The Trouble With Superman

The Atlantic ^ | February 7, 2016 | ASHER ELBEIN

[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.

[dp0622]

sounds pretty cool actually.

I don’t know why I never got into stuff like this, that show Heroes, or the X Men thing.

[faithhopecharity]

you’d make a great story editor ....
yes indeed, there are many great story lines available

[Mr. Blond]

Fortunately these days you can have all this history distilled into some pretty cool movies. Captain America:Winter Soldier and the upcoming Civil War are pretty great takes on complex political themes.

[dp0622]

will have to check some of them out.

[Dr. Sivana]

The funny thing is people said the same things before Christopher Reeve’s Superman came out. They thought the character was too naive for the sophisticated and cynical 1970s. They played it straight with the character, and won over the audience.

Reeves was fine. Brando as Jor-El was knuckleheaded, and getting Mario Puzo to write the script is like putting Willie Mays in a boxing ring.

Marvel had comic book writers story board Spiderman like a comic book. 'cause he's a comic book hero. Sheesh!

The solution to Superman is simple. Dial the powers down to about 1941 levels, place the story and the characters in pre-WWII U.S., avoids all sorts of problems that a Superbaby would face growing up in our pervasive bureaucratic state, and questions about why Superman doesn't just wipe out the commies/Nazis/ISIS over Labor Day weekend. These days, the idea of Clark Kent as a reporter for a daily newspaper so he can get a heads-up on the news makes less than no sense. They first got stupid on this in the early '70s when they tried to update him by making him a TV anchorman (that's right Brtainiac and Lex Luther can take over the world during the WGBS news at 6PM, when Superman is busy reading the news.)

[Donglalinger]

[dp0622]

geez, a little more dark than I expected

[Ransomed]

These new superheroes movies are waaaay better than I ever would have thought they could make them. Pretty surprising.

Freegards

[Mr. Blond]

All thanks to cgi. If you see a youtube clip of pre-vfx Avengers action scenes, it’s amazing how little of it is real, even mundane things.

[Ransomed]

Really? I would say they actually write these things with some skill, at least up to par with some of the comics, at least some of them. The crappy ones are crap not because the f/x/cgi isn’t up to snuff, it’s because it is stupid, or has bad acting or doesn’t respect the sourced material, at least that I have seen.

Freegards

[Mr. Blond]

Oh, the writing is there too, thanks to a better choice of source material. But you could never pull off the visuals until now. Can you imagine Age of Ultron in the days of Nick Hammond and Reb Brown?

[Larry Lucido]

How about a superhero who is poor?

The Ain’t Got No Green Lantern!

[Larry Lucido]

I liked The Adventures of Handi-Man.

[dp0622]

then he would be me :)

[Vince Ferrer]

I agree about dialing his powers back. Right now he is indestructable. But he can be fooled, so the only way to defeat him is mentally. Which does not make a good comic book movie.

[morphing libertarian]

If you introduce physics, logic, and science into these stories they are doomed.

[Dr. Sivana]

Magic/Occult can work on him as well. Depending on the era, so can Kryptonite.

[Ransomed]

I had to look that up. Anyhow, yes, for huge spectaculars with power rays and the hulk, it’s great they can even do it justice. But for something like Daredevil they really just need good stunt work, some cgi and great writing and acting. I actually liked the last two Punishers.

Freegards

[Mr. Blond]

Yeah, DD was great. Punisher is my favorite character, I even like Dolph’s movie. Funny to think that all these movies owe their existence to Blade.

[Gamecock]