Werner's Rotten Pill: Superman

Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts

Friday, June 14, 2013

Great expectations for Superman's "Man of Steel"

Superman hits the big screen again with "Man of Steel", and many are predicting a smashing weekend, with a box office score of 108 million, and maybe a total of 1.000 million at the end of the summer. Why? Because he's Superman, of course!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Superman takes his foot out of his mouth - he remembers what the American Way is.

If you think that nothing can top liberté, égalité, fraternité as a mantra, is because you never thought of American Way, or if you did it, you were sure it was about something related to reckless consumerism and waste of resources. The noisy and rude apostasy of Superman, as depicted in the Action Comics # 900 issue didn't help, either. Superman may have had a crisis of confidence and a lot of bad judgment to match it, but it seems that the only unalterable rule for superheroes is “make always a big comeback”. Heck, even Don Quixote had his second tome of adventures, after an evil doppelganger incarnation known as Quixote de Avellaneda threatened to tarnish his reputation.

Not to mention some sci-fi heroes that came back from the dead to save the day.

Superman redeems himself – he explains what the American Way is, and for those with a mindset in full American-imperialism-hate mode, a poignant definition of the American Way by none other than the man of steel:

“That’s what America is about, really. That’s the American way. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – and second chances. None of us are forced to be anything we don’t want to be. When I was young I know that I would be someone different when I grew up. I would leave home and make a new life for myself. A new start, a second chance. When I first went to Metropolis, it was full of people who’d done the same thing. People from all over America – from over the world - who went to the city to live the lives they anted – to be the people they wanted to be. That’s the idea that America was founded on, but it’s not just for the people born here, it’s for everyone. And it’s for people like me and Livewire too.”

Freedom to be yourself, no matter your gender, sexual orientation, background, race… you name it. In a country without oppressive authorities micro-regulating your life from sunrise to sunset, having to ask permission to follow and fulfill your dreams. Most immigrants like the progenitors of supes’ real-life same sex-parents (Jerry and Joe) came to America for a second chance denied by their homelands.

The best Superman stories have always been about his personal values, not his superpowers.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Superman the Apostate

Well. well, well. It is a not-so-known fact that fictional characters (ahem), specially comic-book characters cannot act against their own psychology, or if you pardon my french, their raison d'être. Superman came a long way into becoming a full-blown liberal, but in Action Comics 900th commemorative edition, he finally jumps the shark for good.

Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster, with immigrant blood themselves, made their magnum opus to stand for “truth, justice, the American way”, and if Kal-El, a.k.a. Clark Kent, a.k.a. the Man of Steel, a.k.a the Man of Tomorrow wants to renounce his american citizenship, well... this is it. Supes must be stronger than a locomotive, but has the political reasoning of a drunk frat boy. Instead of defending his given set of values with even more energy, he becomes more concerned with appearances and what America's enemies think.

Or as I said in "I Hate the Media":

Supes is not a plain old fashioned superhero anymore. To catch up with current trends he became a PC-tree-hugging-hippie-metrosexual-leftist-airhead-globalist community organizer!

Yes, I'm back! In your face, Maršić!