Is Superman Really Super?

I like to think that the majority of my daily posts are written about things I like for the enjoyment of my readers. To that end, I hope you'll indulge me as I write something more for posterity than entertainment.

As most of you know, another Superman movie recently released and the whole world is treating it like Sam Raimi's original Spiderman movie (the old one, not the boring retelling with a more enjoyable Peter Parker). Almost everyone I know, because like 90% of my friends are geeks, have seen it and loved it. They may not have thrown a parade for it, but someone has apparently finally done Superman, America's super hero, correctly.

Me? I've never liked Superman. I like the idea of a person fighting for all that's good, believing in humanity, and being unconquerably moral. Really he's the ideal knight with tights. But there's something about Superman that I've always found dreadfully boring, and I know it's something many comic fans have echoed over the years.

I'm not going to spend the entire post picking apart every little thing about him, but there are some things I've found about him through media and some comics that make me less than excited to see another film about him. If you're a Superman fan, I'm not trying to pick a fight. I plan on coming back to this after I see the movie to see how well they've made him relevant. And to reiterate, this is my cynical perspective of Superman and not a formal treatise.

• He's basically indestructible. Now I realize that Superman has some weaknesses - namely kryptonite and magic, and a few other things from different story arcs (too much sun? really?) But basically, Superman is rarely at risk for being anything more than inconvenienced when fighting a bad guy.
• He's not brave. Woah, I just lost 10 followers! Hear me out. Bravery doesn't mean fearless, it means doing good in spite of fear. Am I brave when I spray my yard for weeds? Or change a lightbulb? No, because I don't live in a crappy M Night Shamalan movie where flowers can kill me. I didn't stick my tongue in a light socket as a child, thus making my stomach churn every time I flip on a light switch.
  
  When Superman stops an out-of-control train; or blows his ice breath at a huge tidal wave; or punching yet another baddie through a building, he's not doing anything special. It's a chore to him, like cleaning the gutters or building a shed. Sure it's work, but it's certainly nothing heroic. How can you be a symbol of bravery if you have no fear?
• He's an alien. One appeal of Superman is that he's a super man, because he looks and talks like us and carries on a normal life away from the tights. But if you take away his human image, it totally changes how he's viewed. If Superman were Superthing, we wouldn't really look up to him. One leg, 3 arms, and a head protruding from his stomach - that's really what Superman is. He's not human, he's just an alien that came to Earth and gave us a thumbs-up because he was raised by humans, and stuck around to make sure we doing explode. He's not a brave man, he's a meddling alien with a human upbringing.
• His powers are silly today. This is something I assume they won't mess with in the movie. Strength and flight are obvious, but there's some that make no thematic sense From Wikipedia:
  -Freeze breath
  -Xray/Telescopic/Microscopic/Heat/Infared vision
  -Super smell
  -Super intelligent
  -Telekinesis
  -Some other powers that seems to have been faded out in more modern retellings (super-ventrilloquism?)
  
  Now some of these you could argue would be present in a "super being," and that's fine. But how can anyone resonate with someone who can do everything, essentially nullifying the use for any other Superhero? How boring is it to have someone who struggles with nothing, and has no real limitations to his powers, or can dig deep in to his toolbox and solve practically any problem?
  
  Why do I need Batman, who is limited by physics, when I have a guy who can blow out a star?
• He is responsible for most problems he fixes. This goes back to an realization another superhero had - I think it was Spiderman. Basically, things got exponentially worse when Superman showed up, and continue to snowball out of control as more and more evil beings are created without any (usually) leaving. My son and I watched Superman vs. The Elite on Netflix. In one part you have the Atomic Skull going around town literally turning everyone to ash. Superman swoops in, causes thousands of dollars in property damage, and takes him back to prison where he's hooked up to a generator so that he can spend his life (which may be eternal, he's just a walking skull) being harvested for Metropolis's energy. Naturally he breaks out and turns more people to ash, including a man who was responsible for doing good on a global scale. Superman's [cynically paraphrased] response? "Whelp, better get him on back to prison. That'll teach him!"
  
  He's more altruistic and moral than that, but that's essentially what his code of ethics boils down to. He doesn't end problems, he attracts them (letting them kill dozens in the process), puts them away because he's no one's judge and jury. That's fine for bank robbers and war criminals, where we have policies set up to punish those people, but not so much when it comes to, and even then he only operates under a first world/western interpretation of the law. Which brings me to my biggest frustration...
• He's the most selfish being on Earth. [This is a hard one for me because it's the only true challenge Superman faces, and I expect this will generate the most disagreement. I'm also not 100% convinced that my frustration at his ethics would be alleviated if he broke them.]
  
  How many people have died in the Superman comics? How many die (or even suffer) at the hands of a criminal Superman could have killed, but didn't? Going back to the Atomic Skull - Superman could have killed him, and in the movie they explore why he should or shouldn't have.
  
  The fact is that parents, friends, children, and spouses are dead at the end of the movie because Superman didn't want to betray his code of ethics. It's all about Superman being able to sleep soundly at night, likely turning off his super hearing so he can't hear the sound of children crying themselves to sleep because mom was walking down the wrong street. Does he want to sacrifice to help the world? Does he want to really live the hard life of a hero who faces adversity? Or would the writers like to make him out to be something other than a Mary Sue?
  
  Kill Lex Luthor. Kill General Zod, or Joker, or one of the many other superhuman evils that exist on Earth. Let him agonize over whether they could have been saved, and whether he's gone too far. Let him taste the risk of becoming a tyrant, and decide whether humanity really can handle itself when more than humans exist in the world. He already lords over the world by deciding that people should die so he doesn't feel bad about himself, why not put that to better use and let people live under his selfishness, not die for it?

My last point is my hardest because once you start, where do you stop? Without an absolute stopping point, it's all relative. The Punisher, my favorite comic book character, proves that there is a line that can be crossed without realizing it. And if Superman did it, then is he really Superman or just another superhero?

That's the hard thing about criticizing him. Other than some goofy powers, removing one thing about him almost ruins who he is. He uses his powers to help others, and holds to his morals despite everything. He's not a hero because he's a good person, but her personifies good. If he killed, if he could die or experience fear with every villain... would we even want him? Or do we have to deal with him being out of touch, but love him because he's in such contrast to the rest of the world?



See you tomorrow!

Remember to follow me on Facebook. I'm doing a blog post every single day for 2013, and Facebook is a great way to stay up-to-date as well as take part in my monthly giveaways!