Superman has never been my favorite hero.

[snugglekitty]

I was saying this to mrpet last night, after we finished seeing Superman Returns. Superman isn't a very complex character. Yeah, he has these powers. But he's not smart, or conflicted or anything. He always saves the city before saving Lois Lane. Kryptonite is his only weakness, and it's kind of a dumb weakness. He never learns to delegate, or use his powers to get people to listen to him and improve themselves, unless it's something trivial like "Smoking is bad for you."

He's always solving the short-term problems. What about long-term problems like war and not enough food? They can't be solved just by putting your body and your powers in front of something. If you give a man a fish... but the thing is, he doesn't actually have those tools. He needs to take leadership training. Attend Democracy School and teach others to be activists. Something, anything!

For this reason, I've always liked Batman and the X-Men better. They have real internal conflicts. They know how to work as a team, to some extent. The things that happen move them. The huge things, but the little things too.



Okay. Kevin Spacey? A total rock star in that movie. I mean, damn. I love him so much in general, and I loved him even more as Lex Luthor. Especially, "I would trade all the coconuts and every ounce of your blood for one quart of gasoline!"

And, "Wait for it."

He really stole the show, although Kate Bosworth wasn't bad. And somehow, I didn't figure out that Jason was Superman's kid until the incident with the piano. That was fun.

It was okay but didn't change my life.

Comments

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

the xmen? i like the xmen, but they always struck me as basically a street gang with superpowers. whenever one of them has a personal problem or even just a bad day they'll happily trash a city block or ten just to work off some steam... and then walk away from the mess without a second thought.

as for the giving a man a fish bit though, yeah. the comic book "the elementals" had a bit once where in a magazine interview one of the characters said something like "basically any politician is more powerful than i am"...

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

the xmen? i like the xmen, but they always struck me as basically a street gang with superpowers. whenever one of them has a personal problem or even just a bad day they'll happily trash a city block or ten just to work off some steam... and then walk away from the mess without a second thought.

Hmm. That doesn't fit with my read. Except for Wolverine, and everyone always tells him he needs to learn to manage his anger issues.

I guess that's the other thing with Superman. He never seems to make mistakes or have bad days. It bugs me.

[curly-chick.livejournal.com]

I so agree with this post. Superman was raised on a farm with a wholesome family background. I much preferred Batman who had a dark side and struggled against it. Superman is too sunny for me.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

I'm okay with the wholesome family background. I just wish, I don't know. That his foster family had all been killed by someone EEEEvul when he was a teenager. Or that he had been abducted and tortured and was thoroughly traumatized by it. I just think that characters are much more interesting when bad things happen to them.

[catskillz.livejournal.com]

Yup yup! This is why, even being the enormous comic book geek that I am, I've skipped *Superman Returns*. There's just nothing to his character, and characters are what I look for in stories.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I went because I had never seen a Superman movie before, and plus, it was ninety frickin' degrees with ridiculous humidity. But I don't plan to repeat the experience.