Review: For the Man Who Has Everything

For the Man Who Has Everything by Alan Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Superman has always been a difficult character for comic book writers to represent in the pages, while also being a character which readers found hard to connect with on a personal level, as opposed to say, the caped crusader. 

It sort of came with the territory. When you write about the modern version of Nietzsche’s Ubermensch, a literal demigod or literal God among men, you can’t hold him to regular sensibilities. After all, this was a character who went from being faster than a speeding bullet and leaping tall buildings in a single bound, to someone who could throw around literal planets and sneeze away a whole solar system. 

Stakes are non-existent, and threats are limited when your character is nigh invulnerable and invincible. Suffice to say, Superman might’ve been the OG Gary Stu. Or at least the Silver Age version was ( Superman One million might be the strongest version of the character, but Silver age Superman got shit DONE). 

Hence subsequent writers have tried to often make him more vulnerable, either physically by McGuffins like the kryptonite ( something which has endured in popular lexicon as a term to describe a personal nemesis, a thing or person that saps the strength.), or by giving him character flaws and vulnerabilities which are aimed to make him more human

Which is ironic considering how one of the constant struggles of the characters is being a child of two worlds, and not being able to fit completely in either. Which is why titles such as ‘All Star Superman’ & ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow’ make some of the most exceptional titles featuring the character. Alan Moore’s short story, ‘For the Man who has everything’, can also be, I believe, added to that list. 

The premise is Superman’s birthday (which some records claim to be February 29, a ‘leap’ day), when Batman, Wonder women and Robin (Jason Todd) arrive at the fortress of solitude bearing gifts. The mood is quite jovial, until they enter the antechamber and witness the man of steel, standing dazed and completely out of it, with an ominous looking parasitic plant wrapped around his torso. 

The semi-sentient plant called Black Mercy, was a trap set by one of his enemies, the tyrant Mongul. It was a creature which fed on the subject’s life force, while keeping them subdued by showing them the happiest versions of their lives, with their deepest wishes fulfilled. 

While the team is battling out the powerhouse alien who is more than a match for Superman, the man in question is trapped inside the prison of his own desire, living a mundane simulated life on a undestroyed Krypton, with a loving wife, son he always wished for, and the affection of his family. 

Unfortunately, the man who is Kal-el has to come to terms with the illusion which he is in. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the entire 80 year run of the character, he holds his fictional son and says as much as I want you to be, you’re not real, and this is not my life. 

The story ends as one would expect. Superman breaks out, beats up Mongul, who himself falls prey to the Black Mercy, courtesy of Robin. What works for the story is how it shows that underneath all that power and solar fueled invulnerability, superman is still a man, one who feels and fails, and one filled with desires and regret. It is like that dream you have on occasion, quite a lucid one, which shows the world that you wish was real, be it being with a loved one, or regaining someone lost to death. 

This storyline was further refined and added to, in the brilliant Justice League Animated series, in an episode with the same name. 

Superman is a difficult character to write. But storylines such as ‘For the man who has everything’ show that the way to go with such a character is to make the readers aware of their inner workings, vulnerabilities and failings, which make readers more empathetic to these demigods.