When I was growing up, I think my first introduction to superheroes was probably either the Superfriends cartoon or the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. I don't remember which I saw first. The first Superman movie was in 1978, the year I was born, and Superfriends first aired in 1973, so both were still fairly new to the culture when I would have first been exposed to them. I might have been around 8 or 9 when they were put in front of me; by the time of my youngest brother (the 4th kid) my parents had loosened up enough to show him anything, but as I was the first they were very careful with what they let me watch.

In both of these shows, Superman was played straight and very seriously, as a do-gooder full of confidence fighting for what he saw as "truth, justice, and the American way", always smiling, holding no conflict over what was right and doing it, and having no darkness as later versions of Superman sometimes had. He was the ultimate boy scout. He did good because it was the right thing to do.

The first movie was played straight. The second was mostly filmed straight, but then the director was fired and another was brought in to add some campiness and humor to the movie. The third was mostly campy. Even in the campy ones, the character of Superman was played entirely straight. The cartoon Superfriends was also played mostly straight except for a few characters thrown in just for comedy to keep the kids interested.

I think my image of superheroes was very much influenced by this early exposure. To this day Superman is my favorite superhero. I love the idealism present in the character, the willing to always do the right thing, and the joy at helping people. When Christopher Reeve flew at the camera and smiled, that is the character to me—that is Superman.

Maybe that is where my own idealism and sense of justice comes from. I don't like the grim and gritty heroes like Wolverine and the Punisher who kill and have the idea that the end justifies the means. My feeling of this is so strong that even in video games that let you choose to play as a bad guy, I just can't do it and I always pick the good guy. I remember there was a Star Wars PC game that I used to play in university. The game let you choose the dark side or light side. I never once picked the dark side. I just couldn't do it. I was curious and kind of wanted to a few times, but every single time at that selection screen I just couldn't pick the bad guy to play as. You can laugh—I know it's kind of silly—but there we go.

I think this is why I don't really care for any of the modern DC films. While they all have good parts, they also all include the heroes doing things that heroes shouldn't do, and there is a dark, gritty feeling that I just dislike. They feel like the writers and directors are embarrassed to be doing superhero movies. I think the Superman costume being redesigned to remove the red trunks is the perfect example of this embarrassment. They all strike me as the child who refuses to say he likes comics because that would be uncool and maybe the other kids would make fun of him for it. I don't know where this attitude comes from. The Marvel movies don't have it. They embrace the silliness of superheroes and play it straight, but the DC films all seem like they have to make it "realistic" by making all the heroes darker.

The opening of the Superfriends cartoon is better than any of the recent DC films.

Anyway, that's all. I just had that thought while my son was watching Dragonball. Goku is basically the Japanese Superman, though he is more motivated by wanting to get stronger, and saving innocents is entirely secondary. But anyway, what do you think? What is your favorite superhero and favorite superhero movie/cartoon? Let me know in the comments.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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