Jesus is THE Super Man

I am Superman’s pal (sorry, Jimmy Olsen). I know because he’s a friend.

But we didn’t always know each other. By the time I came along, the Superman radio show was a thing of the past, as was “The Adventures of Superman” television show with George Reeves. Even the comic books were on the decline, with the heyday of the Silver Age—most of the ‘60s—behind them. It would take a miracle to bring Supes back to his former glory.

That miracle was the movie. I was eleven years old when we met. It was Christmastime 1978. For my generation worldwide, “Superman: The Movie” was like a religious experience. Even before we knew Superman was an actor named Christopher Reeve or there was a director behind the scenes named Richard Donner—before we could learn all that, more immediately, more simply, more profoundly, we believed a man could fly.

It was epic, mythic, even evangelistic. A heavenly father sends his only son to save the Earth. The movie impacted us in ways we couldn’t describe. It communicated a message that we longed to hear and were desperate to have confirmed, but didn’t yet comprehend why. We were children. Which is why the movie came to mean even more to us as we grew older. For me, it has meant the most in the last few years.

For the time being, we knew it brought people together, especially sons to fathers. Both of them saw in Superman their hero, their role model, what it could mean to be a man—to fight the good fight, to love others openly, to protect and provide. My dad, a super man, sat next to me in the dark and got lost in the vision as well. Both of us fully responding to everything. Neither of us fully understanding why.

After the movie, everyone applauded and we all stood up to go. Because the matinee was so packed, we still stood in our aisle. If not for that, we might have missed it.

Nowadays, not many recall that the “previews” were called “trailers” because they trailed the movie. This trailer was actually part of the original screenplay. The screen lit up again. Before my already overloaded eyes, new images of Superman appeared, images we had not seen in the movie. There were scenes of Clark and Lois in an embrace; the evil trio Zod, Non, and Ursa wreaking havoc; and most shockingly, Clark, having just been punched, with a bloody face! The adventure was continuing. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t wait!


For years I had heard rumors of superficial parallels between Superman and the Super Man, Jesus Christ. Although I'm inclined to find spiritual truth in worldly stories, for a long time I considered this an intriguing idea but one which was merely the opinion of those who chose to read that meaning into the story.

Then, a few years ago, I read a review of "Superman: The Movie" online at hollywoodjesus.com. The article, written by David Bruce, the creator of the Web site, began with the idea that people respond to Superman because he is a Christ figure--but then went on to outline incredible examples of how the gospel story was used as a template for the Superman story. By the time I had finished reading the review; this intriguing idea had graduated to an interesting argument.

Bruce's review spurred me to research that brought startling revelations. For instance, did you know that:
* Superman and his father share the last name of El--the Hebrew word for God. Thus in the Superman story, when "El" the father sends "El" the son down to Earth, "God" the father sends "God" the son down to Earth.
* Superman's earthly parents, Martha and Jonathan, were modeled after the biblical parents Mary and Joseph--and as I later discovered, Mary and Joseph were the original names of the earthly parents in the comics.
* Superman's enemy is a villain called Lex Luthor, a name suspiciously like Lucifer. And both figures are fueled by the same all-consuming, all-corrupting hunger for power and glory, covered in the deception of friendship and lies.

I found these to be just the tip of a Kryptonian iceberg. But, Superman is NOT Jesus Christ; he is a Christ figure, a figure resembling Christ--as we all should be. That said, the story of Superman bears some incredible parallels to the story of the Super Man, Jesus Christ. Similarly, our own story should also grow to resemble that of Christ as we live to follow Him.---adopted and excerpt from "The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero" by Stephen Skelton.