Corrigan as the antithesis of Superman

So I wrote a paper earlier on Superman in Corrigan so I decided to give an excerpt here:

Even though Jimmy is continually reminded about how unlike Superman he is, the part of him that believes in Superman and what he stands for is the only part of him that allows him to keep going on in his sad existence. Towards the end of Jimmy Corrigan Jimmy ends up donning a long sleeve t-shirt of Superman in order to sum up some courage in dealing with his father and his father’s family. The first instance of him wearing the shirt, however, shows Jimmy in one of his weakest positions: on the toilet. The page with Jimmy on the toilet (with a large Jimmy face with two men pulling on the mouth in the interface) shows the irony of his wearing the Superman shirt. While he is wearing the shirt he is curled up into almost fetal position with half of him undressed showing his own exposure as he fights to pass a bowel movement. Wearing the shirt gives an oxymoronic feel to Jimmy since he is continually portrayed as almost the opposite of Superman. The shirt also represents how much Jimmy wants to make a good impression to his adopted (half) sister, Amy. By wearing the shirt he is trying to gather his courage in order to face someone he has never met before and under the condition of his father getting sick. Two pages after the bathroom scene Jimmy meets Amy for the first time, the panels that are able to create the most authentic moment for Jimmy are the three vertical panels that show first his face, then a close-up of the t-shirt, and lastly his hurt foot. This moment is able to sum up exactly how Jimmy wants to be and how is completely incapable of being as strong as he wish he could be.
Near the end of the book there are two large snowy panels that show Jimmy standing on the street corner where the Superman had jumped and landed, in the second panel Jimmy stares at the position where the hero had been. These two panels are vitally important because they manage to tie together Jimmy’s sense of loss over the Superman, his father, and Amy. The blanket of snow that is falling down also represents a winter in Jimmy’s life where he no longer feels that he has anybody left to admire or fantasize about. Back in his office Jimmy then pictures himself in the position of Superman, on top of the building preparing to jump. After all he has gone through Jimmy can only see himself following in the sad steps of his hero. The mixture of the snow and his fantasizing about a similar death as Superman shows his unwillingness to continue to exist in a world where there are no supermen, where there are no heroes to look up to.
The second to last page also shows the snow scape, this time with Superman carrying little Jimmy away from the whole entire mess. This scene was very poignant because it represented Jimmy’s memories where Superman was the most important figure in his life. This scene could also be construed as Jimmy’s death, since the little Jimmy is being flown off to an unknown destination with his superhero in the middle of a blizzard. These last final panels represent the end of a very long and sad journey for Jimmy where he has nothing left to look forward to, especially when he meets his new co-worker and realizes that his life is working in a vicious cycle of new people coming in and out of his life that merely disappoint him. Superman, even though he has had bad experiences with him, remains his idol because he remains a type of constant ideals that are not vanquished despite the world around him.