Yeah, I have actually. It happened back in the 1952 George Reeve classic serial. It was titled “Superman… And the Creature from the Day of Doom!” Although the special effects are primitive by today’s standards, this movie has stood the test of time and remains a staggering achievement in Superman’s live action mythos. The script has way more heart than the stupid 1990’s Death of Superman adaptation. (And I use “adaptation” in the loosest possible sense of the word.) Doomsday was a fearsome foe, but he also had a sensitive side that made their cataclysmic battle seem more tragic than just about any Superman fight I can think of. I doubt anything Hollywood can come up with today can come close to what they did back in 1952.
The very problem with Spider-Man 3 is that it had a “gang” of villains. You can’t do that absurd level of action and tell a story at the same time in a movie, though Raimi certainly tried.
Superman isn’t about fighting. Yeah, he’s fought villains. He has superpowers and wears a cape, so he’s expected to do that every once in a while. But if you read the classic Superman stories, you’ll see themes of an outsider forming a bond with a new culture, the ethics of when and when not to intervene, the responsible use of great power (which Superman grappled with long before Spidey made it into a slogan), the greatness of human potential, and so on. There are many great Superman stories in which he doesn’t fight anybody.
Really, when you have a character of near-godlike powers who can do anything he wants, the only thing people can think of to do with him is pit him against other superpowered characters? This is why mainstream comics are still struggling to obtain respectability.
Hal is my least favorite GL because like others have said, it is hard to find him interesting. I mean his most defining trait is his will power (I think) and really I guess that is the hardest trait to display cause in his book a lot of times he comes off as a jerk. And not the funny loud mouth jerk that Guy is but sort of an arrogant jerk that is just bland.
I like Kyle’s costume when he was a GL. The one that was mainly black, with the green lantern symbol on the upper left part of the chest.
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Superman Doomsday DVD coming out in less than a month.
Ahhhhh now it all makes sense to me now, no wonder superman returns is the way it is, im going to watch it again.
That would be the fault of the writers, not the character itself. Just like any character, Hal has been written interestingly and Hal has been written blandly. The same charge can be leveled at just about any character.
Well that’s true enough. But how do you expect people to like a certain character when all they read are crappy stories? Sometimes people just like a character because of the way he looks, or perhaps because of the potential they imagine him to have.
How about Metallo or Brainiac for the next movie?
Sooo, finally read Booster Gold. Loved it. Probably the best comic I’ve read in a while.
Yeah Metallo would be good too Kryptonite Hadouken Beams from his chest! Like they say on Perfect Hair Forever, “FUND IT!” :tup:
Recent DC books I read:
JLA - I liked Metzler’s run overall and I’m gonna miss him. I enjoyed the team selection story and Solomon Grundy a lot. I didn’t care too much for the JLA/JSA crossover because it was difficult to understand what was happening even if you got every issue (maybe it’s just me, I just want to see people beat each other up don’t make me follow a story that deals with time travel without plenty of beatdowns me stupid lol) and I’m not so sure what that whole issue of Red Arrow and Vixen trapped in a building was about, stories like that is okay for longer runs not shorter ones IMHO. But in the end, I did like the new roster and Arsenal becomming Red Arrow, I thought that was brilliant. What I liked about the new roster is that they were not crazy overpowered like they have been in the past - until they brung in Flash now but I suppose that remains to be seen and chances are there will be a new roster soon enough anyway.
Countdown - Oh yeah Zatana and Ms. Marvel together and she’s gonna train her - THEY GOT LEGS! - I’m hoping for a lot of scenes where they drop magic wands on the floor by mistake. :lovin:
As I said, the same charge can be leveled at any character. If all you’ve ever read are bad Superman stories (and there are plenty) then you’re going to think Superman sucks. If all you’ve ever read are bad Batman stories (boy, howdy), then you’re going to think Batman sucks.
And if you’re judging any classic character based on the way they were written in the 90s, you are very obviously going to think that they suck hard.
Emerald Twilight was better than Rebirth, sorry, but it was.
people who call Marz the hack need to look at the Deus Ex Machina that Johns wrought (Seriously, a ‘fear entity’?, sorry, I STILL ain’t buying that shit).
Johns is the go-to guy to write his way out of other editorial problems, but GL wasn’t it. Hal was evil, there was nothing to untangle, it was pretty cut and dry.
and “Keep publishing the old guy, while the new guy is here” is fine, but the way I see it, they ain’t publishing Barry.
because he (and Hal) were dead.
Seriously, you should.
he actually gives his powers ALL of his powers, some thought in their use.
I went into SR wanting to see a Superman who thought before acting, the best writers make Superman use his Brain, not his powers, to solve problems.
sure, we want to see him punch the fuck out of shit every once in a while, but if we do that all the time, we lose why we love him.
I don’t agree in the slightest about Emerald Twilight being better than Rebirth. It’s clear that you like what you like and won’t be convinced otherwise. I didn’t call Ron Marz a hack and he gets a lifetime of diplomatic immunity from me because he wrote Silver Surfer when I was a kid.
But the reason why Green Lantern is actually a decent series now is because of Johns’ writing. He’s added to the mythology of not only the character, but the institution of the Green Lantern itself. It’s not just “retconning” to fix past editorial mistakes. It’s also twisting something old to make something new.
It’s cut and dry if you go by DC’s internal story logic. I mean, all the characters in the DCU knew what happened to Hal and reacted appropriately. For example, Batman lost faith in Hal and considered him a true supervillain.
But if you’re going by real life logic, then Hal being evil wasn’t cut and dry. Because it was a poorly told story that just came out of nowhere, apparently for the sake of just revamping one of their big name titles. DC tried to be all hip and cool by casting a new, younger guy as GL. I mean by the time Hal turned evil, he was sporting the white sideburns like old man Reed Richards or some fogey.
And if you still truly believe that Emerald Twilight is a great story that makes sense, then I guess we just have different opinions about the definition of “great story.” And I’ll drop this train of thought.
It didn’t just ‘come out of nowhere’, it was the aftermath of the Death of Superman, it was a logical story flow, that I thought added great new dimensions to the character.
it totally made sense, I don’t know how anybody could think otherwise.
Mongul showed up and wiped out Hal’s city, how could that not devastate even the HARDEST hero?
he snapped, he begged for power that he KNEW the Guardians had, and they wouldn’t give it to him.
so he took it.
the power CAN corrupt, that was established with Sinestro, so to say that Hal was immune is ridiculous.
it was a logical story, that made every bit of sense, you don’t have to like it, but to say it didn’t make any sense, is ridiculous, it made perfect sense.
Like I said, Hal’s about-face makes sense in terms of internal DCU logic. Like… If you were a character in the comics, you’d believe why the Green Lantern went mad and turned supervillain.
But I’m not a comic book character. I need better writing to fully buy into the notion that a DC icon can so callously turn heel. Hal didn’t just BEG for power that Oa wouldn’t give him… He MURDERED his comrades and friends, annihilated the institution to which he swore a sacred oath, and he stole the power he wanted in a futile attempt to resurrect an entire dead city. A writer can’t blame ALL of that on just a mental breakdown and expect readers to support that.
In the span of maybe a year’s worth of issues, Hal just became a different person, with very little build up. Not only that, but the Death/Return of Superman story where Mongul destroyed Coast City took place in a Superman comic. Since when is making major character developments in another character’s series a good idea? The '90s? That’s why those were dark days, my man.
Emerald Twilight when it came out was what got me into DC so I obviously hold it as a favorite. Hal was never really super crazy until much later and one of the reasons I didn’t like Zero Hour was because the heroes really had no argument against what Hal was doing. The only thing they could say was “but you cant play god” even though there is no god in the dcu. I liked rebirth as a Johns thing but less so as a GL story, since it was rewriting everything I liked about GL (although by that time I wasnt following the book anyway)
And I thought Mongul did the coast city bit in GL #45
no, he went to the guardians, and begged for it first.
then, when he was denied, he TOOK it.
I really believed all of it, as it was being written, and to take a miniseries and tell me it was ‘all just some big bug’ and claim THAT was inspired writing is a cop out.
he killed, he went insane, and suddenly we’re supposed to forgive him because ‘it wasn’t his fault’?
bullshit.
to tell me THAT chunk of shit was a great story, and then bash Emerald Twilight just shows me how quick everybody is to sweep it under the rug and forget it ever happened.
Hal Fans are all just happy you got your old man back, and you don’t give a FUCK who you insult, or what characters you have to eliminate to get it. I would’ve STRANGLED Alex Ross for his outburst when the announcement was made if I could’ve. It’s childish, and petulant.
Hal will always be a murderer in my eyes, and nothing can EVER redeem him.
All right, fine.
if you like him, cool, but don’t go telling me that I have to, or that I have to accept him as GL, because I won’t.
ever.
He is not my GL, he will never BE my GL, he will be “The Murderer”.
Kyle is my GL, and I won’t rest until he helms the book again.
my problem with certain fans is their adversity to change.
they hold a belief that “Hal should always be GL”, or “Barry should always be Flash”.
but the simple fact is, these characters were established as LEGACY characters, and have both already BEEN REPLACED.
If the character isn’t the first to carry a name (and neither Barry or Hal was the first), they shouldn’t be immune to being replaced, that is my feeling on the matter.
Besides that, Wally is a better Flash than Barry Could ever dream of. And yet he was also replaced. By a guy who was never even given a decent chance.
the simple fact is, I’m tired of the Replacements becoming the Displacements.