My all-time favorite superhero is Superman. The big blue boy scout won over my heart back when I was a kid watching shows like Justice League Unlimited, and I want to respond to some of the criticism leveled at him. It's pretty common to hear that Superman is a boring character because of how powerful he is, that every story that involves him loses any interest because you know the invincible being will win.
And some of this criticism is fair, but some of the criticism isn't actually a criticism of the character - it's a criticism of his movies. My main shtick is that people who dislike Superman simply haven't seen the real Superman. They've only seen the movies or know the character at peripheral. They haven't read the right comic or watched a good story involving the character, and mostly know the public perception towards the character.
Criticism: Superman is overpowered
This is... true. Superman contains a wide variety of powers, including (But not limited to): Flight, super strength, super speed, near invincibility, laser vision, x-ray vision, freeze breath, telescopic vision, super hearing, the ability to reverse time, and, on the occasion, memory wiping kisses. It's all these factors that make him the heaviest hitter in any fight the Justice League faces.
Maybe that's best exemplified by the Justice League movies - in either cut, the team is almost losing until Superman shows up, at which point he more or less punches the main villain, Steppenwolf, until he dies and the team wins.
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| Spider-Man is just a man. Superman isn't. |
You have this problem where an invincible character makes them harder to relate to - It's easy to see why Spider-Man stopping a train makes him a hero. He gives it his all and passes out from the exertion. The toll it takes on him is easy to see, and the pain he goes through is evident. If Superman wanted to stop that train, it would take him two seconds. The bigger question is how he'd stop the train without giving everyone on it whiplash.
Interestingly enough, Superman, this god among men, has the archenemy of Lex Luthor. Lex Luthor’s just a human. Superman could end him in an instant, but he doesn’t (Let’s add restraint to his list of power). It’s an extremely interesting dichotomy.
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| Superman could literally kill him at any moment. But he doesn't. |
It's not even a question for how OP Superman is. In a fight to the death match between Homelander, Omni-Man, and Superman, Superman wins... he wins by a long shot... he's so powerful that "evil Superman" is the basis of not just the wildly popular Injustice story, but also the basis for, like, two canceled Justice League movies.
So this isn't really a criticism, it's a fact. Superman is overpowered. But that's his character. That's part of the baggage. Baggage that leads to:
Criticism: Superman being overpowered means he can't be interesting
There's literally a writing problem named after Superman - The Superman Problem. This is brought up any time a fictional character becomes so overpowered that any conflict with them loses interest because you know they'll get through it. After all, they're nearly invincible. In modern times, I seem to recall this being closely attached to Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Rey. Powerful characters with no weaknesses (We'll get to kryptonite later).
Every time Captain Marvel shows up, I know she's in no danger. Even when she fights an Infinity Stone-wielding Thanos, there's little danger for the well-being of her character. She's fine. She stands toe-to-toe with him and almost beats the most powerful being in the universe. Once you give a character that type of power, it's hard to take them seriously, because you know they'll make it through alright.
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| Captain Marvel literally can't get any more powerful. |
And a lot of people feel like that happens to Superman because of how powerful he is. But that's not the case. When you look at nearly every Superman movie, he loses. Maybe he's not always hurt, but a lot of his movies deal with his personal stakes. In Superman, Lois Lane dies. In Superman II he gives up his powers and is beaten up by drunkards. In Superman Returns he almost dies after lifting up an entire Kryptonite island. In Man of Steel, he destroys most of Metropolis and has to kill Zod. In Batman v Superman he dies, and in Zack Snyder's Justice League, he and the Justice League fail to stop the Motherboxes, leading to their deaths (Later reversed by the Flash).
Superman's stories are often laced with him tasting complete defeat. Even his best animated or comic stories end with him losing. In For the Man Who Has Everything, he has to give up his perfect life. In All-Star Superman, he dies. Simply put, Superman's stories do involve him winning, but they are not without stakes. He loses all the time. It's just because of his many power/weakness ratio that people believe him to be overpowered.
Bad representation
For all of the listed examples - Superman, Superman II, Superman Returns, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Zack Synder's Justice League - Superman does lose. But he also makes it through. In Superman, Lois Lane dies, but Superman reverses time and gets her back. He loses his powers in Superman II only to regain them at the end of the movie. He nearly dies after lifting a Kryptonite island in Superman Returns, but he recovers fully and becomes stronger as a result.
He may kill Zod in Man of Steel and destroy half of Metropolis, and he feels bad about killing Zod, but because the rest of the movie is so bleak it doesn't really feel like a loss, just another gloomy event in a two-hour slog of them. He dies in Batman v Superman, but he's resurrected in Justice League. Even though he loses, he always gets back up, meaning that ultimately, his stories do not have consequences, and thus no stakes.
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| In the past two decades, Superman has died thrice and recast twice. |
Superman's stakes and risks stem from failure. We already know he can't be hurt, but not everyone is Superman. Superman's biggest fear, the thing that would hurt him the most, is that he'll fail to save someone who can be hurt (Hence his large ensemble of human characters).
There seems to be a public perception that Superman is boring. Justice League director Zack Snyder even said that he wanted his movie to contain a realistic character arc for Superman to break the notion that he's "a one-dimensional boy scout." That is what's wrong with Superman. The idea that he's a one-dimensional goody-two-shoes. Once a character enters the lexicon as being the epitome of an altruistic being, as being the go-to example of a god-like character, it becomes hard to differentiate between actuality and public perception.
One could argue that much of the stigma against Superman may come from the new DCEU trilogy. By stripping him of his altruistic and hopeful qualities, he became a stoic god and less relatable. He loses the humanity he had. Because much of Man of Steel was handled with the same monotonous gloomy "realism," we never get a break to see the difference between Clark Kent and Superman, meaning he's stone-faced 24/7.
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| The one time we see Clark Kent is, like, the last second of the movie. That's not good. |
And if you think calling out Man of Steel is blasphemy, I got you: I don't there's never been a good Superman movie. The Reeve movies best capture the morals of the character, but they're also extremely silly with stupid villains. The Routh iteration is too long and slow. The Cavill movies are extremely downtrodden and burdened with setting up a cinematic universe. There are elements of each one that would, combined, make a good Superman movie, but none of those elements can make a good movie in their own right. The best one is still probably the 1978 one.
Superman is a writer's nightmare
Now, part of the reason there's never been a good Superman movie is that Superman is an absolute nightmare to write for. When you have the archetype of an altruistic and perfect being, it's hard to write a character arc for them. If the writers try to build the character by changing his character to make for a more conflicted story, then the change will be met with a divisive reaction from fans (See: Man of Steel). But if the writer just tries to write a perfect Jesus metaphor, the story will become boring (See: Superman Returns).
And this begs the question - how do you do make a good Superman movie?
Understand the appeal of Superman
If one is to make a good Superman movie, one must understand why people like Superman. You can't change the fundamental aspects of the character for the sake of being edgy and cool, you have to stick with them. Look at the MCU's Captain America - here we have a similarly patriotic leader with values that might be "outdated." But people love Chris Evans' portrayal of him. Why is that? Is it because they stripped away his moral compass? Made him kill Red Skull to be darkly realistic? No.
It's because his character motivation is still doing the right thing. He's a man out of time. Sure, The Winter Soldier is a fairly dark and action-heavy movie, but Captain America is still Captain America. In that movie, he says "For as long as I can remember I just wanted to do what was right." He's not laden by personal tragedy (Although he certainly experiences that), he's just a guy trying to do the right thing. And that's what Superman is.
Superman's not beset by tragedy or personal conflict. He's not a dark and tortured soul like Batman, he never lost an Uncle Ben or Nora Allen, he's... just a guy. He's just a guy doing what's right. And that's why people love Superman. He doesn't need a dead parent to give him motivation, he doesn't need to prove anything. He's doing what's right because it's the right thing to do, and because he knows it's the right thing to do.
Pure altruism. Something about the immense levels of powers he has combined with his selfless desire to serve humanity appeals to lots of people. It's not an outdated principle or one that needs to be revamped for modern audiences. It's a trait that endears, and, if anything, a trait everyone could learn from.
What makes Superman so interesting is the reason why people say he's not interesting. Call me old-fashioned, but Superman is amazing because he's not complicated. Pure and selfless traits make him. He's just a guy from Kansas with morals given to him by loving parents.
Pa Kent
One of the biggest parts about what makes Superman Superman are his origins. I'm not talking about Krypton. I'm talking about the Kents. Something someone should never forget is that Superman is Clark Kent first and foremost - to quote Lois & Clark, "Superman is what I can do. Clark Kent is who I am." Somehow, this god with all these powers is, quite possibly, the most human superhero.
Superman's parents, Ma and Pa Kent, are the ones who raise him to be so incorruptible. He's not honor-bound by magic or tormented by his parents' legacy, he's just doing the right thing. I've said that a lot, but it's so important. Even though Superman is a god, he's still miles more relatable than characters like Batman or Iron Man. I've never been a rich billionaire or lost both of my parents. I've never been on a crusade to rid the world of crime. I have, however, wanted the best for humanity. I've wanted to do the right thing.
Superman is the guy that can do the right thing. He has all the power in the world, and yet he doesn't use it for his own personal gain. To quote Batman himself, "It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then... he shoots fire from the skies and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him."
I'm going to put it out there that, as a rule of thumb, a Superman is only as good as his relationship with Pa Kent. This is why the 1978 film is superior to all the others - in that one, Pa Kent dies of a heart attack. It teaches Clark that "All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him." It's a remarkably profound lesson for the man who has everything.
Compare that to Man of Steel. I absolutely hated Pa Kent in Man of Steel because, in Man of Steel, Pa Kent (After telling Clark he probably should've let his classmates drown on a sinking bus) dies after running into a tornado to save a dog. Any important lessons that could have been learned, any relatability, thrown out the window. Clark's no longer just a guy from Kansas, he's a guy from Kansas whose dad died saving a dog from a tornado. He's given an Uncle Ben. And that took away a lot of what makes Clark Kent Clark Kent. One of the most humane aspects of Superman, suddenly made epic and bloated.
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| This was, by far and away, the absolute worst part of Man of Steel. I don't like thinking about it. |
And I don't want to bash Man of Steel, but it is a good example of how writers have tried to relate Superman to modern audiences by stripping away things that might be considered outdated, like doing what is right because it's the right thing to do. He needed a purpose other than altruism, which, for all intents and purposes, goes against what Superman is.
An Ideal
In All-Star Superman, Jor-El tells Superman that "You have given them an ideal to aspire to, embodied their highest aspirations. They will race, and stumble, and fall and crawl... and curse... and finally... they will join you in the sun, Kal-El." This is the line that made me absolutely love Superman.
That quote is the literal definition of Superman. It perfectly encapsulates what Superman is, what he's meant to be. If a movie is to try and accurately portray Superman, they need to make sure that he is this icon. But he also can't be just that. One would need to find a fair balance between Superman and Clark Kent.
Part of the reason the 1978 Superman is still my favorite Superman movie is because I watch it and feel like I'm watching Superman. I feel like it's the one where the most emphasis is placed on the humane aspects of Clark Kent, and that's what makes or breaks a Superman story. Granted, I still have my problems with the movie (Lex Luthor is horribly mischaracterized and the effects are cheesy), but the characterization of Clark Kent is unmatched.
However, how can one intend to make a good Superman story? For this, I chose my two favorite Superman stories: For the Man Who Has Everything (An episode of Justice League Unlimited) and All-Star Superman.
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| This image makes my heart hurt. |
Now, what attracted me to these stories isn't the big action or the stoic god-like responsibilities that Superman carries during them. What attracts me is always the personal losses Superman suffers in these. In For the Man Who Has Everything, he has to give up his perfect life with a son on Krypton. In All-Star Superman, he says his final goodbyes to the most important people in his life before he dies. It's not the big action, it's the heart, because, as we’ve already covered, any action does lose a lot of momentum given Superman’s power set.
How do you make an interesting Superman movie?
So... how do you make an interesting Superman movie? Well, I thought of some basic outlines that would make the movie the definitive Superman movie:
- Give him personal stakes
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| This scene from Megamind is amazing on so many levels. |
In most Superman movies, the biggest personal stake Clark Kent has in a fight is whether or not the villain has kidnapped Lois Lane. Giving Clark a personal connection to the villain (Other than "They're both from Krypton") or a real stake in the fight would fix this problem. One of the best parts of Man of Steel was when General Zod attacks the Kent farm, leading to an enraged Superman punching them through some fields. There was actual emotion and emotionally driven action on display there.
While altruism is Superman's defining quality, it shouldn’t be his only reason for fighting. Altruism is his motivation for being a superhero, but having a personal stake in the fight will make the movie more interesting to the audience.
- Can I copy your homework?
Elements of Superman's character have been extremely well adapted by other pieces of media. Look to them for inspiration. If you want to have Superman deal with the destruction of his race, look to Avatar: The Last Airbender for inspiration. There we have a similarly orphaned character who has lost his native people.
Something that absolutely needs to happen in a Superman movie is a Spider-Man: Homecoming-type montage of him doing Superman stuff. Something light and fun. That alone would endear the character to the audience.
- Give him a green thumb
One of the best parts of The Dark Knight Returns comic is Superman's monologue after being nuked. He begins a conversation-type thing with Mother Earth, where he says:
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If we need anything, we need an environmentalist message from Superman. He's already lost one planet, he doesn't want to lose another. His bond with the actual Earth was one I never thought about until I read that comic, and I'm really disappointed no adaptation I've seen has emphasized that.
- Stop the Jesus metaphors
You know what has been emphasized to hell and back (To use a grimly ironic metaphor)? Superman being a stand-in for Jesus. Yes, I get that he's a perfect representation of what humanity should strive towards, and I get that he dies and comes back, but I've had enough of it. No Superman media has actually done it with enough subtlety to work.
It's always blatant "Superman is Jesus!" In Superman Returns he gets stabbed in the side by a Kryptonite spear and falls to the earth in a crucifixion pose. In Man of Steel, he goes into a church where a glass painting of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene mimics his plight about fighting Zod. It's...a lot... especially for a character created by two Jewish kids.
- Start the immigrant metaphors
You know what hasn't been emphasized, like, at all? The immigration parallel that Superman has. Superman can relate not only to the instinctively altruistic nature of man but also to the millions of immigrants on Earth. How many immigrant superheroes are there? Better question: What immigrant superheroes are more famous than Superman?
Superman's strong immigration roots are a potentially powerful allegory rarely alluded to in the movies. I'm not saying the next Superman movie should be Hamilton, but at least some effort to recognize that aspect of the character would be nice.
- Clark Kent
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| We went from Lois and Clark to Superman and Lois. It's all about marketability. |
One of the most surefire ways to make the audience care about Superman will be to make them care about Clark Kent. He can't just be a boring version of Superman, or just Superman in a suit (As he was in Batman v Superman). He needs to be his own awkwardly charming self. Again, we can't forget that Superman was Clark Kent before he was Superman. We do this by strengthening his relationships with the Kents, actually building up his relationship with Lois Lane, and giving him time outside of the costume where we can see the real Clark shine.
- Go weird
How is it that every Superman movie has remained stuck on Earth? (Unless you count Superman IV, which I... don't...). Despite all of them being about an alien with superpowers, the most cosmic any of them get is an opening on Krypton. Is it too much to ask for a fight in space? For a space pub with Lobo? Superman is a fun and vibrant character, yet all of his films have been monotonous cityscapes, wheat fields, and arctic landscapes. Shake it up and go weird.
- Make it fun
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| Is the best Superman iteration the HISHE version? I dunno, but his banter with Batman is top-notch. |
If we've learned one thing from Superman Returns, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman, it's that nobody likes a dark and serious Superman. There are two very popular ideas going around in DC: Darker stories and heroes are more complex and interesting, and that fighting for good needs to have a deep tragedy. A Superman movie would need to completely go against those two ideas to be successful.
And don't have him deal with the burden of his powers. Superman's so much more than his powers.
- A good costume
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| Honestly, this is my favorite of his on-screen costumes. |
Definitely my personal opinion, but I don't think Superman's ever had a good live-action costume. The Reeve one is too bright and the Cavill one is too dark. By default, my favorite is the Routh iteration. It's the right shades of blue and red. Actually, maybe my favorite is the Kingdom Come suit in the Arrowverse? I don't know, but none of the suits have ever looked right to me.
- It's time for Jimmy Olsen
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| Image credit: Doc Shaner |
Guys, I'm telling you, it's time for Jimmy Olsen to make a comeback. Part of fleshing out the human aspects of Superman could be developing his friendship with Jimmy Olsen. Don't make him into a CIA operative who dies ten minutes into the movie. Just... don't. Give him the argyle sweater. Red hair. Make him fun.
- Develop Lois Lane
How many times have you actually cared about what happened to Lois Lane? If the answer is 0, you're not in the minority. Lois Lane is, once again, best exemplified by the 1978 Superman. She's a sarcastic and witty news reporter, not sad Amy Adams. Make her and Clark/Superman's relationship a main element in the story, not a tacked-on kiss between two attractive leads with no chemistry.
One of fiction's greatest reveals is that Clark Kent is Superman (gasp). Don't ruin that because Superman changing his hairstyle, wearing glasses, and being awkward might appear silly. Keep it in.
- Use other villains
I literally cannot stress this one enough. If the black Superman reboot has Lex Luthor or General Zod as a villain, I will murder someone working at WB. We've gotten seven Superman movies, where Lex Luthor is the main villain of three (Superman, Superman Returns, and Batman v Superman). Zod is the main villain of two (Superman II and Man of Steel), and don't even ask me what happened in Superman III and IV.
Superman has a fairly sizable rogues gallery outside of Zod and Luthor - He's got Brainiac, Doomsday, Mongul, Metallo, Cyborg Superman, Parasite, Bizarro, Lobo, and Darkseid, to name a few. This is, again, going more cosmic with the story. We don't need everything rooted on Earth.
And, please, side note, if you do Lex Luthor again, make sure he doesn't suck. We've already had two ridiculously silly Lex Luthors with hair. Kevin Spacey's probably the closest thing we got to a legitimate Luthor, but even then he's weighed down by a stupid posse. Here's a bright idea: Try to adapt the DCAU Lex Luthor. Make him an actual cold, calculating threat to Superman. And make him bald.
Now, with all this in mind, I thought I would go through and, just for poops and giggles, write a quick draft for my own Superman trilogy. But, this post is long enough as it is, so be on the lookout for my trilogy in two weeks.
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