Should they make Superman half Canadian?

[Jon Clark]

Yes and they should also make Jor-El bi sexual so we can have half bi Superman. :P

Using the criteria from the oribinal post taht would only be needed if we discovered that Joe or Jerry was bi-sexual.

While i disagree with the Canadian angle because I don't think it adds anything that DC would actually play-up, I see it as different from trying to add stuff just for appeal to an audience segment who want representation.

[Gurz]

Using the criteria from the oribinal post taht would only be needed if we discovered that Joe or Jerry was bi-sexual.

While i disagree with the Canadian angle because I don't think it adds anything that DC would actually play-up, I see it as different from trying to add stuff just for appeal to an audience segment who want representation.

who cares.... I also want Jor-El, Lara and Zod to have trisome... lol that why we can never be sure, if superman's father is Jor or Zod. lol

[Celgress]

OP Question -

I'm "half Canadian", I say no. Such a change adds nothing of value to either the character or the narrative, IMO.

[Osiris-Rex]

I think Clark should be full blooded Kryptonian.

I think he should be half god and have four arms instead of two. /joke

Dude! Clark is fullblooded kryptonIan. We were talking about earth parents.
.

The question wasn't what nationality Clark's adoptive parents are. If Jonathan were Nigerian and Martha were Chinese that wouldn't make Clark half Nigerian and half Chinese.
So the nationality of Clark's adoptive parents is irrelevant. He is ethnically a Kryptonian. The only way Clark could be Canadian is if he moved to Canada and applied for citizenship.

[manwhohaseverything]

The question wasn't what nationality Clark's adoptive parents are. If Jonathan were Nigerian and Martha were Chinese that wouldn't make Clark half Nigerian and half Chinese.
So the nationality of Clark's adoptive parents is irrelevant. He is ethnically a Kryptonian. The only way Clark could be Canadian is if he moved to Canada and applied for citizenship.

Well, he would culturally be half nigerian and half chinese who lives in america, so is an american. He isn't just kryptonIan.He is kryptonIan american.

[Jim Kelly]

I'm happy to put my Canadian Studies degree to work.

In Canada, you can hold two or more passports and still be a citizen--you can be French and Canadian both. Your other country might not like that, though--the People's Republic of China doesn't recognize dual citizenship, even though Canada has no problem with people being Chinese and Canadian. In the United States, before 1967, you couldn't be a dual citizen--now you can, but you still have to renounce your previous citizenship to become an American in the naturalization process. A sad fact for some of my favourite famous Canadians--they had to give up maple syrup and switch to chocolate syrup for the rest of their lives.

In Canada, there was the Bi and Bi Commission launched by Lester B. Pearson in 1963. However, the Bi and Bi were Bilingual and Bicultural. By the time they made their final report, Pierre Eliot Trudeau was Prime Minister and he acted on their recommendations to make English and French the two official languages. Federal government now had to use both French and English equally. It significantly changed the nature of our country. It changed my life, since the government paid for me to do French Immersion in Quebec, one summer, when I was in my twenties--and I got a nice letter from the federal government at the end of it.

However, Trudeau ignored some of the Bi and Bi Commission's report, in deciding that Canada was a multicultural nation and he advanced programs to support multiculturalism across Canada. This was important for many ethnic groups who could celebrate their heritage.

I feel that Superman is Canadian-American in spirit, if not in the actual comic books themselves. Of course, in the comics he's an illegal alien from Krypton living in the United States. But the mythopoeic nature of Superman speaks to the Canadian experience. His Clark Kent identity is a Canadian identity. That's how Canadians feel--especially in other countries. I never felt more Canadian until I left Canada and had to function in these other worlds. The sense of not being known or recognized by others--of being overlooked and having to play a subservient part in the rest of the world--that's Canadian. At the same time, the Superman identity is American--it's what you're forced to be if you come from somewhere else (like Canada) and you want to survive in the United States of America. You have to put on this other identity of superiority, being the greatest and the most powerful, even when you don't feel that way inside.

And it's clear to me that Joe Shuster played just as important a role in creating Superman as Jerry Siegel. Joe was Canadian-American. He had all those feelings of a Canadian kid trying to fit in, in an American world. Just as Superman is Jewish in his nature, even though he's supposed to be raised by Christian parents, he's also Canadian. He gets that from his real parents, Joe and Jerry.

[Phoenixx9]

No, Superman is Kryptonian-American.

However, all people can still love, respect, admire and depend on him for aid.

[Jim Kelly]

I think in John Byrne's mind Krypton was a metaphor for Canada-Great Britain. It's cold and frozen like the province of Alberta, where he grew up, which is encased in ice ten months out of the year. And it's socially repressed and emotionally distant like the UK where he was born.

[bat39]

On the subject of the Kent's backstories...wasn't Jonathan a war veteran who then retired to the farm life?

[daBronzeBomma]

DC already covered the Kent family history in a 12- part maxi-series.



Jonathan Kent is directly descended from hardcore abolitionists of the AMERICAN Civil War.

[Jon Clark]

DC already covered the Kent family history in a 12- part maxi-series.



Jonathan Kent is directly descended from hardcore abolitionists of the AMERICAN Civil War.

You actually want DC to use a 23 year old mini-series as the basis for Superman's Earth family.

THANK YOU!!!!!

[Celgress]

I think in John Byrne's mind Krypton was a metaphor for Canada-Great Britain. It's cold and frozen like the province of Alberta, where he grew up, which is encased in ice ten months out of the year. And it's socially repressed and emotionally distant like the UK where he was born.

FYI Alberta is not "encased in snow & ice for ten months", four maybe five tops. Even the far north gets very hot (and dry) in summer. One of my uncles lived for several years in Yellowknife (on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake) the capital of the Northwest Territories which is further north than Alberta. For six to seven months out of the year, his area resembled a hot desert rather than a polar landscape. Sorry if I come across as angry, but that stereotype pisses me off.

[Jim Kelly]

FYI Alberta is not "encased in snow & ice for ten months", four maybe five tops. Even the far north gets very hot (and dry) in summer. One of my uncles lived for several years in Yellowknife (on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake) the capital of the Northwest Territories which is further north than Alberta. For six to seven months out of the year, his area resembled a hot desert rather than a polar landscape. Sorry if I come across as angry, but that stereotype pisses me off.

Sorry. I was exaggerating for comic effect. It's like Rick Mercer talking to Americans, eh. I lived in Alberta for most of the 1980s. And having grown up in Vancouver, it was quite a change. The snow stayed on the ground from October thru April--you could get snowstorms in July. I remember one winter day walking to the bus station to pick up a care package my parents had sent me and it was -45. Sorry if you were triggered. I mean, if it was an American saying such things, I'd understand that, too. But since we're both Canadian we can make these jokes among our own kind--it's when outsiders do it to us that it gets offensive.