Not that there was ever an American monoculture, even in the 194s: but it's possible now, to an unprecedented degree since the advent of mass communications, for people to live in the same country and yet have almost no cultural signifiers in common.
Superman is one of those few remaining common cultural touchstones, sure—but even he can't last forever. Nor should he.
on a semi-side note, i think it's worth comparing the way DC has handled that icon status to the way another icon of comparable status has been handled: Mickey Mouse.
i think Mickey is one of the few peers that Superman can truly be said to have, but Disney has handled him in a totally different way. Mickey himself is used primarily as a branding icon, not a character. there are a few Disney movies where Mickey Mouse is a character, but for the most part, he's just that logo of the silhouette of his head. when you drive up the 5 through Anaheim at night, you can look over towards the park, and there it is: a ghostly purple outline of the head with the ears on the roller coaster in California Adventure. when you walk around the park, the image of the Mickey ears is hidden in various locations.
that logo stands for a huge array of other characters, other movies, theme park rides, etc. there are certain common themes and moods associated with the Disney brand, but there's enough diversity to appeal to a fairly wide array of people, and (and i think this is important) Mickey gets associated with all of them without being diluted, because at some point Walt must have realized that there are only so many stories you can tell about the same damn mouse.
the Superman "S" has that kind of iconic status, but i think the character has been diluted by decades of overuse and, inevitably, mediocre to poor use. if you're pumping out 500+ comics per decade starring Superman, the odds are that most of them are going to be crap, and that sort of overuse and poor use means that the character can't tap into the power of the cultural icon.
look at how Smallville works: normal teen drama, normal teen drama, normal teen drama... glimpse of the "S" logo or a new mention of some bit of lore. it treats the bits and pieces of the Superman legend like holy relics, and taps straight into the font of its cultural power.
i think the All-Star Superman project is a good step, because it's not playing stupid continuity games and starting from the premise that the parts of the Superman legend that everybody knows are part of the Superman legend should be included. it's also bound to be good, which means the good Superman/crap Superman ratio will get balanced out some more.
i think DC should go further, however, and just cancel all the crap Superman titles outright, because they aren't worth diluting him for whatever money they bring in. for all the faults of Identity Crisis, the way they handled Superman was mostly perfect: you seldom see him but everyone treats him like a god among men and speaks of him in reverential whispers. they need to refocus the day-to-day of the DCU on new and/or obscure characters that new readers can discover and think of as their own, or, hell, even do the same with second-tier characters like the Flash and GL. then they can use the Big Three and especially Superman sparingly, and only trusting them with the best creators.
i don't think Superman can ever be as big as he used to be, or that anyone will ever have that kind of broad appeal again, but what power he does have could be used to best effect the more they deal with him as an icon and the less he's tainted with the day-to-day. |
