I wanna talk about this. I kind of want to try to talk about this page outside of the context that it gets used by fans in a vindictive way, but I don't know if I'll succeed.

Overall I am not a huge All Star fan, but I see the appeal & I respect it.

My reasons for not digging All Star have a lot to do with my own particular world view, which in turn is significantly effected by living with mental illness. My own, and the mental illness of the people closest to me.

And this page is sort of representative of the whole tone & thematic content of this book, so it's not just this page, it's the attitude represented by this page that is in each and every other page of this Superman comic.

When Justice League came out, I FLIPPED out about a little witticism that they put in Superman's mouth, allegedly something Jonathan Kent used to say (a huge mischaracterization, imo)

He said hope is like car keys, easy to lose, but if you dig around, it's usually close by.

The car keys line is exactly the kind of ableist tripe that people spoon up from "motivational" blogs & "positivity" gurus.

It trivializes very real struggle. It proposes that if you are not finding hope that you are not trying hard enough, or not trying at all.l

Imagine for a moment what a devastatingly personal thing that is for someone who has considered suicide, or for someone who lost a child to suicide.

The impact of those lines, especially from a character like Superman, who is set up as morally right, cannot be overstated.

That "car keys" moment reminds me of this panel because of many of the choices that are made here.

First, there's the way Regan looks. She's a teen, she has dyed hair, she dresses punk or goth or some combination of the two. She wears dark makeup. She wears a lot of jewelry.

Regan is a stereotype in several directions. She reinforces these style choices as a cry for help (they're more often a sign of confidence!)

& every one of these choices has the intended effect of making the audience believe that her problems are not real or serious.

She's a teen, she doesn't have real problems yet, she's dressed like that, if she'd just wipe the makeup off her face it would make life easier, she listens to <insert questionable music genre here> and it makes her into this mopey unhappy person...

All of which just highlights the inescapable conclusion- we don't know ANYTHING about Regan.

We don't know what led her here, we don't know her relationship with her therapist, we don't know the barest of details about her life.

And neither does Superman.

Which is what takes the punch out of the scene for me. Superman shows up as an authority on Regan's life w/out knowing thing one about the situation.

She exists to make Superman look good. Her response to him is convenient. She MUST be a flat character for the scene to work.

Second, the whole premise is thin. Regan's therapist is late for an appointment & we don't know why or how this is her breaking point. It just is.

The presumption that Superman delivering the news that the therapist is late through no fault of his own is apparently key.

Even a slightly better understanding of the character would strengthen this scene. Even the smallest effort to imagine Regan as a complete person of her own and not an inspirational prop would have changed the impact of this scene. At least it would have for me.

Third and most importantly- what Superman says. We have to just examine what Superman says because the OBJECT in this scene, Regan, doesn't have any dialog.

He says "it's never as bad as it seems."

Honestly, Clark? Fuck you.

That's a lie. And I'm not saying Superman DOESN'T lie, because I don't believe in hard & fast rules for characters, but why put an unnecessary lie in Superman's mouth?

Because it is OFTEN exactly as bad as it seems, if not worse. And Superman... of all people... would know that.

Superman is a freaking first responder. He KNOWS that it is sometimes as bad as it seems. He has seen how bad it is. Hope in the face of that is his strength.

Denying the reality of that is disingenous targeted fluff for dangerously oblivious people.

So the premise here is either that Superman is lying, that Superman is dangerously oblivious, or that Superman took one look at Regan & decided based on very little evidence that HER problems weren't that bad.

YES VERY INSPIRATIONAL.

And I know that a lot of people are really attached to, "you're stronger than you think," & I get that. If that works for you, that's awesome.

But in THIS situation it absolutely portrays completing suicide as weakness & the opposite as strength.

That's... not awesome.

I'm not alive because I am stronger than people who died from suicide. I'm alive because I am lucky, & because I was in a position where I had the resources to ask for help.

I'm alive chiefly because of that economic privilege, & the white privilege of being believed.

The inescapable implication of both this page & the "car keys" metaphor is that people who have lost hope are not trying hard enough.

The implication is that it's easy & if you're not happy it's your fault, that despair is a choice, & that solveable circumstances led there.

And in case anyone needs to hear that right now:

That's fucking bullshit. There are problems in life that you can't muscle your way out of or power your way through.

And being daunted by that doesn't make you less anything than anyone else. And needing help is human.