Eh.
It’s not… terrible. I don’t think the tiny sidearm really does him justice. He needs a star-spangled shotgun that fires confetti and freedom.
Now that’d rock.
Alex Ross is a pussy.
You know what irks me about all of comics? Why put those pouches on characters when they NEVER use them. Didn’t we learn anything from the dark ages? ( aka the 90s )
Oh well, I don’t even read comics anymore. Is Captain America still as good as it was? I stopped when Master Man and his Master Men fought Cap on that ship. Bucky was doing…something…whatever.
I agree. Then again, remember what Wolverine said once:
“There ain’t no Pearly Gates up there. Only revolving doors.”
Believe you me. They want Steve Rogers back, they’ll make Steve Rogers come back. And probably put a Skrull in his coffin, or something.
I agree. It’s an oversimplification to bar all the majors from killing in any instance whatsoever. I can see how it would be necessary when your main audience is made up of ten year old boys who don’t yet have the capacity to sort through a complex moral issue, but comics readers have aged since then.
At the same time, the characters don’t need to all become the grim ‘n’ gritty cookie cutter anti-heroes like in the 90s. I would have no problem if they started integrating discretionary lethal force, similar to police officers.
Superman, however, should still refrain from killing, I’d say. It’s an integral part of his personality that he does as little harm as possible to beings physically weaker than himself, which is just about anybody in the DCU. It’s more important to him specifically than as a general credo that applies to everybody.
And I do prefer that Batman has a revulsion towards fighting crime with handguns. It makes sense for his character. It isn’t that he CAN’T fire a handgun at another man, but that he WON’T.
Superman’s whole thing is that he has godlike power, and he doesn’t believe it’s his right as a visitor of Earth to meddle too deeply in the affairs of Earthlings. He doesn’t like pushing people around, partly because they’re not as strong as he is, but also partly because they’re rightfully here and he isn’t. That’s why I say it makes sense as a part of his character, instead of being part of some mindlessly enforced overarching rule.
And it’s not that he should be utterly incapable of killing, but the only time I think it was really well handled was when he killed Mxysptlk and then gave up his powers as penance. Rather than just being your typical “ZOMG villain X is TOO STRONG and he must be destruxx0rz 4 all of humanity!!!1” DC Comics story, it was used as an opportunity to illustrate Superman’s devotion to justice and his views on the use of power. That’s storytelling.
This reminds me of the Justice League ep where Supes actually DID kill Lex. I personally like that Superman much better. You wanna fuck around? Insta-lobotomy.
Yup. That’s why we’ve got Majestic, and Apollo and the Authority: to vicariously live all of our darkest and most depraved Superman sexual fantasies.
Are you kidding me? He always pushes people around to DO WHAT HE THINKS IS THE RIGHT THING. He always think he is right. That’s why he’s boring as a character… Writers always writes him as infallible, when infact when he’s fallible does the story really works.
The whole story is awesome because Alan Moore knew how to write a good superman story. He always wrote Superman as a flawed being which really works. Hell do you even remember when Superman said “BURN!”
Not to be elitist about it, but any writer who writes him like that isn’t writing Superman. The only person who ever rightfully wrote a story in which Superman heedlessly put humans under his boot on a regular basis was Jerry Siegel.
Yes, I’ve read both stories a number of times, and this is what I was getting at the whole time: when you get a writer who really knows the character, then you get stories that actually make use of who the character is.
Most of DC’s guys try to turn Superman into either a self-doubting pantywaist or an unthinking asshole, two things which simply are not in his character. They do this in an effort to compensate for the fact that they haven’t given any thought as to how they can use Superman’s unique traits to their advantage. They always try to turn him into somebody else, somebody they’re more comfortable writing.
It’s easy to write a character who comes across as the gritty anti-hero, and it’s easy to write a character who constantly has an inner struggle that negatively affects everything he does. Those are modern Comic Book 101 archetypes. It’s much harder to write Superman, a character who is morally upright yet multi-faceted, so most writers don’t bother–even when they’re supposed to. They just write a guy who wears the uniform and answers to the name of Superman, even though he’s anything but.
When Jerry Siegel was still writing Superman, his character was ruthless and a jerk. That was his character before the modern Superman. He isn’t multifaceted, he was just being written by different writers… Because they can’t even find a common ground for what Superman’s character really is. Alan Moore tried to dehumanized him(It works because he wrote a great reason for him to act that way), as so many others. They wrote him being capable of human error.
But the problem is no one knows what his character really is. You said that he doesn’t want to meddle in human affairs, when ALMOST ALL OF HIS STORIES are of him meddling in Human affairs. ALso another problem is we have no idea how he grew up. We have red son, man of steel, the old superman stories, smallville, he has no motivation to really help the world, other than being told he was given a good upbringing by his adopted parents. He has no motivation, he has no characterization, the only constant we have with him is He’s an alien trying to fit in a world of humans.
Now how could it makes sense that he must refrain from killing? Because of what? Because he always listens to his momma? Superman is nonsense.
Yes. Because he always listens to his mom. I’m not being sarcastic here.
Superman exists to provide hope. He’s the anti-cynic. He’s every positive ideal you can think of rolled up into one. He is the being that we could never hope to be. He doesn’t kill because he never needs to. He will find a solution to any problem. If Superman kills, then it means he’s failed. And Superman doesn’t fail.
You can feel that it’s nonsense if you want to, but I’d like to believe that there are people who find these qualities of Superman (and Superman himself) worthy of admiration and respect, and who ultimately find him inspiring, uplifting, and hopeful.
I think it’ll be hawkeye
Honestly I think Superman shouldnt kill people, he is the one superhero who shouldnt do it. It really just wouldnt look good on his character. If DC ever turned Superman into a killer it would be the worst decision they ever made.
How did he become a beacon of hope?
also how can he become anti-cynic when as I quote goodm0urning
He can’t be the symbol if he doesn’t want to meddle in Earth affairs. Hell He even sided with the Allies during WW2… I know it’s retconned, but with Final Crisis, I doubt it would still be.
I’m just saying we’re just used to having Superman being an Icon, that’s why it’s already expected for him to have this qualities. Only a few writers(hell fewer even stories) gives him motivation/reason to have this kind of qualities. What’s the reason for stopping him killing other people aside from the status quo? I think Alan Moore would be best suited to write him a proper origin story.
Yes, he meddles in Earthling affairs. I never said he didn’t. What I was saying is that his major dilemma is that he doesn’t want to push it too far. Carrying out capital punishment, dealing out executions, is most definitely too far. Have you ever read Must There Be A Superman? Red Son? DKR? Kingdom Come? All of these stories illustrate, in some way, Superman’s never-ending struggle to find the balance point between helping humanity and lording over it.
And if I remember correctly, he never actually sided with the Allies during World War II, except for war-themed comic book covers. There was one story that was “WHAT IF Superman entered the war?” As in, it didn’t really happen, but it showed what WOULD happen. The story, incidentally, was written before the U.S. got involved.
Know why he feels multifaceted when writers like Grant Morrison and Alan Moore write him? Because they’re not adding anything to the character that wasn’t already there in his most quintessential years. All that stuff is there, if you’re willing to look for it, and they are. The vast majority of DC’s writers for the last 20-some years have not had the confidence in the character to write him as he is. Instead of exploring the multiple facets that are already there, they merely attempt to tack new facets on–and the more they do that, the less he feels like the icon that everybody thinks of when they think of Superman.
You know how Grant Morrison prepared to do All Star Superman? He read all his Superman comic books and drew out the quintessential elements that make Superman who he is. For all the greatness of his writing, it is nothing new or revolutionary–he’s just taking what made the character great in the first place and coming up with new stories to put him in. I suspect the process is much the same for Alan Moore, no stranger himself to LSD and Britishness.
it’s nick fury!!! i’m calling it!
You know, I think I’d actually like a Nick Fury Cap.
Or the mere fact nobody knows how to write him Period. Hell Alan Moore just toyed with an idea what if Superman was brought to the edge. It doesn’t even involve him having his decision over humanity… he just cuts loose. The reason only a few writers can write a good superman story is because no one really knows what Superman’s character really is. You don’t really know how he thinks or feels. People still argue whether he is really a SUPER man or an alien in a human world.
I think Alan Moore was the first one to really make Superman more human than ever before. Read Supreme, Its what Superman is going to be if Alan Moore continued to write that shit.
Also he meddles in Human affairs. I really don’t care how. You just can’t say he doesn’t interfere too deeply, when in fact he sometimes break some laws because of what he thinks is right. He’s an alien for god’s sake. Just because he’s superman doesn’t really mean he’s always right.