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Web posted January 11, 1997

Chronicle Editorial Staff

In his 1971 pop ballad, ``You Don't Mess Around With Jim,'' the late Jim Croce warned that ``you don't tug on Superman's cape.'' Someone needs to sing that annoying tune, non-stop, to folks at D.C. Comics who've decreed that the venerable comic-book hero no longer needs a cape in his fight for truth, justice and the American way.

In an update of the super crimefighter's image, D.C. is unveiling a snazzy blue-and-white costume, sans cape, that supposedly reflects Superman's new ``energy based'' powers. The change was precipitated a couple of years ago when the superhero was resurrected after being beaten to death by a super-villain named Doomsday.

All this may sound a little goofy, particularly to non-comic fans. But this continued rejiggering of the Superman mythos (this isn't the first urban renewal in Metropolis) is indicative of larger problems in the comics universe.

Youngsters' ever-shorter attention spans accompanies a decline in literary skills. Tie that to kids' growing reliance on television, computers and video games for entertainment, and you have a recipe for the demise of old-fashioned ink-and-paper comics. (Just last week, D.C.'s biggest rival, Marvel Comics, filed for bankruptcy protection.)

The super-makeover is part of D.C.'s attempt to hang on to a dwindling young readership. But in abandoning tradition in favor of trendiness, the comic publisher risks losing the reliable old-timers who still plunk down hard-earned bucks for a few minutes of escapism.

For the uninitiated, Superman's original costume was fashioned by Martha Kent, his adoptive mother, in part from a blanket that had been wrapped around the infant sole survivor of the planet Krypton. Readers learned that the costume's indestructible nature was due to its proximity to Superman himself.

Even as Superman has changed with the times, he has always been identifiable in those blue, red and yellow tights and flowing cape. But recent changes to the man in the suit have been more radical and have come at a jarring pace, like an MTV video on fast-forward: Superman getting ``killed''; being ``reborn''; marrying; and losing, then regaining, his powers. It was only a matter of time before his costume was abandoned for some spiffy new duds.

Oh, well. If Superman is no longer the invulnerable crime-fighter of our dads and granddads and big brothers, and instead is just another trendy, plastic action-figure icon, perhaps the cape and costume no longer matter. Even with the original outfit, we wouldn't recognize him anyway.