The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 469: Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #2, March 2009

I have to say, I'm pretty glad that I only have a few comics that are in 3D in my collection. As the glasses don't fit properly over my other glasses, I have to read the comics from a slightly blurry perspective already. Couple this with my un-coffee stimulated morning mind, and it's a struggle. But one I'm happy to take on.

This is one of my favourite comics ever. I use a piece of the dialogue in it in my MA thesis, and it's a piece of dialogue that, in many ways, sums up everything I think about comics, and about faith and belief.

Please forgive it, but I think I need to digress a bit this morning. I'm in a pretty dark place in life right now. I've recently taken a leave of absence from my doctoral program, due in part to a complete lack of support that I've had from my supervisor. I'm unemployed in a city wrestling with a terrible unemployment problem. My wife has taken a stress leave from her job due to unreasonable expectations from her managers and PIs. And my son, who has just graduated high school, is currently wrestling with depression and anxiety, as am I. I look back over the last few years, and wonder if I made a terrible mistake in moving our family to Calgary. I don't know who I am, or what my place in the universe is any more. I thought, when I decided on a life in academia, that I'd finally figured it out, that I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. That is gone now, and, at 42, I feel adrift. Part of me wants to pack up, give in, and move back home, back to where I can slip into a comfortable space that we left four years ago, surrounded by friends and family and familiar surroundings. But then part of me sees that as nothing more than a backwards movement. There is a world out there that exists only when we experience it. There is a world out there screaming out for change, and I just want to help make it a better place for everyone. I'm just really tired of feeling useless, and I've been feeling it for a long time now.

Which, as we undigress, is why I was happy to read this comic today. I believe in Superman. I really do. I just have to figure out how he'd deal with this situation.

To be continued.