Superman is not "boring" to me.
TheHotWindBlowing
Posts: 58
I've always liked him as the king of it all.
I like him BECAUSE of his powers/invulnerability (as if that's even true to begin with as he's been whooped many-a-time). I like him for his Honorable, Valiant, Good-Guy personality. I basically like him for all the reasons the naysayers DON'T like him.
It's not like DC is just going to 'kill-off' any of their characters anyway so the naysayers might as well wake up and smell the coffee.
I like him BECAUSE of his powers/invulnerability (as if that's even true to begin with as he's been whooped many-a-time). I like him for his Honorable, Valiant, Good-Guy personality. I basically like him for all the reasons the naysayers DON'T like him.
It's not like DC is just going to 'kill-off' any of their characters anyway so the naysayers might as well wake up and smell the coffee.
Comments
It doesn't effect me at all if they kill him or if I just don't buy his titles.
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The arguments AGAINST liking Superman are quite silly to me.
He exhibits powers...that makes him "boring"? Then don't get into this reading material.
When OTHER characters exhibit the same stuff, they have no problem then though.
Doesn't make any sense.
I haven't heard any arguments against liking him; especially none about him exhibiting his powers.
And are you talking about people who don't like Kent exhibiting his powers shouldn't get into this reading material?
Powers don't make Kent. His personality & how he chooses to use them make Kent.
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Superman is pretty great; he is the heroic ideal of DC. Sure he can be viewed as "white bread", but the man stands for everything we would want in a hero.
He is much better than most of us would be. I would bet 90% of us would have been tempted to use super breathe to push silverage Lois and Jimmy off a building.
But I don't think he is always like that. There have also been Superman stories I've loved, like All Star Superman. Like all characters, it is what you do with him. But I do think that Superman as a character is HARDER to create for than some other characters. I think there are more barriers between his point of view and the readers, and there is also the problem of challenging him with a conflict that is worthy of his huge power set. And there is only so many internal conflicts he can have, or how funny he could be, without ceasing to be Superman.
So I don't think he is definitively boring. But I think those telling stories with him as the lead have a challenge that Batman or Spider-Man creators don't have.
welcome aboard @HotAirBlowing!
Yes. That is definitely welcoming and moves the conversation forward. Stellar forum manners for a new user to see on behalf of someone with 1000+ posts.
Keep up the good work!
noob (noun, informal)
"A person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, such as one that recently joined a forum and thinks they know everything."
Hey, I myself was once a noob, so I think I can spot one when I see one. Not at all like gracelessly criticizing other users for making comments that you disagree with when a PM would suffice I suppose.
I'd like the topic to get back on topic, so if you have any questions about this, PM me.
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In the end, I've always thought if Kent was really THAT powerful & THAT good, why would there be a need for any other superhero or crimefighter? Plus, I think it's laughable to expect Kent to stop the street crimes with his power level. Save them for more Earthshattering issues.
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Besides, when did "noob" become terminology that is considered profane, derogatory or dehumanizing? If @HotAirBlowing was hurt or offended, I sincerely apologize, but let me help you out.
"Noob" means "beginner."
Friends?
And no, Superman is NOT boring by any means.
And, real talk. Noob is not pejorative? Rubbish. If you believe the connotation is not negative (or, when directed at yourself, self-effacing) then I would suggest you look into that and ask around about it before you use it at work. Look at your own definition. Who are you to decide that he is new to talking about comics online, or new to comics? It is not pejorative to suggest someone doesn't know what they are talking about in a discussion THEY started?
You can decide that this is personal if you want. But to me this is not about the person, this is about the behavior. If you disagree with my moderation, you are welcome to talk about it with the other moderators, or with @Pants or @Adam_Murdough as admins of this forum.
In the meantime, I will stand by what I said, and by the expectations I have been asked to represent.
I sent you a PM to discuss, but you stayed here.
You're the one getting personal.
I disagree with your call "ref," and if anyone wants to discuss it further, they are welcome to PM me also.
Noob is an awful, awful insult. No one would ever consider themselves a noob. I fail to recall you coming to my defense when I was called 'newbie', or even 'racist troll', but I'm done with this thread. If you have more for me, you can PM me back. Don't want to hijack this thread any further, lest the new forum poster get any ideas.
I would also not suggest trying that at work.
Look-- I asked for a PM. You posted, asking a question, and also sent a PM. I did not stay here. I responded here to the question you asked here. And now I have responded to your PM. Which is where I asked the discussion to continue in the first place. For everyone else's sake, including the OP, this is done in this thread.
Superman gets dissed all the time on every video involving him.
So many people think Superman should get beat by everyone from Goku of Dragon Ball Z, to Batman, to their Grandmother.
Thousands of people who don't even know each other have huddled around this idea.
I do think the last Superman movie had some boring elements, but not the comic character himself.
I'll be the first person here to say Batman beats Kent. I know Kent can do this & can do that and Batman has no superpowers. The key word in that sentence is "can", not "does". Batman continues toget the win for me because he exploits Kent's weaknesses, including holding back.
I disagree that anyone can beat Kent. That's poppycock. Up against most heroes, I'd still put my money on Kent. Having said that, I refuse to believe Kent is all powerful & unbeatable.
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John Byrne made Superman a Marvel character. He explained his powers, gave him personal problems, turned his life into a soap opera and mundaned the hell out of him. This led to a lot of OK Superman stories, but if you look at the output of DC when it came to Superman, those stories, by and large, would have worked with any generic super-hero.
Superman needs a point of view, a reason, something that drives him. He also needs a hook for the reader to give a damn. In the earliest years, Superman was a wish fulfillment character. The Clark/Lois issue was a “this girl I love would love me if she REALLY knew me.” Superman could do amazing things, and the reader would be caught up in, “How great would it be to fly, to be strong, etc…” Later, as Mort Weisinger took the reins, Superman became a fantasy sit-com with action. Silly situations with a growing mythos, but everything was about putting Superman into strange puzzle stories. “How did Superman become the master of the Pan Flute and charm gorillas?”
There were other aspects: the loneliness of being the last Kryptonian, what it’s like to be an Icon, The Man Of Tomorrow, The First Super-Hero and so on, many of which were touched on with Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened To The Man Of Steel?”
Superman works when there’s a theme behind the stories. I LOVED All Star Superman because it was Grant Morrison writing The Man Of Tomorrow at his most Iconic. Mark Waid plays with the mythology and makes Superman the man who becomes a God, Morrison attempted to get back to (and failed) Superman as wish fulfillment in his New 52 run.
Now? Superman is Just Another Super Hero and while Geoff Johns is putting out good DC stories, he doesn’t know what to do with Superman. The first person who does? That story will be HUGE, because there is incredible untapped potential there.
It seems to me that for some, the question of Superman being "boring" or not depends to some extent on a persons age.
Not only does the character embody whimsical attributes like "wish fulfillment". It also represents more mature concepts like restraint, a measured response, honor, and a very "gentlemanly" code of conduct. These are traits that take time to appreciate.
Quite some time ago a friend of mine had recommended All-Star Superman and I thoroughly enjoyed that. I just really didn't know where to go from there.
Superman Birthright
Death of Superman circa 1993 and the issues that followed soon after with the OTHER 'Supermen' like Superboy, Eradicator, Steel, Cyborg, and Superman's return.
Incredible Hulk vs. Superman 2001
I thought those traits (I'd describe as being a Boy Scout) lead Kent to be naive back when I was in my teenage years & still do 20 years later.
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