does a mallbaby love chilli fries?
Hey! I just saw Man of Steel. I loved it. I understand others did not.
Here’s what I think of that.
SPOILERS
I saw a lot of people with very strong feelings about the ending of Man of Steel. A lot of people felt like it wasn’t their ideal portrayal of Superman and that’s okay. A lot of people love the shining beacon of ideals that Superman has evolved to in his story over about 75 years but what I find problematic about their complaint that Superman wouldn’t break the neck of a cosmic genocidal megalomaniac is that the Superman we watch in Man of Steal was NOT the smiling sun god we read in All Star Superman.
This is not a Superman with infinite resources and a breadth of experience dealing with space Hitlers on the reg. This is not a Superman that had a huge arsenal of ray-guns to shoot people back into the phantom zone. This is not a Superman that was poised in the face of global annihilation because aside from saving people out of burning buildings and flooding buses, he hasn’t had to deal with these kinds of threats and he hasn’t become the golden statue with a eagle on his wrist in that park. This is the guy who was raised with a certain set of morals that he still stumbled maintaining. I think people are having a hard time seeing the bigger picture and realizing that this is not Superman at the end of his story, this is Superman at the beginning and there are bound to be hiccups in his path to becoming the sun god.
If Man of Steel was a movie that sets up a character that the audience follows over the course of what I’m assuming is intended to be a series of movies, why can’t he have one massive failure under his belt to establish an arc over the movies that come up next? If there is a sequel to this movie, it would be a far more intriguing starting point to explore the ramifications of what Superman thought he had to do in the climax of Man of Steel rather than just introducing Metallo or Lex Luthor and having Superman be the same exact character as we saw in a movie from the 70s. I really appreciate the risk the filmmakers took in creating a dynamic character this time around even though I’d have to assume they knew it may have leave a sour taste in the mouth of longtime fans. It was shocking and it was unexpected and it was a bold direction but just because Superman did break Zod’s neck, I think it’s unfair to say the movie condemns that.
I read Mark Waid’s review of the movie and I saw that he said he was heartbroken by Superman’s victory but I wonder if Mark Waid considered that it wasn’t a victory any more than Batman’s victory in The Dark Knight was letting Harvey Dent die and taking blame for everything. When I watched the movie, I certainly didn’t think Superman was winking at the audience at the end of the movie and driving home the point to the audience that corporal punishment is the way to go. He was given a very serious choice to make and he made the choice to take the life of a man that not only killed his father and tried to kill him, but also intended on killing the entirety of the human race and said flat out that he would not rest until he did that. That’s what happened. I’m sure Mark Waid, who has been a fan of Superman since long before I was even born, has an incredibly specific version of Superman in his head and an interpretation that deviates from that is a hard pill for him to swallow but I’m not Mark Waid and odds are that if you’re reading this you’re not Mark Waid and you can open your mind a little.
But just to drive the point home, I’d like to just take a quick look at Superman’s motto. The fundamental backbone of his character before “Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple.” kind of usurped it.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
That’s what Superman’s all about, right? Those three words are the most succinct way to describe a character that’s went through countless incarnations over his now 75 year history? I’m just curious because Justice is right there after Truth and before American Way and nowhere near “Does not Kill.” Superman may have a very strict no killing policy because a long time ago a guy wrote a book and scared a lot of parents into thinking comics were going to turn their children into gay serial killers but I don’t think we, as a community that want to see thoughtful mature movies made for adults about things that we love, movies more like The Dark Knight than The Avengers, we need to approach this with an open mind and not completely shun the entire movie because it deviates from the norm. It’s good to shake up the status quo and reinvent these characters.
And just in case whoever reads this thinks that I’m just a conservative that wants to see the death penalty for everyone that jaywalks, please understand that, that’s really not the case. The highlight of the whole movie for me personally was when Superman destroyed that drone at the end of the movie. That was awesome.
But I mean, what do you think? Am I wrong? I’m probably wrong. Am I?
Hey everyone, just letting you know about this Free Shipping Promotion at my Society6 store. If you were thinking about getting something from there, that’s cool and thank you very much. If not, that’s cool too. I’m not going to hate you. I could never hate you.
I felt like I was going to say something worthwhile here but nope. I’ve got nothing. Here’s my drawing of a golden age Superman.
When I first got into comics it was Kyle Rayner in this costume that I always thought was the coolest character that I wanted to some day draw or write or whatever. Reading the end of Geoff Johns’ last Green Lantern issue, those epilogues (which I know can always be reconnected or whatever) felt like Johns ironically mishandled the future of these characters when he had been so careful with handling their pasts. One one hand I have to thank him for making the thing I love so energized and prominent for so long but on the other I also have to thank him for killing my dream to do something with Kyle as a Green Lantern some day. Not that that’s a bad thing. These days, I’d much rather think of more Vitruvian Underground stuff anyways, you know?
Just another Batman drawing. Started it because I thought someone was commissioning it at a convention but it turns out they weren’t but whatever, I finished it anyways.
here’s a Gorilla Clutch drawing I did for my Man of 1000 holds series. Like my Orion/Kalibak drawing, i wanted to tap into that late 70’s early 80’s grimy masculine energy in pro wrestling because Mario was a guy that fought a gorilla with nothing but a hammer and a mustache. That’s hardcore, I don’t care how adorable he ended up being.
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