Joshua Blankenship has a post up about the new Superman reboot, behind which I must throw my complete support.
The Dark Knight wasn’t successful because it tapped into some secret, special dark place, it was successful because the world of The Batman is inherently dark. It was successful because it was true to form and character.
I think that’s exactly right.
But it got me thinking–what is it about the last Superman that didn’t quite work? I mean, what would it mean to really tap into Superman’s character?
And here’s where I wonder if what we think of as a “manly hero” and Superman’s “true” nature don’t come colliding into each other. Can we, as a culture, imagine a hero who is a good man? One who loves humanity with his whole heart and who isn’t motivated by some tragedy or deep fucked-up-ness, but is motivated by a love of humanity and a desire to make the world safer for goodness to take root?
I’m not sure we can. And I think that’s why Superman comes across to us as corny, so often. But it would be interesting to see a movie about a man who decided to do good just because he could. I don’t know. I’ve got to tell you that I think a story like that, well-written, might be pretty intriguing.
Filed under: Pop Culture, With A "Y"--Men & Masculinity
Naw, watching the bullet bounce off his eye ball ruined the movie.
That is corny
My favorite iteration of the Superman story was Lois and Clark. Mostly because of Teri Hatcher, I guess, but also because I was so taken with the idea of Clark Kent as the “real” person and Superman as just the secret identity. I actually think, though, that Superman is something besides pure goodness: any Jewish kid from the midwest can tell you that he’s a very powerful reaction formation.
Coincidentally, I’m in the middle of reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and the importance that book places on “what is the why” for superheroes — that there has to be a reason (though not necessarily a complex/suppressed/unhappy one) makes me wonder whether Superman is corny not because goodness is corny but because we’re left to assume goodness as his “why” rather than being shown it.
NM, the more I think about it, I think that Superman is good, but I think he’s good because he loves people. That’s just not something you see in modern comics, I don’t think and especially not in movies based on comics. But it’d be interesting to see.
Usually, superheros live apart from humanity, feel that their powers make them too different to really bother.
But not Superman.
I don’t know. I’m not sure who writing right now could really write an optimistic, hopeful movie about a man who loves the world, but it would be interesting to see.
Well, that’s kind of why I like the “Clark Kent is the real person, Superman is just the costume he puts on when he helps people so that he can continue to be who he really is the rest of the time without the whole knowing who he really is” trope from Lois and Clark. They even had his mother make him a bunch of mock-up uniforms to choose from, and when she got to the classic/official Superman one and he tried it on, she looks at him and says something to the effect of, “well, it won’t be your face they look at if you wear this one,” as if the whole hero-in-tights look just exists to be a distraction from the real, good person beneath.
I still think, though, that the comic-book Superman of my childhood (I admit that I haven’t kept up with what sort of person/hero he is any more) had a shtick of helping people but we were never shown him caring about them or having those feelings of goodness. We were supposed to assume it, but the writers at the time didn’t demonstrate it too well.
But I think you could do an optimistic film about a man who loves the world, and have it be fairly successful, if you threw in enough CGI warriors, explosions, and some skin.
That’s just not something you see in modern comics, I don’t think and especially not in movies based on comics. But it’d be interesting to see.
Read this and this
Both available at the place across the street from your office.
I’m a little afraid of the place across the street. You’d not believe the folks who hang out there.
Also, you wouldn’t by chance know a cable guy with contracting experience, would you?
I would be in the audience so fast for B’s version of Superman that it would frighten you. I would even camp out for tickets like a fangrrl.
Because as cynical and mean and bitchy an old fart as I have become, I still have hope that people will do good sometimes just because they can, superhero or no. And turning that into a movie and including dramatic tension by showing how much of a challenge it would be to do that kind of work and survive psychologically (even the Man of Steel can’t fix EVERYTHING, so how does he choose? and what kind of villain would want to stop him? Shudder!) would be something worth watching, I believe.
Now I’m all hopeful again. Dammit, B.