So I turn on the tele-visual device Sunday night and see a bunch of drunken 20-somethings gathered outside the White House chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Clearly this was just a boisterous show of patriotism in response to Superman’s renouncing of his American citizenship in Action Comics #900.

Yeah, remember that whole thing? The superhero thing that happened just before the big British thing that happened before that really big thing? Look, people, my column is only weekly, and I do comics, not weddings or covert Navy SEAL ops. (Although, “Weddings and Covert Navy SEAL Ops” might make for a pretty interesting blog. Note to self…)

Anyway, the whole controversy over David Goyer’s 9-page story in Action is pretty much a non-issue, since the undeniably juicy idea of Superman “turning his back on the U.S.” has been cherry-picked and vastly misinterpreted by the media. Still, I feel I should comment that, in the all-important and often ignored context, Supes is only doing this to protect people, as always. After joining protestors in Tehran in a peaceful act of civil disobedience against Ahmadinejad’s military forces, Superman inadvertently sparks a war of words with Iran. He decides to renounce his citizenship simply so that he has the freedom to act on global disasters without being accused of being an agent for the U.S. and acting on her behalf.

What gives this whole story a little more interest, especially to us here at 30Ninjas, is that writer David Goyer is also penning Man of Steel for Zack Snyder. As Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool points out, David Goyer initially approached producer Christopher Nolan with a radical new slant on Superman’s character, and that became the basis for the script. Johnston posits that we may be getting a glimpse of what to expect from the film in the controversial Action story, titled “The Incident.”

What I’m wondering is whether the reaction to the story might influence Goyer more than any ideas he may or may not have put in the movie about Superman’s relationship with America. Remember that all rights to the Superman character could revert entirely to the Siegel and Shuster heirs in 2013, which could mean this is the final shot at a Superman movie for a long time. Warner Bros. is facing an unknown future with the franchise. And we all know there’s no such thing as bad publicity—the furor surrounding this story has only helped sales of Action #900.

In my crazy daydream, maybe Goyer et al. were paying attention to the raging cries of the jingoists and decided to tweak the script as a result, in order to actually beef up the controversy. Maybe we’ll see Superman go absolutely batshit and, dare I say, actually criticize America or its government in Man of Steel. There are those who believe the superhero genre is already getting stagnant, so perhaps some political or social relevance could stir the pot a bit, as long as it’s not too heavy-handed (a quarter century later, the world is still healing from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace). Wouldn’t it be fun to see people actually protesting a superhero popcorn flick?

Or, most likely, we’ll just see Superman punching General Zod and Faora through some buildings again. That might work, too.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• It’s All Geek To Me — Waiting for Superman
• Ghost Rider 2: Existentialism for Kids
• It’s All Geek To Me — Slo-Mo Superman on the Fast Track
• Super Max “Definitely in Development”
• It’s All Geek To Me — SuperBrit and Wonder Person
• It’s All Geek To Me — Rumors, Denials, and Men of Steel and Bronze