Sejborg said:
Trishbot said:
Sejborg said:
JimB said:
Sejborg said:
How didn't Superman act as Superman in Man of Steel?
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It seems to me that you have a very specific way of how you want (or demand) Superman to be, and even how fights should play out. I however don't mind different takes on Superheroes. Some of them I like, others I don't. I wouldn't call you a purist. Batman TAS is not at all the only take on Batman or even the first. Before Batman the animated series there was other versions. One of them the Adam West version for instance. Batman TAS version is NOT the pure version. It is just one of many versions. Superman likewise.
You might not have liked the Man of Steel version of Superman in contrast to some other take on the character, but saying he didn't act as Superman is baloney.
But... he didn't act like Superman. Or, more specific, he didn't act like the Superman that has existed in the public consciousness, and has been represented for nearly a century. He had the costume, the name, the powers... but he did not share the same morality. He was, in complete and utter contrast to who he is in the comics, not a paradigm of virtue. He's reckless. He's lethal. He makes out with some girl right in the middle of the ashes of a fallen city mere seconds after twisting a man's neck like a soda lid.
Superman, by virtue of him being "Superman", has a code not to kill. He killed. You take away his code, his morals, the very things that define him, and what's left? There are HUNDREDS of Superman imitators with the same generic powers wearing similar generic outfits that are identical in nearly every area except in terms of virtue and valor. THAT is the single, defining characteristic of Superman; not his costume, powers, or origin.
I'm open to different interpretations, sure, but you have to replace something you take away with something of equal or better quality to merit the alteration. What did they replace him with that now makes him any different from the legions of other flying, punching men in capes that go through with ending the lives of their opponents? Nobody has been able to tell me how they "improved" him by taking away one of his core character traits. It's like removing Batman's loss of parents or saying Spider-man isn't defined by "Great Power and Great Responsibility". It's sort of the biggest thing that define them as heroes and motivate them to put on the costumes. It's the reason why they could take away Batgirl's legs, her costume, her athleticism, and leave her in a wheelchair... and yet her moral center and burning intellect remained and she redefined herself as Oracle, becoming in many regards a better crimefighter using the power of information, computer and analytical skills, and cyber-investigating that she ever did kicking a dude in the mouth. They took away something but replaced it with something equally as compelling.
Though I will say that, of course, there are many interpretations (Batman has killed, Superman has killed, and typically they're wacky/misguided alternate universe stories like Injustice), but a mainstream movie that seeks to create a defining image of the most popular hero of all time in the public conscious has, in my opinion, a pretty strong responsibility to embolden every last single positive element that a hero such as Superman represents and defines.
Granted, I'm also sick to high-heavens of DC losing sight of what put them on the map, of telling editors that they don't make comics for kids anymore but rather 45-year-olds. Of having continual issues portraying women well in comic books. Of playing it safe in their movies with nothing but Batman and Superman (and screwing up nearly everything else). I find it utterly hilarious that DC claims that a Wonder Woman movie would be "too difficult and confusing for modern audiences" while Marvel is going "our next movie has a talking raccoon with a machine gun from space".
But, well, those old Paul Dini/Bruce Timm cartoons were more than just "a" version of Batman. For many, they are the culmination and definition of everything these heroes were, are, and should ever be. They brought with them the perfect blend of the maturity and sophistication that a comic book can while keeping along the boundless and imaginative joy that the medium spurs in children's cartoons. It was, in every regard, a series equally as enjoyable as a child and, decades later, as an adult, something the current slot of movies and books utterly fail to do in any way, shape, or form.
Superman in "Man of Steel" is not a hero I'd want my son to be like, nor its Jonathan Kent a father I'd ever hope my child to have. Parental fear should NEVER limit the greatness of a child, and rather than prepare his gifted son for the difficult and inevitable future, he told his son to HIDE his talents. HIDE his greatness. HIDE his skills and his abilities, even in the face of letting other children die. How utterly selfish to let fear cripple the potential of a boy; how selfish to let fear of differences put the lives of other sons and daughters at risk. I've known plenty of imbecilic fathers in my life that did the same thing; tell their boys to hide their gifts. Hide their identities. You can't do this because our culture won't understand. You can't take ballet or choir; join the football team even if you're talent is elsewhere. You can't be gay; hide it.
Jonathan Kent was an idiot with an idiot son who failed to prepare his son for the world and instilled in him paranoia and distrust without taking any measures to help him come to terms with who he truly was, and the Superman he "truly was" was tempered and altered to be a mewling shadow of his literate self.
One of my favorite issues of Superman is when he heard an old couple was going to lose their deli to a big name store due to lack of interest in traditional family-owned restaurants. Superman took it upon himself to eat there, in costume, which gave the couple's deli major publicity and people flocked to eat at the store that Superman enjoyed.
A simple deed like that goes much further than an 8-megaton punch to the head. Countless superheroes punch hard and cause major destruction and kill their opponents while wearing goofy outfits. But it's those little details the separate Superman from the rest. To sum up another writer, "Superman is the superhero OTHER superheroes want to be".
