All throughout November, guest writers will be weighing in on fandom, specifically guest writers who identify strongly with characters, teams, or franchises online. Each piece will feature a personal look at why a writer gravitates to a character, what keeps their interest, and — most importantly — a set of reading recommendations for folks looking to better understand that character.

Today, Adam from the Twitter account @TalkingSuperman wrote about his relationship with the Man of Steel…

I sometimes fear it would be of interest to a therapist how often Superman is on my mind. I do think it’s important to reflect on why a specific fictional character can mean so much to oneself. Intentional or not, by the nature of the character being more symbol than man, writers have been making Superman a reflection of parts of themselves, which in turn makes him a reflection of readers. In 1938, he was a strong man who could throw any problem off a skyscraper, despite hiding his potential inside a meek writer who resembled his creators. This has proven timeless to so many over the years, including myself, who clicked with the character post-2001 as a quiet kid diving into comics history to escape a violent household. My bond with the character has lasted through the years, growing and changing to match my own life.

See, during the baby boom writers expanded Superman’s family, giving him a long lost cousin and a dog. He also found kinship in leagues and legions that shared his heroic lifestyle. This development clicked with me after I met my future wife, who introduced me to friends and family and took me into a new home. In modern times, Superman has also opened up to the world and had a child, who he has watched grow up too fast and go off to learn without him. After having my first baby this year and seeing him double in size in only a few weeks, I know this too will click with me as a truth of life.

Talking about Superman has allowed me to process down to earth emotions in fantastic ways. The first time I remember talking about the character, my older brother was letting me know Superman was boring because he was too powerful and too good. He can do anything, my brother lamented. Years later, however, young me was daydreaming about exactly how cool it was that superheroes live in universes where both sci-fi elements like aliens and stories with magic exist. Every culture’s mythology seems to be true in the DC Universe, where stories are just as likely to involve Bigfoot as they are robots. Thinking about this, it hit me that Superman was a guy who could do anything in a world where anything can happen. As the Golden Age comics claimed, he was “The World’s Greatest Adventure Strip Character”. In the eight decade history of the character, Superman has picked up iconic objects, locations, and beings, using them as tools to craft any allegory.

In the context of these stories, Superman’s outstanding goodness doesn’t seem so silly. With unbreakable morality, he was and remains the perfect symbol of the right thing to do. Superman is the ultimate guiding light. Even past childhood the motto of “do good to others and every man can be Superman” has drastically improved my life, helping to make me the person I am today.