For part 1, click here: https://intothedance.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/man-of-steel-and-human-destiny-part-12/
The evolutionary history of the world in general gives us a clue as to what the birth of a legitimate, good “Übermensch” might entail. From the Big Bang until now, we see a steady series of submissions.
Our world started out with the mineral kingdom…
…which ultimately had to “submit” itself to the role of supporting the emerging plant kingdom…
…which eventually had to surrender itself to support the animal kingdom…
…which, finally, along with everything else, was to become subject to humanity.
God blessed (humankind), saying: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
So I think we could agree with Nietzsche and like-minded people that humankind is meant, in its turn, to become submissive to something else. But if that submission is consistent with what we know about world and evolutionary history, it must be to someone or something other than itself, not to some “super race” that seeks to dominate its own kind.
The Christian answer is that man must submit to God, and in so doing find his greatest purpose, meaning, peace, and exaltation. As St. John the Baptist said of Jesus Christ:
He must increase; I must decrease. (John 3:30)
And in and through Him, we “submit” to one another in service.
To be a true “superman” is, in short, to become a saint. And just like the sign on Superman’s chest, this “s-word” is humanity’s greatest hope.
Obviously, Clark Kent/Superman comes much closer to this ideal than General Zod, insofar as he uses his powers for good rather than evil, protection rather than domination.
But I don’t feel that “Man of Steel” delves as deeply into this as it could. I don’t mean to suggest that it should be moralistic or didactic, but it would have helped in terms of supplying the raw material for a more profound story and greater character development.
As impressive as it is visually, and as deep and substantial as the theatrical preview made it look, “Man of Steel” is primarily an action and visual effects spectacle. It’s not as strong on the “with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility” philosophy of the 2002 film “Spider-Man” (www.imdb.com/title/tt0145487/?ref_=sr_3), nor is it as strong as Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies in giving audiences time to really get to know the characters.
Nonetheless, it does give us some food for thought.
“Man of Steel” images obtained through a Google image search; others from Wikipedia