Defending Superman

“Superman is lame”. “I don’t like Superman.” “Superman is boring”, bla bla bla. Maybe. Superman isn’t perfect by any means, but more than half the people commenting about Superman know nothing. They know not of his stories, his conception, his history, his impact, his feats and the fact that he’s considered to be one of the first comic book superheroes. There have been heroes from mythology and technically the Clock beats out Superman by two years or so but, Superman was the first superhero that really took off. He’s had great stories written about him and he’s had bad ones written about him. He’s had good movies and he’s had bad movies. When you have a character that old, timeless and iconic, you’re bound to have hits and misses. Superman represents an outdated idealism that tries to be relevant in our contemporary society, yet anytime writers try and break him out that boy scout shell just a little bit, everyone cries about how “un-Superman like” it was.

Kal-El is an alien who was shipped off to Earth before his home world Krypton blew up. He landed in Smallville, Kansas and was raised by the Kent’s. Two loving farmers who took in this godlike baby and taught him human decency. That way he would turn out to be a guardian angel instead of a tyrant God.  There have been many iterations and versions of Superman over the years. There is Ultraman who is the evil version of Superman from a parallel Earth but he’s not considered the same character. Even recently, Gods and Monsters introduced a morally ambiguous “Superman” who was the biological son of General Zod. The Red Son series has a Superman who's actually from future Earth that lands in Soviet Russia instead of Kansas. Some of these versions are still very much Superman but "with a twist" and some are commonly accepted as not Superman but other Kryptonians from other dimensions that just share the same code name.

Nowadays, people tend to root for the villains or fall in love with the anti-hero archetype. The morally gray characters. Superman being about “truth, justice and the American way” is an ideal that no longer really has much relevance. He stands for hope and is man’s striving ideal: perfection, the pinnacle of power, speed, ability and intelligence. Which wherein lays the exact problem. That’s boring. He’s too perfect, to a fault even; it’s hard for people to believe he has any real issues. But he does. Superman's tale is a story about home vs heritage, a God trying to find his place among men, politics, love and control. The most impressive thing about Clark’s powers isn’t that he’s ridiculously strong. It’s his self-restraint and control over his abilities. This is a man who could sneeze the Earth into oblivion, but he does the harder thing. He controls himself and fights for the greater good. In a world filled with corruption, terrible people and such, Superman chooses to see the good in humanity and fight for its survival. What’s wrong with that? He’s a superhero.

That’s boring though right? Well, Man of Steel tried to offer a slightly more refreshing version of Superman that people dismissed for being "un-Superman" like. This time around his upbringing while loving and nurturing, was flawed, but realistic. Jonathan Kent even suggests that for the sake of hiding his own secret and not scaring humanity he should let people die. And of course Superman destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of property (also lots of people died) and killed Zod. KILLED ZOD. And everyone lost their fucking minds. This was a new, inexperienced Superman who’s first challenge as Superman was to fight against his OWN PEOPLE. Beings that possess the same amount of power and strength as he does. 

Zod gave Kal an ultimatum: kill me or watch this innocent family die. It took the literal destruction of an entire city to get this man in headlock, what was he supposed to do? Lock him up? Let him go? Give him a lecture about not terraforming other planets? Superman did the right thing, he killed Zod. Not only has Superman killed in a movie before and in comics (Zod especially), the 'goody goody' argument that people complain about was challenged in MoS and everyone whined about it. And it’s not like he wasn’t distraught about what he did, he was visibly horrified by what he had to do. This could serve as the defective gene in Superman’s DNA that stops him from killing anyone ever. Batman has this disease too.

In an attempt to write more humane, relatable stories about Superman, a few DC writers took away his powers for about a year. He recently got his powers back to coincide with the upcoming release of Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice. There are tons of great Superman stories out there and cool iterations of him that people would enjoy, they just need to look. Injustice Superman is one of my favorite versions. In that world, The Joker causes Supes to hallucinate and see Lois as Doomsday (who’s carrying his child). He flies her into space effectively killing her thinking it was Doomsday, but to make matters worse, her heart beat was connected to a bomb in Metropolis. He lost his love, his child and caused thousands to die. Superman then KILLS the Joker and becomes a holier than thou tyrant who feels the world can only work under his rule. It’s really awesome work and I highly recommend it.

Another thing we tend to overlook is the fact that Superman isn't really a journalist. Like that's his day job and he's not by any means bad a it but he's really is a scientist. Superman is constantly in his Fortress experimenting with off world technology and creatures and even trying cure human diseases. He's extremely well read and savvy in the field of biology, chemistry and physics. Kal also has a extra terrestrial zoo in his Fortress. 

Even with all his powers Clark isn’t without weaknesses. The obvious one being radioactive pieces of his home world called Kryptonite which is literally poisonous to Kryptonians. Moreover he loses his powers under the radiation of a red star, not immediately but it depowers him over time. In addition to that he has no defense against magic. Magic can hurt and affect Supes. Lastly using the innocent as a shield or hostage is also an easy way to get the upper hand while fighting Superman. So while people bitch and whine that he’s overpowered, they always tend overlook that he’s by no means unstoppable.

Instead of buying into the Batman hype and doing the cool thing which is to bash Superman why don’t you give him a fair chance and take in some good stories with Superman at the center? Superman is a timeless character that will still be around and being awesome after we die. He’s a solid character that can be interesting in the right hands. Make sure to watch the upcoming Batman v Superman movie coming out March 25th as well.

Written by: Nya-El

Follow me at: @LolitaZenpie