Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers penned an article on the power and myth of Superman. I find myself reading it repeatedly.
About a decade ago, Alvin Schwartz, who wrote Superman comic strips in the 1940s and ’50s, published one of the great Odd Books of our time. In An Unlikely Prophet, reissued in paperback this spring, Schwartz writes that Superman is real. He is a tulpa, a Tibetan word for a being brought to life through thought and willpower. Schwartz also says a Hawaiian kahuna told him that Superman once traveled 2,000 years back in time to keep the island chain from being destroyed by volcanic activity. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t, but it does sound like a job for Superman – all in a day’s work for a guy who can squeeze coal into diamonds. Schwartz then tells of his own encounter with Superman in a New York taxi, when he learned firsthand that Superman’s cape is, in fact, more than mere fabric.
[…]
Superman stands between humanity and a capricious universe.
(read the entire article)
I do disagree with the statement that, “Bruce Wayne plays Batman.” In my mind, Bruce Wayne is the facade that Batman puts up in order to deflect accusing eyes. If you could talk to Bruce…if he were standing flesh and blood in front of you and you asked him the honest truth, “Who are you really?” I’m dead sure he would say, “I’m Batman,” without hesitation or campy intent.
(via wired news)
