, or in This Case, On

Superman, Sequence and so many dragons [View this email online]( [Pop Culture Happy Hour]( by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when we got an updated edition of the venerable board game Clue, featuring [newly hot suspects]( – with whom you’d like to do something, with something, in the Conservatory. It was the week we got [our first glimpse of Nicolas Cage in the role]( he was born undead to play. And it was the week [a self-described nepo baby offered a bracingly clear-eyed take]( on the whole nepo baby thing, so maybe we can all move on now. Let’s get to it. Opening Argument: What We Swear By, or in This Case, On This week, Congressman-elect Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) [made some news]( by announcing he will (eventually!) swear himself in on a copy of the Constitution, a photo of his late parents, his certificate of U.S. citizenship and … a copy of Superman #1, on loan from the Library of Congress. Unusual, that last bit? Sure. But to me it makes a kind of baseline, profoundly American, sense. Not just because Garcia is a lifelong comic-book nerd (though I mean … that factors. Clearly.) But because of what Superman #1 is, as a historical and cultural object. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Follow me, here: Superman #1 appeared on newsstands in April 1939. It was the first comic book ever to be devoted entirely to a single character. For years before that, comics were afterthoughts – hastily slapped-together anthologies that simply reprinted and repackaged previously published newspaper comic strips. Money grabs, essentially – a way for publishers to get one last bite out of their pulpy apples. But exactly one year before Superman #1 debuted, Action Comics #1 had appeared on newsstands, and changed the existing formula. Like the comics that came before it, Action Comics was an anthology featuring 11 different strips. But for the first time, the characters and stories in Action weren’t retreads from the Sunday funnies, they were original, all-new creations. Most of them were square-jawed, two-fisted detectives with hilariously square-jawed, two-fisted names like Pep Morgan! Chuck Dawson! Scoop Scanlon! There was also a page of Hollywood gossip about Constance Bennett (gasp!) and it led off with this weird violent yarn about a guy in blue circus-strongman tights and a red cape who jumped around a lot and beat people up. Every issue of Action Comics featured so many different characters, in fact, that it took the publisher months to figure out precisely why every issue was flying off the shelves. (Spare a kind thought to the poor, cigar-chomping schlub who convinced himself that America’s youth were all going gaga for the pulse-pounding adventures of Sticky-Mitt Stimson.) Once they finally got their act together, they published the Oops! All Supes! comic, Superman #1. Though it weighed in at a hefty 64 pages, it was mostly just a reprint of the Superman stories that had previously appeared in Action Comics #1-4. They did tweak things a bit, expanding his origin story and adding some pages to show how Clark Kent got his job as a reporter. The important thing about Superman #1 – and if Congressman-elect Garcia is a nerd like me, he knows this – is that the Superman that appeared in its pages is not the Big Blue Boy Scout we know today. He’s not the smiling cop-in-a-cape who enforces the rule of law and saves the occasional day. No, the Superman of those first few outings was an agitator. He didn’t reinforce the status quo, he upended it, again and again. In his very first appearances, years before anyone started calling him the Man of Steel, the only epithet applied to him was Champion of the Oppressed. That was his whole, O.G. gig – looking out for the little guy, the defenseless, the marginalized, the exploited: anyone who got used and abused by the system. It’s not a stretch to think of early Superman as a neo-socialist icon, a progressive activist in a leotard. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Don’t believe me? Here’s what Superman gets up to, in the pages of Superman #1: - Savagely beats up a man who’s abusing a woman - Prevents the state from executing a wrongly convicted prisoner - Torments a corrupt Washington lobbyist (by hoisting him over his super-shoulders and leaping between the many towering skyscrapers of 1939 Washington, D.C. – hey, it’s comics) - Forces a greedy munitions manufacturer to experience the horrors of war on the front lines as his own products explode around him - Prevents a second execution, this time via firing squad - Cold-bloodedly murders a soldier for torturing a prisoner - Traps a wealthy mine owner and his high-society friends in his own mine to demonstrate how the mine’s safety equipment doesn’t work (look I know things are getting a bit more baroque, here, but stay with me), and - Disguises himself as a college football player to expose a crooked coach (see above, in re: hey, it’s comics). There is a throughline, here, and it’s the forcible dismantling of systems that exert power over the weak and disenfranchised. He was a bully to the bullies, a guy who stands up for those who can’t stand up. All of this changed with the advent of World War II, of course. Superman quickly transformed into an anodyne patriotic symbol, a rallying cry for the troops, a primary-colored nugget of cheap-to-produce propaganda. This is when “Truth, Justice and the American Way” first entered the mix, and Superman’s socialist roots got swept under the rug – or, more precisely, into the Victory Garden. But in Superman #1, and for a few years after it, Superman’s entire deal was to be someone who fought for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. He’s changed a lot, over the years. But I wrote [a cultural history of Superman a few years back]( and after spending so many hours reading and watching every piece of media Superman appeared in over the decades, I came away with the two essential elements to Superman. They don’t have anything to do with what you might expect – the powers, the origin story, the costume, the politics, the patriotism. No, here’s what lies at the heart of any Superman story: - He puts the needs of others over those of himself - He never gives up That’s it, it’s not complicated. Those are the two things that make Superman Superman. And when it comes to something to swear by, or in this case, on – what are the essential characteristics we’re talking about, here? Selflessness, and perseverance. As concepts go, they seem like a pretty solid pair of options for anyone – politicians included – to get behind, especially if those aspects work in sync with each other: Empathy met with determination, as an organizing principle. Sure. Why not? Unrealistic ideals, you say? Yeah, that’s the whole point, I say. Superheroes are wish-fulfillment; that’s their power. Superman was the first superhero, so he happens to be the best, the purest encapsulation of that notion. He’s the self you aren’t yet, but hope to one day become. He’s not Spider-Man. Spider-Man, famously, is the hero we identify with. That’s what he’s for; he shares our worries and fears – rent, girlfriends, family. But Superman isn’t the hero we identify with, he’s the hero we believe in, we look up to. Yes, he’s better than we are – he’s the ideal to strive for, the example to compare ourselves against. And it’s his status as an ideal that matters, because it means he’s always just beyond our reach. Like, say, Justice. And Truth. And, as was made clearer than ever this week, Democracy. Which, as I say, just makes a kind of simple, unignorable, rock-ribbed sense. Because it’s only in the striving for an ideal – in the simple day-to-day act of chasing it, reaching for it, hoping that we can attain it – that we even approach becoming the best version of ourselves we can ever hope to be. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to [Pop Culture Happy Hour+]( Learn more and sign up at [plus.npr.org/happy](. [Learn More]( We Recommend The second season of [the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina]( is coming to Amazon Prime on January 20. I [liked the first season]( a lot, even if it didn’t approach my hopeless, heedless love for Critical Role, the “nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons” [web series it’s based on](. Season 2 is a notable step up – it’s faster, funnier and more dynamically/thrillingly animated. Plus more dragons. So. I mean. (Note: Amazon is among NPR’s financial supporters and also distributes certain NPR content.) I’m working my way through the [unabridged audiobooks in the A Song of Ice and Fire series]( by George R. R. Martin. They’re read by the late actor Roy Dotrice, and I get now why he’s such a controversial narrator. Dude makes some big, puzzling vocal choices, and uh … not all of them work. (His Brienne angers up the blood and his Arya, in particular, is a hate crime.) But as someone who’s recorded a couple of audiobooks myself, I gotta admire the sheer tenacious grit involved (17+ hours per book!), and the [Guinness Book of World Records versatility](. And as someone who’s mostly stuck to the TV show and the wikis, it’s nice to get a deeper sense of just how much mind-boggling, world-building detail Martin has poured into this endeavor. Without those damned wiki popups. [Sequence is one of those board games]( that sat on the game shelf of pretty much every house I ever visited, growing up. No one ever busted it out though, so I came to think of it as a weirdly ubiquitous element of ‘80s decor, like those giant wooden salad utensils people used to hang on their walls. Finally tried it over the holiday break, and it fit the bill perfectly. Understand: We’re still [struggling to figure out Wingspan]( with its maddeningly European “Every turn consists of four phases, and in each phase you can choose one of four actions, and each action …” rule set. Sequence could not be simpler – cards, board, chips, go. A nice mix of luck and something approaching strategy. (And before you go calling me basic: Look, we’re gonna conquer Wingspan next weekend, as soon as we can fire up one of the (30 minutes?! Come on!) YouTube tutorials.) My husband and I made a cassoulet for Christmas Eve dinner. We followed [this NYT recipe by Melissa Clark](. It’s a two-day affair, and it’s not for the faint of heart (literally, because it’s duck confit plus sausage plus more sausage plus pork plus lamb plus more duck fat – sure, there’s some heart-healthy beans in the mix too, but it’s been weeks and I can still feel my blood congealing). It is the perfect meal for a cold dark winter’s night, though. Be warned: Flavor and consistency-wise, every bite packs the density of a white dwarf star. Seriously. Spacetime bends around this dish, is how dense it is. Serve yourself how much you think you can eat, then halve it. Trust me. And finally a request: We’re going to be talking about the beloved sitcom Cheers on an upcoming episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, and we’d like to get your thoughts on what, specifically, to talk about. If you’ve got a question for us to tackle, send us a voice message to [pchh@npr.org](. Thanks! What We Did This Week Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey and Alisha Weir as Matilda Wormwood in Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical. Netflix On Monday, we dropped (do the kids still say that? Dropped?) [an excerpt from our pal Jesse Thorn’s podcast Bullseye]( – specifically from the Josh Gondelman chunk of the show’s yearly Stand-Up Comedy Spectacular, which features the best stand-up comedy albums of the year. On Tuesday, Aisha, Brittany Luse, Eric Deggans and Kiana Fitzgerald [urged you to check out South Side](. Also on Tuesday, Linda and Aisha went on Morning Edition to talk about [some of the TV shows and movies they’re looking forward to in 2023.]( On Wednesday, Linda, Aisha and Bedatri D. Choudhury highlighted [some of their favorite movies from 2022]( that we didn’t get around to covering on PCHH. On Thursday, Aisha, Margaret H. Willison and Cate Young had a great time [grappling with their complicated reactions]( to Netflix’s Matilda: The Musical. And on Friday, Linda, Aisha, Barrie Hardymon and Bedatri D. Choudhury [talked Women Talking, and What’s Making Us Happy](. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - Barrie Hardymon: [Babel, or the Necessity of Violence]( by R.F. Kuang - Bedatri D. Choudhury: [Sultana’s Dream]( by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain - Linda Holmes: NPR’s podcast [La última copa/The Last Cup]( - Aisha Harris: Rian Johnson’s first film, [Brick]( available on demand --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Find a Station]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+](. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? 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