Metropolis embraces Superman legend

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| Sunday, April 06, 2008 |

(Another dispatch from the southland: Frustrated in not being able to find Monkey’s Eyebrow, Wundram had no trouble locating the home of Superman.)

SMALL towns usually don’t claim much fame, but Metropolis, Ill. — kryptonite and all — makes the most of the Man of Steel.

The lettering on a big water tower along Interstate 24 beckons you to turn toward the home of Superman. In the comics and the movies, it is the city that never sleeps. Well, I can’t say that Metropolis, Ill., never sleeps; it acted drowsy during a visit. But it was pleasant, if not a wham-whiz place on the Illinois-Kentucky border.

Metropolis isn’t bashful about promoting itself as Superman’s home. There’s even a telephone booth downtown, just in case the mild-mannered reporter needs to quickly change from his white shirt and tie into his Superman outfit. Metal signs direct you to the town square where there is an enormous statue of Superman, hands on waist, ready to leap tall buildings in a single bound and come to the rescue of Lois Lane.

The town was named long before Superman was even born. It is the only Metropolis in the United States, and DC Comics agreed to allow this town of 6,000 to become the official home of the superhero.

Metropolis takes this Superman business seriously. “We renamed our weekly paper the Daily Planet,” says Clyde Wills, the editor. “That’s the paper in the Superman comic book.” But the weekly, with a circulation of 4,500, doesn’t have a Jimmy Olsen on the staff.

On one street corner there is a cutout of Superman. Stick your head through, and you look like the bulging-muscled hero. When you step inside the Superman Store, something triggers a voice, “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman.” This is followed with serenades of soundtracks from the movies.

The old store building, with a tin ceiling, is such a clutter of Superman stuff that it is difficult to elbow around. There are rocks of kryptonite, Superman steering wheel covers, hats, games, Superman outfits, every type of souvenir you would want (or not).

“The biggest sellers are $12.95 Superman T-shirts and Superman shot glasses for $10.95,” says Adam Sievert, a clerk. The shot glasses,when filled with booze, are said to give the drinker the power of Superman. For $3, you can go through a doorway into a Superman museum and see a cache of authentic Superman memorabilia … original outfits worn in the movies, posters, the whole sweeping, soaring works.

Metropolis is really into this Superman phenomena. When the comic book killed him off in the 1990s, residents had a funeral. When actor Christopher Reeve died, the town sent his widow a giant sympathy card with names of many Metropolis residents.

There isn’t much about Superman that you can’t find in Metropolis. The only things missing are movies of the handsome hero.

The town’s only movie house is a tattered building that closed about 30 years ago.

Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com.