Okay, will somebody please explain once and for all what’s so great about Superman?
I’ve _really_ tried to give him a chance over the past few decades, but he just strikes me as such an unsympathetic character. As his alter ego he is so frustratingly timid its painful to read. And as Superman he is so powerful there is usually little doubt that he will beat the crap out of whatever villian is in his way eventually. I just can’t bring myself to care about this guy. The jeopardy never seems especially serious, the personal problems never seem insurmountable… He’s kind of a goody two-shoes weenie in how he deals with the world. How can we relate to this guy on a human level? How can we care about what happens to him (and by extension, care to buy the comics)?
So what am I missing? I get the whole “iconographic/trailblazing/nostalgia” thing… but why read him now?
He is a beloved character and has many die-hard fans who will defend him to the death- but these arguments seem to so often come down to:
Me: what’s so great about him?
fan: He’s… well, he’s just Superman!
So I get it. He’s important. But how can the writers make him _real_ for today’s audience? I don’t know…
Thoughts?
Comments (5)
Right, Superman is a great fantasy character, but a terrible dramatic character. He’s perfect. He can do anything and, despite the best efforts of generations of desperate comics writers, nothing ever really threatens him. Not even death.
If you’re going to be a hero yourself, and you get the choice, be Superman. Hands down, no question. But if you want to read a story about things happening to someone else, Batman offers more fertile ground.
It’s no coincidence that Superman was invented by a couple of kids. Both Siegel and Shuster were in their teens when they created him, and that was well before post-war prosperity created the modern “teenager.” They both came from poor families of European Jewish immigrants, struggling through a depression in a sometimes hostile country. Siegel’s father had actually been shot and killed in a burglary a couple years earlier.
(In contrast, Bob Kane was in his mid-20s when he created Batman, and that was a deliberate effort to come up with something to respond to Superman’s success.)
So Superman is a power fantasy for the weak, the downtrodden and the fearful. He has the strength you wish you had to right the wrongs you see going unanswered all around you. (Why do you think Bryan Singer’s so into him?) And he has the nobility you like to think you’d have if you were all-powerful because evil and all-powerful is just too scary to consider.
He fills a very important psychological need, which is why he’s so beloved on some level. But as far as storytelling goes, he’s a throwback to the days before the Greeks invented drama. For good drama you want characters with flaws. Again the Batman comparison is instructive. Batman is a fantastic dramatic character, endlessly externalizing this primal inner conflict that he never seems to quite resolve. And man has he been twisted into some fascinating alternate takes…
Superman is best used as a symbol. The best Superman stuff seems to be about him being manipulated by the institutions he’s meant to serve. The corruption of the noble American dream into a fascist, dark mirror vision of unchecked power and intolerance. Even then he’s still a symbol, but those stories at least take advantage of his symbolic nature and work on that level.
As a character, though? I don’t think you can cross that bridge. I don’t think you can make him an interesting character without making him fundamentally not Superman anymore. And I do not envy all those writers who had to come up with Superman/Batman team-up stories. Wow…
Comment by John Michael Sullivan | March 1st, 2007 @ 7:17 pm
I find that the best characters, fictional or not, are flawed. That’s what makes them relatable and gives readers a sense of themselves within the story. Flaws make a character because they generally dictate personality. Comic-wise, I think stories involving Superman have been on a decline, thus my agreement with his death and my disagreement with his ressurection. But I think television shows such as Smallville and movies like Singer’s capture some of the early turmoil from within the character. I like the character of Clark Kent, but I agree with the point of Superman being flawless. In the early stories about Superman, the ones that have essentially shaped what he is today, you can get a sense of why people are so devoted to him, and it’s Clark.
Comment by Lotus | March 2nd, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
Hm… interesting points. I think I agree- Superman _could_ be part of compelling stories (if not compelling himself) if the writers focused more on the effect of a society coping with the temptation of having this all powerful “symbol” in their back pocket.
“Truth, justice, and the American Way”? When is the last time he said that?
Comment by Jessica Leigh Clark | March 2nd, 2007 @ 6:20 pm
I think the graphic novel It’s a Bird… deals with this concept best. But I also like the Kill Bill v2 idea on it too.
Comment by JT | March 5th, 2007 @ 10:14 am
I can’t actually pot on this blog, but I thought I’d let everyone know that Captain America just got shot…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CAPTAIN_AMERICA?SITE=PASCR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Comment by Lotus | March 7th, 2007 @ 3:07 pm