So Long Superman...

Published on October 12, 2004 By herozero In Misc

As far as enterntainment goes, Sunday was both a high and a low for me. On the positive side of things, the St. Louis Cardinals won their Division Series against LA in the fourth game, and are now going on to the NLCS against Houston which will begin Wednsday. But then on the negative side of things, I along with the rest of the world, had to say goodbye to a true Man of Steel. Now I've already told everyone how much I LOVE The Cards, but until now I have not mentioned my second pop culture obsession. SUPERMAN!!

Ever since I was a wee little tot, I've loved Superman. Granted my love for the Cardinals came first, because as I said, I inherited it from my parents at birth, but Superman wasn't too many years behind. I can't tell you how many times my mom has embarrased me with pictures of me at 4 or 5, running around the house in my Superman Footie pajamas, or jumping off the couch with my underroos over my pants and a towell safety pinned around my neck. I'm not real sure why, but I've always loved the big blue boyscout. Granted my methods of expressing it have changed over the years. Right now, on my desk here at work I have all my pens and pencils stuck into a Superman pen holder. I have a picture of Val and myself, housed in a Superman frame. There is a Superman figure sitting on top of my monitor as well, and a Superman Calender hanging behind my head. Yes, I'm definitely themed in Red, Yellow, and Blue! And it doesn't stop there. At home I have several boxes full of poly-bagged and boarded Superman comics along with a ton of other memorabilia which of course includes the four Christoper Reeve, Superman films! Now truth be told, I'm a big DC Comics Geek in general, but Superman has always been my main man, as far as rescuing damsels in distress and the like goes.

Why you ask? I don't really know. I like to think I've always been a fairly counter-cultured, hip, new age kind of guy. So why do the rather old fashioned heroes of DC Comics appeal to me more than things like the X-Men or Spiderman. Especially SUPERMAN!?? THE MOST old fashioned of heroes. Well I don't have an answer for that. Okay I actually do, but it's a LONG answer, and one that I'm not willing to get into right now. But my reason for saying all of this, is to say that perhaps the Death of Chris Reeve is a little bit bigger deal to me than it is to the average person. I mean, for me, being the Superman fanatic that I was, Christopher Reeve WAS Superman for a large portion of my childhood. There was no other. And as I got older I learned to appreciate him for what he brought to the character, nad not for simply being the character. When Chris Reeve played Superman and Clark Kent, he played them both as different people, like it should be. When someone asks what he did that was so good, I always refer to the scene in Superman 2, when Clark Kent falls into the fire in the hotel room in Niagra. It's Clark Kent that falls in, but Superman who raises up. The difference is remarkable! You almost forget that it's the same guy.

But Reeve had a rocky career, for the very reason that I loved him so much as a child, because he WAS Superman, to a lot of people, not just me. And unfortunately just as things were smoothing out, along came the ill fated accident in Culpeper, VA. But Reeve never stopped. His crusade against Paralysis has been that of legend. A crusade which will no doubt be kept alive by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. He kept on acting, granted not as much as he might have otherwise, but he popped up here and there.

I'm not going to ramble on here about how great of a man he was. I think everyone knows that, and I think that there are enough articles all over the internet saying all the facts. So instead I want to pay my respects in the best way I know how. By sampling some lines from the last few pages of Superman #75. Which graced the shelves of comic shops and newstands in January of 1993, and held within its pages one of the most unbelievable sites ever printed in any media, The Death of Superman. These words were written by Dan Jurgens, some eleven years ago, and though they were written about a superhero defending a city from a mindless beast, I think they fit here as well...

"For those who loved him, one who would call him husband, one who would be his pal, or those who would call him son, this is the darkest day they could ever imagine. They raised him to be a hero...to know the value of sacrifice. To know the value of LIFE. And for those who served beside him in the protection of all life, comes the shock of failure. The weight of being too late to help. For a city to live, a man had given his all and more. But it's too late. For this is the day....THAT A SUPERMAN DIED!!!"

Thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of Christopher Reeve!

Comments

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 12, 2004

I was surprised to find out one day how close of a friendship Christopher Reeve had with Robin Williams, including a pact they made that if anything happened to the other they would take care of each other (something like that).

Yes I will miss Superman, for me growing up as a little kid I watched the Superman movies during the Eighties and he is Superman not Dean Caine or that new kid on Smallville.

Though I had a chance to see him in the comedy 'Noises Off' and was laughing alot during the movie, good comedy.

- Grim X

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