Superman

An Introduction

Dear Wal (World At Large, I came up with that myself..haha),

Who doesn’t love ranting? It’s human nature, it’s instinct. We do it every day of our lives; complaining about teachers, parents, coworkers, cats, great books that have been made into terrible movies and drooling over our latest favorite TV shows, movies, books, fantastic days at work, wonderful memories, awesomeness in general.

Here, I’ve decided to rant it all out. Bear witness to my warning, there are going to be a lot of superheroes running amuck and a lot of completely random stuff that makes no sense what-so-ever, and I mean absolutely no sense. I'll try to translate my whirlwind of a mind as best I can, but sometimes it will come out as a garbled mess.

To start things off, let’s take a look at the namesake of this new endeavor of mine.

Superman

I’m a Batman person. Very solidly. I saw The Dark Knight one fateful day, and then it began. I proceeded to watch every Batman movie and TV show in existence (except for the 60s Adam West Batman, there are some things I just can’t take, even in the name of obsession) and then moved on to the comic books. I devoured the classics; The Long Halloween, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Batman: Hush (see IGN's "25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels") and anything else I could find. I read every comic book in the CMC Library Consortium system. Not a big accomplishment, let me tell you. There aren’t many. I spent hours in Barns & Noble just reading comics. I know all the villains. I know all the heroes, the plethora of sidekicks and lovers. Batman rocks, undoubtedly, but there’s just something about Superman.

He was the first superhero, the original, and the ultimate cliché because of that. However, calling Superman cliché is like calling The Lord of the Rings cliché, you can’t bash the original for being unoriginal. In his time, Superman was new and exciting, one of the most popular superheroes in print. That’s not the case these days, as Grant Morrison says in his Supergods, millionaire capitalists like Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark have become more popular because they’re more relevant. Superman’s golden ideals of truth, justice and the American way aren’t as relatable as they were in the 40s and 50s. So, sure he’s outdated, sure he has the most overused superpowers ever, but you have to give him kudos for being the first.

Superman’s ideals are also something I like about him. He’s human, in every way except his biology. He makes mistakes, and he truly cares about people. He’s really a good guy, through and through. I like Batman’s edgy psyche, always treading the line, willing to do almost anything to get the job done, but I have to commend Superman for his belief in respect for human life and the emotions of others. Batman cares in his own way, but Superman actually shows it.

I have to give him points for his relationship with Lois as well. They actually have a stable relationship! It’s a rarity in superhero comics, as far as I’ve seen at least. Most superheroes relationships don’t work out for obvious reason, but Superman finds a way to make it work.

I haven’t seen much of Superman other than Superman (1978) and Superman II, the Justice League show, Smallville and various comics where he happened to show up alongside Batman, so I’m not an expert. Yes, I’m guilty of jumping on the Smallville bandwagon. It’s what turned me onto Superman as more than an interesting contrast to Batman and the big gun of the Justice League. Honestly, Smallville isn’t that bad of a show..once Clark gets out of highschool. Lanna’s a pain. So is Clark failing at relationships, and the overuse of plots, and Clark’s cluelessness, and Zod being a total let-down, and..well, you get the idea. It’s a good subject to rant about, at least, and I immensely enjoy the many references the show makes to its source material. Plus, BRANIAC and Lex were done perfectly in my opinion. Lex was sick and twisted, but human enough to relate to; BRANIAC the creepy, alien intelligence I feel like he was meant to be. Tom Welling as Clark Kent I don’t particularly like, he’s just a little too angsty, but the majority of the roles are cast brilliantly in my opinion. Erica Durance is frankly my favorite depiction of Lois. She’s strong, willful and brilliant, not the hopeless damsel in distress she can sometimes be portrayed as.

I’ve never seen Superman:The Animated Series, but I’ve thought watching it about it plenty of times. Unfortunately, I’ve never had the chance. I’m hesitant to invest the money in buying the disk sets, considering I may not like it at all, and I’ve never had the chance to rent it or borrow it from a friend or a library. I’ve heard that it wasn’t as good as Batman: The AnimatedSeries or Justice League but few animated superhero shows are. Of course, I’ve seen all the episodes of BTAS and JL.

Once again, I don’t know the Superman mythos all that well, I only have the basic working knowledge I need to understand Justice League and Superman|Batman comics. (I almost typed that Batman|Superman…it’s pretty obvious which one I prefer.)

I adore seeing Superman and Batman working together. They’re on opposite ends of the spectrum in every way possible except for their belief in justice, and yet they couldn’t be better friends. Still, if emphasis is put on one or the other it can really screw up a story. They’re characters that need a balance, they need to be portrayed as equals. As much as I like it when Batman has to save Superman from some sticky situation he’s gotten himself into or when the story is slightly more about Batman instead of Superman, they work best balanced. I think that’s what makes the success of Jeph Loeb’s Public Enemies, the two are balanced by childhood memories, thought bubbles, though they can string into a monologue in some places, that display how differently they think and battles where they work together, applying each set of skills where they’re needed. A scene that has always stood out to me where they worked together is in the massive battle scene against Gorilla Grodd. Batman figures out that someone must be controlling the monstrous number of supervillians attacking them, and Superman-stuck by the same idea-points out Gorilla Grodd on a nearby rooftop. Batman shoots a grapple that wraps around Grodd and then Superman pulls him down.

They work together like that throughout the book. Matt Wagener’s Trinity also has some of my favorite Superman moments in it. I so enjoy superhero team ups done right. But that’s a subject for another rant.

I’ve touted him, and now, like a classic Batfan, I’ve got to complain about him.

Sometimes, he can be so brainless and so clueless. If he didn’t have superpowers, he would’ve died long ago. First of all, he attacks the guy with the kryptonite every single time. In Superman (1978), Lex gets kryptonite and sets an elaborate trap for Superman. There were numerous clues pointing to what was about to happen, and still Supes falls right into it. Here’s a hilarious parody of that movie:

This happens again in an episode of the Justice League, “Twilight of the Gods”, where he goes after Braniac, easily duped by Braniac’s offer to tell Supes everything he knows about Krypton. Yes, I know it’s his home planet, and I’m sure Bats would jump at the chance to see his parents again, but still, he would’ve at least been prepared. But hey, that’s Batman for you. Supes seems to a lot on the fly, just busting in without any kind of idea of what he’s going to do other than deflect bullets, bend steel and fly out.

He’s easily mind controlled-someone’s always whipping up a chemical laced with kryptonite  such as Poison Ivy’s lipstick in Batman: Hush, random mind control chemical in The Batman tv series that Lex used to control him. I haven’t come across very many instances of a telepath controlling him, but I don’t doubt there are plenty. Whereas Batman always seems to be able to fight his way out of the control-his will is seriously formidable, a trait I love to see supervillians take for granted-Superman is completely hopeless against it. Maybe not so much in his own title series, but in the comics and shows I’ve seen Batman always ends up having to stop him.

Those parts are some of my favorites as well. Think of it, practically the most powerful hero on earth beaten by a guy in a batsuit with a bunch of toys. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Let’s face it, Superman does best against the alien threats from space or superpowered mutant beings on earth, he’s all brawn and very little brains.

Alright, the glasses. I’m sorry, I get the point that Superman shows his face, doesn’t hide in the shadows, but really. He could’ve come up with something better. I know this is comics, superhero comics, and you have to develop a serious amount of suspension of disbelief, but this is where I draw the line. People would recognize him. Lois would recognize him. In my opinion, why does he even need a secret identity? He’s Superman. He’s always saving Lois, the city, his partners, his family: and his greatest weakness is anything but a secret. Everyone knows he goes to the Daily Planet constantly. His friends and family wouldn’t get horrible maimed, murdered, beaten, crippled etc. anyway if his secret identity was revealed simply because his stories are not that dark. If there is an instance of someone close to him being seriously, permanently feel free to comment. We all know what happens to Batman’s partners, his adopted family. Batman at least has a costume that actually hides his face, even though it’s not entirely that difficult to figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman at least he’s not as obvious as Clark Kent = Superman.

Next up: Lex Luthor. I really think Lex could have some serious potential as a complex villain, after seeing him on Smallville, but it seems to me as if he’s always portrayed as a ‘diseased maniac’ lacking dimension. Now, I don’t like overly angsty characters such as how Lex can sometimes be on Smallville, but I wouldn’t mind a little more character building. In everything I’ve seem except Smallville, he’s portrayed as being innately evil for no apparent reason at all. The Joker is innately evil for no apparent reason at all, but that’s the point of the Joker. He’s the living embodiment of madness; the part of the human psyche that’s a homicidal monster just waiting to surface flaunted openly. The best part about him is that he really has no reason for doing anything he does. This doesn’t work for a rational villain like Lex Luthor. Sure, he can be evil; sure he hates Superman’s guts, but why? I’ve never been able to pin that one down to any particular reason.

So, to conclude, I suppose I like him just as much because he’s so much fun to complain about, not just for his good attributes.

Expect more rants about random stuff (mostly superheroes) in the future. Posts every day, hopefully. I always have something to rant about.

/end rant