Originally posted by long pig
Superman has too much power for what he does, which is fight thugs and 5 ton lifting meta humans.In cosmic sense i.e Surfer, Thanos, Heralds, Genis etc. He's a common wussy.
But, ya know...we can't have Superman fight in his own league, or...-gasp- he may lose! nooo, we can't have that at all!! The Superman fanboys would riot, sue D.C for mental pain and cry themselves into a deep, deep depression.
So, let's have him fight another human and all the Superfans can bust one in their superman printed panties.
Where are these 5 ton street thugs at again? 😕
Your hatred blinds you.
Originally posted by xmarksthespot
I’m no Superman expert, I’m not big fan or a detractor, but this is just my two cents. I’m trying to be balanced and I’m open to rebuttals from the more knowledgeable Superman experts. (I have no idea how I stumbled upon this Superman forum but it was interesting to read so…)As a cultural icon Superman is unsurpassed, and he isn’t the worst character ever, (there are tonnes of crappier characters. Matter-Eater Lad wtf is that?) but disregarding any bad writing a character may suffer and purely in terms of core character he’s mediocre at best. His appeal is understandable in that he is the uber-hero. He’s the cookie-cutter archetypal hero, a product of the Depression that people could look up to when there was nothing around to look up to. He’s good and decent and kind etc. Everybody in Metropolis loves him (except the criminals of course). Translate that to a modern era he’s a bit outdated and he’s just a bit bland. He was created in a post-world war black-and white world, and thus doesn’t translate that well nowadays amongst the shades of grey.
It’s also been argued that he has no definitive personality and I for the most part have to agree. For a lot of characters it would be difficult to say they have no distinctive personality, (Batman, Spider-Man, F4, Flash and most of the X-Men particularly the second genesis ones are characterised pretty well). That’s not to say he has to brood all day and night in a cave or have berserker rages to have a personality. Opinionatively characters with intrinsic flaws and frailties are infinitely more interesting than those that are simply weakened by glowing green rocks. In the end he’s just too perfect to be really interesting. These days people look more to characters they can relate to in film, TV, books then characters they can merely look up to. How can one relate to someone whose practically perfect?
There’s nothing wrong with morals, nobility, regard for human life etc. However a character can have those traits and still be interesting and involving. The problem with Superman stems from the fact that those are his only personality traits – I think it’s been mentioned in this thread as his “vanilla personality”. Flaws make nobility seem all the more greater. Wolverine (just as an example) is a dichotomy wherein he has so many flaws, he’s surly, he’s a loner, he’ll kill and yet at his core he has a noble soul.
There are a lot of flaws in the design of Superman as a character (but he was one of the earliest so the creators didn’t have much to go off). The glasses as his only costume (even if he can’t be photographed [Smallville High Grad Ceremony: Sign my yearbook? Sure which one’s you. Oh I’m the blurry one. Lol]) can only lead me to believe that all of Metropolis is myopic and tone-death (and Lois is supposed to be an investigative journalist?). In terms of powers, it’s not so much that he has too many, it’s that he has so many random powers mishmashed together with no logical link. There are heroes with many multiple powers that link in some way and make them more realistic. Everything inexplicable in Superman is simply attributed to him being from Krypton which I suppose is fair enough considering everything inexplicable in X-Men is because they’re mutants and everything in say Thor is because he’s an Asgardian god.
The reason that Smallville appeals to those that Superman the comic may not is that it is a more (old-school) Marvel approach to Superman. Clark’s full of flaws that have nothing to do with Kryptonite. He's made much more easy to relate to for most people.
This guy nailed the problems with Superman completely
well this thread is just a thread for people to complain about good ol' Clark. It's kinda sad that the most reconizable fictional icon of the 20th centery is so hated. Superman is the ideal character of what people should be or for the most part. As for having to many powers there are far many more who have many more powers than Superman. Superman has changed his costume quite often too and his hair as well but, the spitcurl and the classic suit go un matched. The fact that his name came up in a Marvel movie is sayin something about our culture. i went up to some people i know and asked them what they knew about Superman which none of them are comic readers all exept 1 person told me abut being frm Krypton and landing on Earth and being raised with Right Judgement if Superman isn't a proper hero i want to hear who is?