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After the recent Superman Movie, one of my friends asked about that little curl in Superman’s hair.

I have done extensive research into Superman’s hair. We learn from the October 1959 Superman comic book that his hair is indestructible and can neither be cut nor can it grow in Earth’s atmosphere. Only Superman’s X-ray laser vision is powerful enough to cut his own hair. Although this fact is somewhat refuted in Superman IV in which Lex Luthor snips a strand of Superman’s hair on display at a museum in order to create a Super-clone.

There may be many reasons why Superman has the curl. One person suggested that the curl was representative of action–that Superman was always springing into action to protect the innocent. One website suggested that Superman purposely wore a curl because Lois liked it that way and Superman is just another man trying to please a girl. Some people don’t know of a reason other than it is just a trademark. However, I speculate that the curl was really just to show how all around super he really was–that he could fly at supersonic speeds and keep his hair in place. Hair that stays in place–that truly is super!

Although the spit curl, as it is called, is closely associated with Superman, only 7 out of 10 superman characters actually wore a curl.

Last night I finally saw Superman Returns with some friends (who happen to be some really cute girls). I really liked it. The musical score was very well done. The casting was good, in fact, really much better than I thought it would be. The suspense was pretty good, but I didn’t exactly find myself biting my nails. Some of the parts were kind of predictable. For example, someone falls off the building… of course Superman is going to fly in and catch him just before he hits the ground.

The movie did a good job at explaining some of the Superman fundamentals, such as kryptonite, but left some other subjects as to why Superman is called Kal-El and who is Jor-El less discussed. It made me wonder if they were trying to tune the movie to those who had never seen anything Superman before, or those who have grown up with Superman.

The dialog was entertaining, especially some of Lex Luthor’s lines. However, “I forgot how warm you are,” made me want to gag.

Overall, it was a good movie. I don’t know if I will go out and spend $20 bucks to buy the DVD, but I’m likely to want to rent it and watch it again.