Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
Superman
A lot of people dismiss Superman as being "too powerful" or "unrelatable." They’ll say Batman is more relatable because he doesn’t have superpowers. But seriously, how many of us can actually relate to being a billionaire playboy with unlimited resources? In contrast, Superman grew up in small-town, working-class America. He is as much Clark Kent as he is Superman.
People call him a "boy scout," as if that’s a flaw. But that misses the point. The fact that he has the power to rule the world and chooses not to, is what makes him extraordinary. He sets an ideal for people to strive for.
Yes, in the hands of a bad writer he can become a walking deus ex machina. But in the hands of a good writer, Superman becomes the core of some of the most powerful and iconic stories in comics. His greatness doesn’t come from what he can do, it comes from the choices he makes.
Superman has the ability to remove Capitalists from power and chooses not to. That is why I don't care for Superman.
He doesn't live in our reality. He was also invented at a time when government functioned at least somewhat, and social progress was being made.
Superman probably pays more in taxes than Batman.
That is probably because Batman doesn't pay taxes, Bruce Wayne does.
And Bruce Wayne is known for spending tons of the Wayne foundation on helping the poor and criminalized. Tons of charities, schools, orphanages, homeless shelters, ... are funded by them.
And if Bruce gets tax breaks because of that, it is because that is how the law works, not because he wants them.
Bruce is far from the average Billionaire you get in our dimension.
Bruce Wayne doesn't exist, it's merely a disguise Batman sometimes wears.
Overly Sarcastic Productions has done a number of videos they call detail diatribes that have focused on Superman. The summary of many of them is that Superman is his most interesting when saving people and not when punching villains. Even in larger team fights, he could save everyone or hold off the threat, but he can't do both so he needs the help of others.
I actually love superman being a normal dude who saves people with a smile. He should be a good person in stories, because his strength isnt the point, his willpower to help everyone is.
Okay, but he's a billionaire super-scientist who occasionally uses occult magicks. How does none of this qualify?
Sure, but how many modern day Americans could relate to growing up on a farm? Or getting a job in journalism?
I think superheroes are largely defined by their villains. And Lex Luthor - as an individual who regularly does struggle to dominate the world (and periodically succeeds with mixed results) - makes an excellent foil for this exact reason. Superman is, at his heart, just a guy trying to do the right thing. Luthor is an ego-maniacal fascist who cannot conceive of having less than total control.
The best Superman stories are ones that illustrate the practical limits of a seemingly omnipotent individual. It's Superman's struggles - his poor choices, his desire for human affection, his naive optimism, his inability to be everywhere at once - that make him relatable. The idea of Superman as a maximal human who still can't do everything has a way of taking the load of us, comparably weak and vulnerable people, who strive for just as much as a fictional demigod.
Have you ever read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman%3A_Red_Son ?
I'm not a big fan of Superman stuff, but I found that one to be pretty interesting.
It's a good one. That one and All-Star Superman are the two I always recommend to people.
I was gonna ask, thank you!
I've not read All-Star yet, but I keep getting it recommended to me. Thanks!
All-Star is what made me change my mind on Superman. I never really liked him when I was younger, and it was for all the same complaints that people have already listed above. But All-Star was a blast to read, not in spite of it's (at times) cheesiness, but because of it. All-Star Superman is relatable because he embodies the best traits in all of us; he is incredibly intelligent and kind, leveled and patient. Without going into spoilers, I think what I love most about All-Star is that it shows that even the best among us have our weaknesses, and that it's not the huge, planet-level threats that define who are and what we do, but the small, innocuous things that can most affect who we are in the moment.