At the DC FanDome event, Jim Lee took center stage to announce a change to the Superman mythos, to better reflect Superman’s mission of universal transformative change for the future.
“We are excited to announce that to better reflect the storylines that we’re telling across DC, and to honor Superman’s incredible legacy of over eighty years of building a better world, Superman’s motto is evolving,” Jim said.
The traditional “Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” will henceforth be “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow,” eschewing the former, more limited and nationalistic phrasing, which was often exclusionary to other parts of the world.
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Thanks in advance.
“The American Way”, “A Better Tomorrow”, as long as he’s fighting for “Truth And Justice”, he’s still Superman.
::puts finger on nose::
::thanks you for your sanity::
Right on.
As long as it fits the story, I am okay with it. I’m an old school type Superman fan, but I know that a better tomorrow always has been the American way. 🙂 It’s just semantics to me. That’s a great drawing of Clark.
Actually, I think Superman’s new motto works quite well. After all, Superman is also known as “The Man of Tomorrow.” So I like the new motto.
I like this change. I think a better tomorrow embraces the hope side of Superman, and I appreciate a motto that’s more inclusive for Superman fans around the world. I think this fits with what Siegel and Shuster started so many years ago.
On a good day, they’re the same thing. I love being an American, that doesn’t mean my country doesn’t have problems, and it doesn’t mean we haven’t made mistakes, but we are a work in progress. It’s literally in Sentence One of our founding document, “to establish a more perfect union”, we weren’t perfect in 1787 and we’re not perfect in 2021, but we’re making progress. Change isn’t easy, and it’s often frightening, and sadly those who fear it will push back against it as “un-American”, but ultimately it will come and all the historical changes that have stuck were… Read more »
Except there’s a huuuuge flaw in that reasoning. Respectfully. Either they are equivalent terms, in which case, there should be no objection to using the term “A Better Tomorrow,” because it is no change at all, as you say, or, as I assert, one has a lot of baggage, leaving the other superior. Those bad things you mention, they are all things “The American Way” carries just implicitly, when we hear it. A better tomorrow only has the promise of a better tomorrow, implicitly, until it has some connotation. Which it has yet to build, as a new motto. It’s… Read more »
For clarity’s sake, let me make it clear I have NO objection to the change. My point was, is, and always shall be, that both are ultimately a promise to improve. As for implying things, any term could be loaded if we choose to look at it that way. I *try* not to be exceptionally political here, but since you bring up the now-loaded MAGA (I didn’t vote for it either time, so… We agree?) “A better tomorrow” was the “promise” of eugenics in the early- to mid-20th Century. Or if we want to get broader, there’s the old nugget… Read more »
I know what you mean, and I take your point in the spirit in which it’s intended. Thank you, also, for good, spirited dialogue. Just as an aside to this debate, which is a tough one, I want to thank you for the depth and articulation of thought here, because honestly, after four days now of listening to people have knee-jerk reactions to this, it’s a genuine pleasure to talk to someone who doesn’t share my exact perspective, but is civil. And to that end, if that’s what the American Way means, you’ll have me with you in hoping it… Read more »
Reading the comments it looks like I might be the odd one out here with my opinion. I’ve never been particularly patriotic about my own country – I’m Australian – our national anthem and flag mean next to nothing to me. My country just happens to be where I was born and grew up. It’s a place that has the comfort of familiarity and where I fit in for the most part so I wouldn’t neccessarily want to live anywhere else but to me that’s just happenstance. A large part of who I am is shaped and defined by the… Read more »
I’ve always been of the opinion that Superman always fought for truth, justice, and the American way, but his motto change is a little surprising to me.
I honestly thought the whole “American Way” thing was long gone … I mean, even back in 1978, Margot Kidder’s Lois scoffed at Chris Reeve’s Superman when he said it to her. If I remember rightly, she told him “You’re going to end up fighting every elected official in the country”. There have been a lot of variations since then that avoided the “American Way” thing, so I don’t even think this is that much of a big deal – I’m surprised it’s making headlines. (Also, didn’t Superman revoke his American citizenship back in 2011?) Far as I’m aware, the… Read more »
I was looking at a website that talked about the legal status of infants being found in the USA. It’s called the “Foundling Statute”. I’m not sure if it applies to Superman though, but if I remember correctly, I think it stated that if an abandoned infant is found in the US without any indication of where the child came from, it could be classified as a US citizen. I hope that this comment doesn’t offend anyone. I was wondering if anyone else have heard of this statute and if anyone knows answer to the question if he’s a foundling… Read more »
It’s unclear, because there isn’t a specific canon answer, or there have been multiple answers. Analytically speaking, he usually has the usual trappings of an American citizen, presumably, the driver’s license, the birth certificate, and those would have to have been forged or created extra-legally by the Kents. It would be the right thing to do, of course, that’s not the issue. So according to the US, he’d probably be (technically) a legal US citizen (though Superman renounced his, as I recall), as Clark Kent. If he were to open up about how he was found, and who did, he… Read more »
I wasn’t sure about that. Thanks Neal. 🙂
I guess it’s better than “Truth, Justice…All that stuff.” From Superman Returns
Saw that comin’.