Posted on 03/20/2016 3:48:47 PM PDT by Bratch
Superman should be invincible. Since his car-smashing debut in 1938, he’s starred in at least one regular monthly comic, three blockbuster films, and four television shows. His crest is recognized across the globe, his supporting cast is legendary, and anybody even vaguely familiar with comics can recount the broad strokes of his origin.
[...]
And yet, for a character who gains his power from the light of the sun, Superman is curiously eclipsed by other heroes. According to numbers provided by Diamond Distributors, the long-running Superman comic sold only 55,000 copies a month in 2015, down from around 70,000 in 2010—a mediocre showing even for the famously anemic comic-book market. That’s significantly less than his colleague Batman, who last year moved issues at a comparatively brisk 150,000 a month. Mass media hasn’t been much kinder: The longest-running Superman television show, 2001’sSmallville, kept him out of his iconic suit for a decade. Superman Returns recouped its budget at the box office, but proved mostly forgettable. 2013’s Man of Steeldrew sharp criticism from critics and audiences alike for its bleak tone and rampaging finale. Trailers for the sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, have shifted the focus (and top billing) to the Dark Knight. Worst of all, conventional wisdom puts the blame on Superman himself. He’s boring, people say; he’s unrelatable, nothing like the Marvel characters dominating the sales charts and the box office. More than anything, he seems embarrassing. Look at him. Truth? Justice? He wears his underwear on the outside.
Behold! I give you the problem of Superman. It’s a problem that has less to do with the character himself and more to with DC Comics, which found itself stuck with a flagship character it thought needed fixing. In trying, it broke him nearly beyond repair.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Hahaha! Couldn’t have said it better myself.
The author’s right about how comic companies have destroyed their own business by turning into a porn-ish adult fixation, totally destroying the medium’s suitability for kids, the historical driving force for comics sales. But he’s flat wrong about his solution: turning Superman into a modern-day New Deal crusader.
Perhaps they should make a new superman movie starring Bruce Jenner
I’m pretty much a Marvelite, but my take on it is this: You hit the nail on the head with that remark about postmodern creators. Most of them have little to offer in the ways of creativity and can’t seem to understand the idea of working with established characters, established storylines, or anything else sequential. Hence the near constant reboots, rewriting of characters to make them more PC, social-justice oriented, and the like. Fortunately, there are lots of old books to pick up...
the best one is when they argue over why mini mouse wears a bottom and mickey mouse wears a top (or something like that), and came to the conclusion that mickey mouse is gay lol!!!!
The trouble with Superman is he’s invincible, that makes him unbeatable, that makes him boring. Add to that his granola boyscout tendencies and he’s just not an interesting character to read, and probably not to write either.
Batman cheats.
One of the local channels was playing I Love Lucy this afternoon. It was the episode when Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel are touring Europe and they're taking bicycles across the border from Italy into France. And Lucy loses her passport so she's not allowed to cross over into France. Of course hilarity ensues.
If only we had border security that good in America today...
seems like he would have to.
I don’t even know if kryptonite can kill superman or just make him weak.
and I don’t know why either
He didn’t turn the earth backwards. He was traveling back in time and, from his perspective, it looked like the earth was spinning backwards.
Batman has a doomsday plan for everyone, it’s a precaution against unchecked, unstoppable superhumans/aliens. In the story that inspires the movie, Superman had become a tool of gov’t, and endangers the Earth.
wow. these things get deeper than I thought
Depends on the era, depends on the type of kryptonite. The why is simple: without kryptonite Sups is completely unbeatable and therefore there is no drama in the character.
So how to make a superhero something beyond human, but still fallible, still mortal, still defatigable. With Superman, it's kryptonite. But lately, it seems like just about any villain with a bulging bicep can beat the Man of Steel.
I remember the big reveal when they said Batman had a plan to take out any member of the JL “just in case”, and one of them asked “what’s the plan for you”, and his answer was “tell Clark (Superman) it’s time”. Which was a massive revelation back then when Supes absolutely positively did not kill ever, the idea that he’d agreed to maybe kill his friend if it became necessary was shocking. Of course this movie Supes has already killed, not terribly interesting.
Superman is a character that is associated with the light . . . and has a white persona while Batman is a dark character and is usually found in black surroundings - even his uniform is dark.
#BLM baby!
You probably didn’t see Man of Steel, but from Batman’s ground level perspective, these superpowered aliens show up and cause a 9-11 event, so he’s going to come up with a contingency plan. It’s a classic trope where 2 unfamiliar heroes fight when they meet, but eventually unite against a greater threat.
>>>But he’d have to be like someone catching an egg in the egg toss.
Otherwise the plane would be smashed to bits.<<<
Well, when he saved his first airplane he used his massive super breath to create a buffer which slowed the plane down and he set it down safely . . . but everyone inside the plane was frozen solid - so he had to go back to the drawing board.
I think . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.