At the DC FanDome event on October 16, DC Comics announced a major change to the famous motto attached to Superman for decades.<\/b>
\nDC Comics has decided that the superhero whose alter ego is a farm boy from Kansas and whose uniform is practically a US flag should no longer fight for \u201cThe American Way.\u201d In an announcement at the DC FanDome event on Saturday, the company said that it\u2019s dropping that latter portion of the iconic motto for Clark Kent\u2019s Superman \u2014 \u201cTruth, Justice, and The American Way\u201d \u2014 and replacing it with something considerably more anodyne. Instead of \u201cThe American Way,\u201d Superman now fights for \u201ca better tomorrow.\u201d In a statement about the change, DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee attributed it to a desire to be more inclusive in the storylines that DC tells. Which apparently means no longer grounding any of the Clark Kent-related Superman stories in singularly American tropes and themes. \u201cTo better reflect the storylines that we are telling across DC and to honor Superman\u2019s incredible legacy of over 80 years of building a better world, Superman\u2019s motto is evolving,\u201d Lee announced. \u201cSuperman has long been a symbol of hope who inspires people,\u201d Lee continued. \u201cAnd it is that optimism and hope that powers him forward with this new mission statement.\u201d Worth pointing out is that this change only applies to Clark Kent\u2019s version of Superman. Also, this will be the new motto attached to him going forward anywhere his story is told, in whatever medium. That includes formats like comic books, films, TV series, video games, and more. The updated motto is also a slight twist on the new one already introduced for the next generation of Superman characters. In Superman: Son of Kal-El #1, DC had already likewise dropped \u201cThe American Way\u201d for Kent\u2019s son Jon Kent and introduced his own updated motto: \u201cTruth, Justice, and a Better World.\u201d Along these same lines, the decoupling of classic Superman from the \u201cAmerica\u201d part of his motto comes in the wake of some additional progressive changes DC has enacted for Superman. Including, just this past week, DC announcing that Superman\u2019s son is bisexual. The younger Kent will also join a protest in support of the fight against climate change in an upcoming comic, Superman: Son of Kal-El #7 which is coming in January. Writer Tom Taylor on Friday shared an image tied to that upcoming comic. An image that, predictably, set off a bit of back-and-forth in comments that Twitter users left in response. Among them: And from another Twitter user, in response to the image above: \u201c Only message I get from this cover is, while the superheroes are wasting time trying to be \u2018social activists,\u2019 they are totally ignoring immediate problems like gigantic kaiju-sized squid tentacles rising out of the ocean & attacking a boat & ending human lives right behind them. \u201c To be sure, there have always been political subtexts beneath the surface of the Superman comic books. Writer Mark Waid told USA Today in 2013 that Superman has, at best, always represented a kind of superhero twist on \u201cthe ultimate immigrant story.\u201d He continued: \u201cWhat is the hope of the immigrant, than at core a promise that it would be better in America? That no matter what your situation is, it will be better here.\u201d The \u201chere,\u201d of course, contrasting with Clark Kent\u2019s (aka Kal-El\u2019s) home planet of Krypton. On the other hand, there\u2019s also been a wrestling with Superman\u2019s American-ness in recent years. In an issue of Action Comics from 2011, for example? Superman actually went so far as to renounce his US citizenship. \u201cI\u2019m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of US policy,\u201d he said in the comic. \u201cTruth, Justice, and the American Way \u2014 it\u2019s not enough anymore. The world\u2019s too small. Too connected.\u201d<\/p>\n