Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett looks at the new Superman, and at a reason to like the Cap movie.

Predictably just talking about making major changes to a major character that most people no longer care about has had the immediate effect of getting people talking about him again.  The changes Superman is set to undergo have gotten quite a bit of publicity, including a piece that appeared on the Newsarama website with the headline "Single, Orphaned, Alien: Big Changes for DCnU Superman."  Which to me sounds a lot like a personal ad.  "Single, Orphaned, Alien Seeks Coveted 18-34 Male Demographic; No Smokers."

It might seem surprising for someone who has been reading comics as long as I have (I just celebrated a birthday on Monday; DC might be pushing this reboot/launch as "The New 52," well, I'm The Old 52) but I'm actually on board with most of these changes.  I've previously dealt with the reasons why I think Superman's red shorts had to go (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Underwear on the Inside"), but of course the costume change is a lot bigger than that.  It's the elimination of what Grant Morrison has been calling the "skintight ballet suit," which for over seventy years has been the basic template for the superhero costume.

I’ll admit the new costume will take some getting used to, though it does make a bit more sense now that it's been placed in some kind of context, i.e. it's Kryptonian battle armor.  I realize that you're in immediate trouble whenever you start using the phrase "it makes more sense" when discussing a subject like this but, yeah, when it comes to a superhero, wearing battle armor really does make a bit more sense than an indestructible Danskin.

Both Dan Didio and Jim lee have been pushing this approach as being a more "accessible" Superman.  So far they've been framing that in the context of eliminating unnecessarily complicated continuity when making the character more relatable to a modern audience is a much bigger problem.  Clearly what they're trying to do here is to create a more emotionally accessible Superman, which is why we're saying goodbye to the farm boy from Kansas.

Those that don't care for the idea of Superman as a brooding alien outsider might be interested to know that in the 1940's radio show The Adventures of Superman, Kal-El was rocketed to earth as a baby, but (somehow) emerged a fully grown adult.  He took that job at The Daily Planet as Clark Kent not so he could monitor the wire services for emergencies but so he could learn about the human race.  It wasn't just hyperbole; back then he really was a strange visitor.

So, basically I'm OK with all of this just so long as Superman's "Up, Up and Away" doesn't get replaced by "Die Earth Scum," the battle cry of  the recently revived Marrina from Alpha Flight*.  For me the whole thing will be deemed a success if we never again see either The Eradicator or Cyborg Superman.

I’ve been on the fence concerning Captain America: The First Avenger, until I saw the recently released clip from the movie showing his shield doing all of the things I've only seen it do on the comics page (and in my head).  It was cool and everything but it did raise an obvious question, one that never occurred to me in all the years I've been reading Marvel Comics.  Why a shield?  I mean, when you think about it an armored suit or a super gun would be a lot more suitable an accessory for a super soldier.

As far as I can tell no one has ever come up with a reason (good, bad of indifferent) why a modern super soldier would carry around a piece of armor not regularly used by Western forces for several hundred years.  I just double-checked, just to make sure I hadn't missed it somehow, but no, I couldn’t find even the flimsiest of pretexts for it anywhere online.  It's like Marvel never bothered to even to make something up; though I imagine the movie will address the matter.

And finally, rest in peace Borders.  The four hundred remaining stores are closing and with them 11,000 jobs.  Which kind of puts into perspective me losing a place to hang out for hours and hours.

* You might have missed it because I certainly did, but thanks to the Chaos War a bunch of formerly dead superheroes are now ex-dead superheroes -- including the bulk of the original members of Alpha Flight.  This includes, Marrina, the formerly really nice yellow alien who could swim real fast who has become a punk malcontent who for no apparent reason now likes to shout "Die Earth Scum!"  I had really hoped that we had officially retired the trope of a formerly passive female character suddenly becoming a "badass" but apparently not.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely  those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.