Christopher Nolan, the early years.
In recent years Superman has lost his way. From the good-natured, caring for others Man Of Steel we now have stories that are less about what’s good about the world and instead have Superman fighting what’s wrong and limiting the damage at best, and in some realities even becoming part of the problem. But what’s going on? Maybe Alex Schmidt, video contributor to Cracked, has the answer?
He kind of danced around it, but I think the main issue is that we live in more cynical times. Our lives are leagues better than it was during the Great Depression and World War II, the worst moments in US history since the country’s founding, but somehow we act like our lives are worse, that humans are horrible beings, and anything that goes against that belief gets looked down upon. That’s why Batman is so popular and DC is trying to make everyone act like Batman. They can make him moody and angsty and brooding, when he isn’t beating people up and yelling, which somehow has become the insistence that superheroes be. Even the service I use for links and tags brought up more Batman stuff than Superman and Bruce is barely mentioned in this article.
You see, Batman was born from a horrible person. Oh, not his parents (although THAT has happened in other continuities as well) but by Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce’s parents right in front of him. (Yes, some realities don’t name him. Your point?) He was born from tragedy and tragedy is now the norm. It’s why they reworked Barry Allen’s origin from “inspired by his favorite comic/retired hero” to “my dad was falsely accused of my mother’s murder”. It’s why Alexandra DeWitt was killed and stuffed into Kyle Rayner’s refrigerator, or Roy Harper had to lose his daughter and arm. Nobody can simply become a superhero because they are either inspired by other heroes (the current Ms. Marvel would disagree with you and everybody seems to love the daylights out of her) or by being raised to use their mighty powers to help others…you know, how the Kents used to be written until Man Of Steel, or if they did something has to happen to someone they care about in the mistaken belief that tragedy makes them better heroes. You know, because every cop. FBI/CIA agent, and soldier only followed that path because someone they cared about died tragically. More than one reason why someone could follow a certain path in life? Perish the thought. We must be part of the one, the one is all, and do not question the one!
When we see Superman doing things like…
Modern tale, but written by someone who understands Superman.
…then we have trouble believing in him. We feel like he can’t be “relatable” anymore. But that’s the new DC guard. Scenes like this…
…weren’t a rarity like they are now. They showed that Superman wasn’t some god among men that everyone wants to write him as. He is a “man” with “super”powers. That’s it. He’s not called Supergod, he’s called Superman and that should be reflected in how he’s done. With all the great things he can do he’s just like you and me.
Except he’s better, not because of his powers but what he uses them for. And do you know who understands Superman best? Kids, the demographic no longer allowed to have him. What would kids use superpowers for? Raised right (as Clark was), they would use them to help people and stop bad guys, and then just to have fun in between. What would “adults” use his powers for? Peeping at women (when hacking online and phone storage isn’t enough) and pushing people around. At some point adults (or at least the louder part of our geek culture and some outside it that just want to see stuff blow up and people get beat up in between boobies you weren’t given permission to see) decided that nice guys don’t just finish last, they don’t exist. Somehow the angst we claim was part of Generation X has dominated our current culture while Generation X is a couple of generations in the past.
This is Superman. Remember it future comic, TV, and movie writers.
You can track it back to the 1990s of course. Everything had to be “extreme” but to be “extreme” you couldn’t be happy. You had to be miserable, and talk about how bad people were. Heck, I have yet to find an anime that celebrates the inherent goodness of humanity when confronting the obligatory “humans are all evil and should be wiped out because war”, and there aren’t a lot of recent tales that do that either. That’s because current writers don’t think that way about humans and see Superman as some relic of a bygone world view. The three scenes I’ve shown you from the New 52 were written by writers who still held that view of Superman or just saw a funny moment because Superman offers that. Batman is flexible in how he’s portrayed but Superman is flexible in what kinds of situations he can be in, from the humorous to, yes, the tragic. What do we have now? Superman’s secret identity destroyed, a further rift between Superman and Lois, two characters who have had a connection from literally the first story, friends for decades, and even wed until DC decided marriage was evil.
Not liking Superman in favor of Batman is one thing, but when this…
…is the Superman you want, go read the Plutonian’s adventures. Superman represents the best of humanity not because of his powers but because of his compassion and willingness to do what’s right, even when the writers start messing with his powers, to make the world a better place. Stories now are less about making a better world than it is just delaying the supposed inevitable. And it shows in every other aspect of human life right now. We came together for September 11th and in numerous other tragedies, so hope isn’t dead, but that seems to be missing from stories written today, and not just superhero stories, to the limit that the people who said the “S” on Kal-El’s chest stood for hope don’t know how to depict hope.
I knew Superman. Superman was a friend of mine. And you sir…
“No Clark, the line is ‘he’s dead, Jim’. You need to watch more Star Trek.”
…are no Superman! Plus that outfit looks more like pajamas than the classic costume y’all make fun of.
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