The Case for Remaking Superman
Apr. 27th, 2015 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastMan of Steel seems to show Superman in a morally compromised light, despite its efforts to do exactly the opposite. As I stated in Superman and the Jesus Problem*, Superman Returns didn't do any better. Arguably, these two movies don't cause the problems with Superman so much as expose them.
These problems are common to superheroes in general, but not essential. Yes, I am actually making a case for remaking superhero stories in their basics. Superman has long been an upstanding role-model, so I'm going to stick to my recommendation that Superman be the lead in this remake.
The first problem is that superheroes, often times for very little reason, fight regular crime as a priority. If you have super powers and want to fight crime, join the police force where they'll give you something far more important than super powers, training.
One of the first scenes of most superhero movies, following the establishing of super powers, is the battling of a mugger. Mugging is not, typically, the practice of the great evils. It's a practice of the desperate, often-times a desperation born of addiction. But, that desperation can also be born of hunger, immediate financial problems, etc.
What I'm saying is that crime, particularly the crimes that are easiest to spot and foil, is more complex a problem than can be punched in the face and tied up for the police.
Yes, the police force is... imperfect would be the polite way of saying it. But, that does need to be acknowledged, that imperfection is what we have. We can view accurately and then improve, but never claim perfection without tragic consequence.
That leads into the second problem of superheroes and Superman especially. Superman comes to an emergency situation and takes authority that he has no business taking.
Sure, Superman is impenetrable. But, let's take a look at an early scene in Superman Returns. He's just Returned, when a set of bank robbers, somehow, have a howitzer, he stands in front of the giant weapon, calmly letting the bullets bounce off of him... Fun fact about bullets: They don't dissolve in mid-air.
Yes, thanks to Superman, several people in mirrored conical pattern centered on himself, either died or were injured, because Superman didn't figure on the consequences of ricochet. Well trained police forces are trained to keep that kind of thing in mind.
Superman shouldn't go into the situation and take charge, he should go into the situation and take orders.
Finally, too often Superman is made into exactly what that name would suggest, a man inherently over and better than the rest of us. Not only does bring us to The Jesus Problem, but that inherently reduces the rest of us. Superman cannot be definitionally better than all of us if we're not definitionally worse.
This can take a number of ways to fix and I see no reason why we shouldn't ply a few.
So, the remade Superman should have a standard opening, explaining how Superman was sent to Earth from the soon-to-be-destroyed Krypton and gained powers thanks to our yellow sun and whatnot. But, also, it must be noted that Superman super because he has powers, but a hero because of the values he learned from his very human parents.
Superman must not be Space Jesus, that reduces both Superman and the rest of us.
In keeping with that, after gaining his powers, he must be careful to don his cape and interfere when his powers are needed or especially useful. In your average hostage situation, smashing through the wall is dangerous, but seeing through walls is a valuable trait. And, if that's all he shows up to do, then he should be happy that that is all that's needed.
This humility in emergency situations can be used to develop a rapport with National Guard and other emergency responders. That rapport will be the essential defense come the great-big-threat.
General Zod is valuable for a Great Big Threat, saving Darkseid for later. Instead of a desperate commander, but keeping the leader of an army, give him and his army a sense of entitlement not unlike Ancient Rome, feeling it both his right and his responsibility to dominate lesser civilizations.
This entire army will see Superman as their primary threat, such would be their own hubris. They would try to take him in order to deny the resistance a great resource and leader.
But, Superman isn't the leader. Oh, he's super, but his greatest power was never that he claimed superiority. His greatest power was always that he claimed to be a moral equal to humanity. Thus, General Zod and his army are defeated by the plans and thinking of "mere humans".
In this way, Superman can be powerful, heroic, the upstanding role model for all of us, especially because he knows, as well as all those who really believe in him, that he can only ever be the moral equal of anybody's potential.
Yes, this makes "superhumility" a power of his, but it's a very human power.
* http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/3214.html
These problems are common to superheroes in general, but not essential. Yes, I am actually making a case for remaking superhero stories in their basics. Superman has long been an upstanding role-model, so I'm going to stick to my recommendation that Superman be the lead in this remake.
The first problem is that superheroes, often times for very little reason, fight regular crime as a priority. If you have super powers and want to fight crime, join the police force where they'll give you something far more important than super powers, training.
One of the first scenes of most superhero movies, following the establishing of super powers, is the battling of a mugger. Mugging is not, typically, the practice of the great evils. It's a practice of the desperate, often-times a desperation born of addiction. But, that desperation can also be born of hunger, immediate financial problems, etc.
What I'm saying is that crime, particularly the crimes that are easiest to spot and foil, is more complex a problem than can be punched in the face and tied up for the police.
Yes, the police force is... imperfect would be the polite way of saying it. But, that does need to be acknowledged, that imperfection is what we have. We can view accurately and then improve, but never claim perfection without tragic consequence.
That leads into the second problem of superheroes and Superman especially. Superman comes to an emergency situation and takes authority that he has no business taking.
Sure, Superman is impenetrable. But, let's take a look at an early scene in Superman Returns. He's just Returned, when a set of bank robbers, somehow, have a howitzer, he stands in front of the giant weapon, calmly letting the bullets bounce off of him... Fun fact about bullets: They don't dissolve in mid-air.
Yes, thanks to Superman, several people in mirrored conical pattern centered on himself, either died or were injured, because Superman didn't figure on the consequences of ricochet. Well trained police forces are trained to keep that kind of thing in mind.
Superman shouldn't go into the situation and take charge, he should go into the situation and take orders.
Finally, too often Superman is made into exactly what that name would suggest, a man inherently over and better than the rest of us. Not only does bring us to The Jesus Problem, but that inherently reduces the rest of us. Superman cannot be definitionally better than all of us if we're not definitionally worse.
This can take a number of ways to fix and I see no reason why we shouldn't ply a few.
So, the remade Superman should have a standard opening, explaining how Superman was sent to Earth from the soon-to-be-destroyed Krypton and gained powers thanks to our yellow sun and whatnot. But, also, it must be noted that Superman super because he has powers, but a hero because of the values he learned from his very human parents.
Superman must not be Space Jesus, that reduces both Superman and the rest of us.
In keeping with that, after gaining his powers, he must be careful to don his cape and interfere when his powers are needed or especially useful. In your average hostage situation, smashing through the wall is dangerous, but seeing through walls is a valuable trait. And, if that's all he shows up to do, then he should be happy that that is all that's needed.
This humility in emergency situations can be used to develop a rapport with National Guard and other emergency responders. That rapport will be the essential defense come the great-big-threat.
General Zod is valuable for a Great Big Threat, saving Darkseid for later. Instead of a desperate commander, but keeping the leader of an army, give him and his army a sense of entitlement not unlike Ancient Rome, feeling it both his right and his responsibility to dominate lesser civilizations.
This entire army will see Superman as their primary threat, such would be their own hubris. They would try to take him in order to deny the resistance a great resource and leader.
But, Superman isn't the leader. Oh, he's super, but his greatest power was never that he claimed superiority. His greatest power was always that he claimed to be a moral equal to humanity. Thus, General Zod and his army are defeated by the plans and thinking of "mere humans".
In this way, Superman can be powerful, heroic, the upstanding role model for all of us, especially because he knows, as well as all those who really believe in him, that he can only ever be the moral equal of anybody's potential.
Yes, this makes "superhumility" a power of his, but it's a very human power.
* http://wingedbeast.dreamwidth.org/3214.html
no subject
Date: 2015-04-28 07:07 pm (UTC)But then, my favorite Superman stories aren't the ones where he's bouncing bullets off his pecs of steel, they're the ones where he's encountering a moral or emotional threat that he can't super[] his way out of.
Superhumility would make a nice contrast to the grim'n'gritty Superman we've been having lately, who is not only Space Jesus, but Space TurboJesus. Bleh.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-28 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-28 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-28 07:42 pm (UTC)One person proving how powerful zie is. Like with superheroes, it's not essential to grim'n'dark. It's just tempting and easy to go to.