James Gunn’s Superman is wonderful, joyous, aspirational, and incredibly colourful. I walked out of the theater with a smile on my face and realized this movie shows why we need Superman. He gives us something to strive towards, and in this day and age, it’s easy to see why he believes that being kind is so punk rock.

We need more kindness, we need more heart on our sleeve, we need to be better. Superman embodies that from the get-go. And it’s something that I’ve carried in my heart since I was a little boy.

There’s always been two superheroes that have been stalwart in my life, Spider-man and Superman. Sure others will flicker in and out, Batman, Iron Man, but going back to the beginning there was always the Last Son of Krypton, and my favourite web-head.

I remember as a child having Superman comics, and Big Little Spider-man books. When Superman the Movie came out, I was enchanted. My Scholastic book ordering was full of Superman things, that I just had to dig into. I remember one trip to my grandparents where I was kept busy with a giant-sized Superman coloring book.

On another trip, me and my cousin Clifford went bottle collecting, and I was able to get enough money to buy three iron-on t-shirts. One was for my sister, and then I got one with the Clash of the Titans logo on it, and the other, the Superman shield in sparkling iron-on! Sure it was a red shirt, but little me would puff out my chest and pretend to fly.

I remember we had a wheeled foot stool, and I would lay across it, and pretend to fly as my feet struggled to push me across the room while maintaining a heroic pose.

Add in John Williams’ iconic score, that Breakfast of Champions anthem, and you just want to be better, to do the right thing.

My entire life, I’ve had flying dreams, and almost all of them tend to be very Superman-like. Pushing off the ground, and whipping through the sky, flying through city streets, over forested landscapes, beautiful oceans, seeing our little blue-green globe from great heights.

Christopher Reeve as Superman and Clark Kent embodied all that was good to me. He was honest, did the right thing, was comfortable using the word ‘swell’ and Big Blue made me want to feel the same way. I followed him through two sequels, forgave him for IV, and got my fixes elsewhere – comic books, Smallville (I never did finish that – I may have to fix that).

I was giddy for Superman Returns and though I enjoyed Brandon Routh and the use of Williams’ themes, even I can admit it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Then there was Man of Steel. Henry Cavill is a solid Kal-El, but I didn’t care for the storytelling, and the characterization of Jonathan Kent. There was potential there, undeniably, Cavill is a fantastic actor, but I find Snyder films great visually, but lacking in emotional connection and narrative.

I know there are those who love the Snyder take on Superman, but it didn’t resonate with me. Having said that I don’t begrudge them their love of the movie, it spoke to them, and that’s wonderful – it speaks to the power of the character and comic books as an art form, not to mention a reflection of society. But I don’t understand why they can’t do the same for others who love David Corenswet’s take or Reeve’s or Reeves’ or Welling or Hoechlin or Alyn.

Superman himself would probably remind them that kindness and compassion doesn’t hurt anyone.

And me, I loved Corenswet’s version. It spoke to me. It spoke to the child within, and the man I want to be. I loved that he cared about everyone, and not just people but animals as well. This version of Superman once again personified all the good that we can be. And he says golly, and gosh comfortably.

How can that be a bad thing to strive for? Maybe we can’t fly, maybe we can’t lift a Kaiju, or escape a black hole, but we can be kind.

And that kindness can make things better. Not just for you, or one person, but countless people. If we were all just a little more kind. Help because we can, not for the social media clout or attention, but because it’s right.

And we can learn to speak truth to power. There’s a reason Clark works as a reporter, he can learn what’s happening quickly and he can also report the truth. Journalism is important. Not entertainment programs posing as new programs, but real investigative journalism.

With all the nightmarish politics and ideological clashes happening all over the planet, we have never needed Superman more. He’s a fictional character, so he’s never going to arrive, but we can strive to fill that gap. We can help our fellows, we can stand up for what we know is right. We can call out evil when we see it.

And maybe, if enough of us do it, we won’t need a fictional immigrant (or religious icons) from another world to save us. We can save ourselves.

Today’s day and age really needs that.

That’s why the world needs Superman, and that’s why this new version of Superman is resonating with people. Golly, try a little kindness. It’s swell.

Look up.