> Those were the virtues that Superman was always defending in the older series: "...fighting for truth, justice and the American Way..." Superman has since broken free from that cultural myopia, which is good, since it was kind of silly for a hero from another planet to be endorsing our petty jingoism and the vision of Pax Americana. Of course, nowadays Superman also has a ponytail (in Clark Kent guise) and uses mild expletives when in battle, just so he'll stay "cool". To my way of thinking, if you have heat vision, X-ray vision, super-breath, can fly into outer space, and are invulnerable to just about everything imaginable (except rocks from your homeworld), who cares if you're "cool"? Anyone calls you uncool, you just fry them on the spot with your eye-beams, is what I always say.

I myself do not like where Superman has gone in recent years... though the same can be said for most comic book heroes. They've gone from being heroes to being trash talking, stand-offish rebellious punks; essentially, they've become super-powered NBA all-stars. That's not good with me. Off-topic: Tick fans, anywhere? The first few issues of the original series contained a character named "Clark Oppenheimer" who was like the dark side of Superman... it was amusing. There's a character I can identify with. :-}

Dar "What am I talking about again?" ien