Superman once told villain Black Adam “I fight for people that can’t fight for themselves.” Unfortunately we don’t live in a world where there’s a Superman that can fight for the weak and speak for people without a voice. There are still plenty of Supermen and Superwomen out there, but it’s becoming so much tougher to find them these days.
I’m not going to completely attack DC Comics, or go on a rage on why they’re just moronic beyond words these days, but it’s safe to say that DC just doesn’t get Superman. Join a majority of the world, you corporate idiots. Superman is a superhero that is supposed to fight for people that are incapable of defending themselves. Mormons, atheists, gay, young, old, Christian, Muslim, Superman is supposed to be blind to any of these labels and defend someone when they need it.
I’m sure in their warped minds they had a reason, but it’s sad that they outright refused to grant Todd Boyce the rights to put the Superman symbol on the memorial Statue for young Jeffrey Baldwin. Baldwin suffered at the hands of four really awful people that left him to starve to death. Suffice it to say, I’ll spare the details, but just thinking about how he lived destroys my heart.
In 2013, my sister gave birth to two gorgeous twins, a boy and a girl, and I’ve been doting over them ever since. I can’t explain why, but my anti-baby stance changed once they entered the threshold of my apartment. They’re amazing kids, and just thinking about them potentially suffering any kind of pain makes me suffer beyond words.
It’s a shame that DC wouldn’t simply allow young Baldwin’s memory to live on as a superhero through his memorial. Boyce likely wouldn’t have sold shirts or merchandise with the S symbol. I’m sure he wanted to afford Baldwin once last nod of dignity since he was so sadly mistreated and neglected. Suffice it to say, DC refused because they didn’t want Superman to be associated with child abuse. But as always DC misses the point.
Superman being associated with the memory of a young boy that likely tried to remain strong in his final days would have been a wonderful tribute. As I’ve stated time and time again, there’s a Superman in all of us. He represents power, courage, and endurance in the face of impossible odds. Despite his massive power, he’s stood up to horrible people even more powerful, and bigger than him, just in an effort to protect others. Superman should represent how these horrific injustices to beautiful children like Jeffrey Baldwin never happen again.
Superman should be there an emblem of hope, a symbol that despite the brutally sad fate of Jeffrey Baldwin, there’s still some good left in this world. Jeffrey Baldwin apparently loved the character so would it have been such a horrible crime to let them us the S just this once, and with some guidelines? We can’t really be this focused on selling comic books and action figures that allowing someone to give a dignified last nod to a child in need of a hero was so incomprehensible to them. Superman should represent everyone, most of all the people that needed a strong and loving guardian there to save them, and assure them that they didn’t need to be scared, sad, or alone.
As someone whose spent a good period of his life taking inspiration and strength from the character, as I walked in and out of hospitals, ER’s, and surgery rooms, it pains me that DC doesn’t practice what the character has always strived for. In a world where real life heroes couldn’t be there, its heartbreaking DC pulled away this one last figure of hope and inspiration.
I still like to believe there’s some good left in the world. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it. I just wish we were more willing to bend over backwards and allow each other some dignity and respect. You don’t need super powers or a cape to be Superman, you just have to be willing to give until it hurts, and DC could have given this one opportunity to a little boy that needed the Man of Steel.
Despite this incident, I still think there are good, genuine people in the world. I still hold true to Jor El’s declaration “They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way.”