Why isnt Superman celebrating Americas 250th the way he did in 1976?

He may be faster than a speeding bullet, but even Superman can’t outrun globalization.Back in the summer of 1976, one of my treasures was an oversize special edition comic book, “Superman Salutes the Bicentennial.” Reprinting a famous cover of the 1940s, with a bald eagle perched on Superman’s arm and a stars-and-stripes shield behind him, the publication contained six historical tales of the Revolution and the Spirit of ’76.Today, a search of DC Comics’ website shows nothing celebrating America’s Semiquincentennial, by Superman or any other superhero. One might have thought that 1976 would be a terrible time for comics to commemorate America.

Hundreds of thousands of boys who had read Superman in the 1950s and ‘60s had been sent to Vietnam, where 58,000 of them died.Watergate and Richard Nixon’s resignation had shattered faith in the political system, while assassinations of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F.Kennedy, followed by devastating riots, made a mockery of the “American Way.” Yet DC Comics, along with tens of millions of Americans, did celebrate the country.

Though its values had been severely tested, Bicentennial America also had seen the greatest growth of the middle class and national wealth in human history, as well as the final push to ensure civil rights for all citizens, fulfilling the “promissory note,” as Dr.King put it, of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

That America’s most famous fictional hero — a symbol of the country around the world — would celebrate, too, seemed only natural, and it inspired young readers like me. California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!This patriotic portrayal continued.Thirteen years later, in Se...