To quote Kurt from the DC Comics Message Boards:
> By the way, can Superman still see or sense other
> people's auras, a la Birthright?
No. Nor is he a vegetarian.
kdb
So there!
Oh. Errr... Well. I've been extolling the virtues of Busiek's writing on Superman so much that I'm going to look like a complete pillock now by saying that yeah, well, that's only his opinion. And it's wrong.
I wonder if this is going to spur a debate of such proportions that DC will ban any depiction of Superman or Clark eating? So far, in his new incarnation, we've only seen him eating a pretzel, which is inconclusive. Oh, and he was fixing dinner for Lois recently too. What were they having? Wasn't it fish? Is that okay?
Well, the only properly interesting part of my original post was the bit about Kent enjoying the pleasures forbidden for Superman, which may (or may not) include eating meat. I really was wondering if Kal-El experiences Kent and Superman as being such separate people that one (Kent) can enjoy what is taboo for the other (Superman).
One thing I do know: the Man of Steel in either identity would feel distress (and probably anger) at witnessing any kind of deliberate cruelty to an animal, no matter how small or "primitive" or "insignificant". But the question of whether or not to eat animals that have been butchered is something of a grey area, as it must be for a great many intelligent people -- or we wouldn't be having this debate at all.
The next very difficult decision for Superman, as he sits down to his roast beef, is whether or not he will interfere in animal experimentation (ie. vivisection) which takes place on a grand scale in universities and drug company laboratories the world over. This, I feel, would not be such a grey area, but which still ignites furious debate, and probably will for generations to come.
