Superman

A while back, I promised to write a bit about how superheroes relate to Christ. This was after I saw IronMan and before I got bogged down with work stuff/mommy stuff/life in general stuff. I thought a lot about which superhero to start with, narrowed it down to two before picking Superman.
Superman was the first superhero I really ever loved. My first experience with Superman was like any other child of the 70's...Christopher Reeve's Superman. And yes, like any other girl loving superheroes my favorite Superman movie was Superman 2(the romantic one).
I think we all enjoy the idea of the alter-ego. Clark Kent is the perfect example of this. No one would suspect him of being Super-anything. He's awkward, shy, bumbling, stuttering, and nervous. He takes care of his elderly mother. He doesn't drink or smoke. He's just this very good, very quiet person.
Christ was like this too. He was not the great warrior king messiah that the Jews were expecting to release them of their bondage. He was from a little town of little importance. He was a carpenter's son. His mother was unwed when she conceived him. He was unexpected.
Then introduce Superman. The fellow from Krypton. He looks human. He was raised by humans. He experiences life as a human. He even gives up his super-ness at one point to become completlely human. But as human as he is, he is also fully Kryptonian (I'm just making up a word here). He can do things that no human can do. He has super-strength and super-powers. He could do pretty much anything he wanted with them. But there is an innate goodness about him. His motto is to fight for truth, justice and the American-way. (I know, I'm Canadian, so part of me goes 'argh' at the American-way bit).
Christ also experiences human-ness. He is fully man and fully God. He is innately good. He doesn't fight for truth he IS truth. He also rescues people. He came into the world to save them. He laid down his life for us...all of us. True he could have come into the world to be this warrior-king that was expected and just knock everyone out of the way, making them do as he willed, but what good would that have done? He had a better plan.
I know all of this is over-simplifying. I also know that I could go on and write a big essay about it. But it's just food for thought. We love these superheroes. We long for these superheroes. Maybe we're all longing for a little more. Superheroes are just stories in comic books and on the big-screen. We're all looking for a little rescuing, a better way. Jesus is truth. He is my saviour.