by Matt Barr

Man of Steel in line for next Supreme Court vacancy

He's no International Jurist of Mystery, but "he's an alien," Superman Returns screenplayperson Dan Harris said. Legal, we hope! "He was sent from another planet. He has landed on the planet Earth, and he is here for everybody. He's an international superhero."

Ever since artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel created the granddaddy of all comic book icons in 1932, Superman has fought valiantly to preserve "truth, justice and the American way." Whether kicking Nazi ass on the radio in the '40s or wrapping himself in the Stars and Stripes on TV during the Cold War or even rescuing the White House's flag as his final feat in "Superman II," the Krypton-born, Smallville-raised Ubermensch always has been steeped in unmistakable U.S. symbolism.

But in the latest film incarnation, scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris sought to downplay Superman's long-standing patriot act. With one brief line uttered by actor Frank Langella, the caped superhero's mission transformed from "truth, justice and the American way" to "truth, justice and all that stuff."

Thoughtful observers don't doubt for a second that Superman doesn't say "and the American way" anymore in movies because he's an international hero with one cosmopolitan eye on how foreign heroes do things. Which is a relief, because you'd hate for narrowminded Hollywood doofuses to emasculate 75 years' worth of tradition to make some sort of juvenile point about politics or something.

Via Below the Beltway.

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