Superman has always served as the moral heart of the DC Universe. He started as the Champion of the Oppressed, aiming to help people in dire situations no matter what. Over time, how Superman acted and was presented would evolve, but his character always matched DC’s ideal of what a hero should look like. Superman has always strived to do the right thing, no matter the personal cost or adversity. He is the beating heart of DC, and nowadays, the entire universe is literally structured around his endless ability to hope and will to find the best way to help everyone.
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Of course, the best way to show Superman’s heroic spirit is to put him in a situation where he shouldn’t be able to find a way to do the right thing, and marvel at him doing it anyway. Superman works best when he is demonstrating exactly how a hero should act, and DC has decided to show us what that struggle to do the right thing looks like. Action Comics #1093 showed Clark’s earliest days as Superboy, including one event that tested his dedication to never doing anything he thought was wrong, no matter how big or small.
Doom Forecloses on Smallville
The issue began with the Kent farm receiving a foreclosure letter, despite the family being up to date on all their payments. They went down to the bank and found nearly every mortgaged farm in Smallville was dealing with the same issue. The new bank manager, Will Parmenter, claimed that if everyone really had paid their dues, then this was some kind of error, but until that error was corrected they all had to abide and clear out of their homes. The farmers protested that, at this time of year, leaving the crops unattended for just a few days could ruin them and sink the families in the process.
Superboy tried to find a way to save Smallville’s farms. First, he dug up some gold from an abandoned mine, but his parents refused to let him use his powers for personal gain. While he seethed, Superboy helped the various families move out, even de-escalating a stand-off between a defensive homeowner and police. Superboy even flew to the Parmenter’s boss in Metropolis to plead Smallville’s case, but she just blew him off. Eventually, Superboy decided to confront Parmenter directly, and while waiting in his office, he hit paydirt.
Superboy’s X-ray vision let him see files in Parmenter’s desk that detailed an illegal sale of all of Smallville’s farms months from months before the foreclosures. He had the evidence to put Parmenter away and save his town, but he was at an impasse. Taking the files was stealing and risked making everything worse for everyone, but not taking them and exposing Parmenter risked him destroying them to cover his tracks. In the end, Superboy shouted what he’d seen, leading to Parmenter going to grab the files, which his boss just so happened to see. Superboy saved Smallville, and he did it without compromising his morals.
Superheroes Find Another Way, Even As They Prepare For the Worst
What’s really interesting about this story is not just that Superboy found a way to save the day without doing anything wrong, but how he balanced the weight of everything. Obviously, stealing the files of a corrupt businessman to save dozens of people’s livelihoods does more good than harm, and Superboy all but admitted to his dad that if Parmenter’s boss weren’t in Smallville, he would have taken the files to protect them. However, stealing is obviously still wrong and not something that Superboy would ever believe is right, even in dire circumstances. It can be excused, as he showed himself, but that doesn’t make it right.
This distinction hammers in the golden rule for Superman. Being a hero is not about righting wrongs; it’s about doing the right thing whenever the opportunity presents itself. Doing the right thing almost always involves righting wrongs, but it also takes going above and beyond to do things the right way. That’s a major thing that separates Superman from many of his peers. Batman would have either stolen those files without hesitation or threatened Parmenter into exposing himself. Superman never tells Batman that these methods are wrong. Rather, he wants to show people that there is always a better way if we look for it.
Superman is, at the end of the day, a moral lesson. He teaches people that making compromises and doing the wrong thing for the right reasons still doesn’t make it right. Superman inspires people to be better, and he can’t do that if he walks back on what he believes in just because it gets hard. He’s never going to put his desire to do the right thing over someone else’s life, but rather shows that it doesn’t need to happen. Superman is an inspiration because he always finds a way to save the day by doing the right thing. He doesn’t do things for the greater good, he just does good things, and that’s one of the best messages a hero can teach people.
Action Comics #1093 is on sale now!
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