I am in the camp that Superman is kind of inherently boring and later additions to the character made him better, but still a little boring. It's understandable since he was the first real touchstone Superhero in comic history.
Pretty much all Superheros before the 1960s were fairly rudimentary and boring.
Positive aspects of Superman are his origin story and relationship with his adopted family, as well as the Kansas setting of his early life.
Another great addition is the Fortress of Solitude. While I agree its probably not the best idea to go full dark/gritty/grim with Superman but injecting some introspection and sadness into his lonely existence and bearing the weight of being humanity's most powerful protector is good character building.
Henry Cavil is a great Superman stuck in mediocre to bad movies. Henry Cavil in fact finds himself in this position in the Witcher as well where he plays the role to a tee within a mediocre adaptation. Hopefully Warhammer 40k will allow him to finally play a character in a good adaptation of some nerdy thing.
I am a marvel/independent comic type person. Maybe I will write my own controversial article about why Marvel is better than DC. However Marvel itself has its own flaws, serious flaws.
Superman is fine when done well. I think for Superman to be done well there should be some level of examination into his psyche. Into his inner life and relationships.
Superman exists as this all powerful being in a world that is constantly going off the rails, of constant problems. He can't save everyone, and the fact that there continues to be malevolent actions purposefully inflicted upon the world and he HAS to be there and has to show up has to wear on someone, even if they are at their core a great person. Examining that reality, superman's reality is the right thing to do for a Superman story.
And I should note "Superman but bad" has been done quite a bit. Homelander, and Plutonian being notable examples.
Then Dr. Manhattan is kind of the original Superman but sad and resigned type take on the character trope, which has also been repeated particularly by DC with Superman himself.
What can you do at this point that is new to an 80+ year old character that can breath new life into his mythos?
Alec, excellent list of Superman reality. I agree with them all.
I am in the camp that Superman is kind of inherently boring and later additions to the character made him better, but still a little boring. It's understandable since he was the first real touchstone Superhero in comic history.
Pretty much all Superheros before the 1960s were fairly rudimentary and boring.
Positive aspects of Superman are his origin story and relationship with his adopted family, as well as the Kansas setting of his early life.
Another great addition is the Fortress of Solitude. While I agree its probably not the best idea to go full dark/gritty/grim with Superman but injecting some introspection and sadness into his lonely existence and bearing the weight of being humanity's most powerful protector is good character building.
Henry Cavil is a great Superman stuck in mediocre to bad movies. Henry Cavil in fact finds himself in this position in the Witcher as well where he plays the role to a tee within a mediocre adaptation. Hopefully Warhammer 40k will allow him to finally play a character in a good adaptation of some nerdy thing.
I am a marvel/independent comic type person. Maybe I will write my own controversial article about why Marvel is better than DC. However Marvel itself has its own flaws, serious flaws.
Superman is fine when done well. I think for Superman to be done well there should be some level of examination into his psyche. Into his inner life and relationships.
Superman exists as this all powerful being in a world that is constantly going off the rails, of constant problems. He can't save everyone, and the fact that there continues to be malevolent actions purposefully inflicted upon the world and he HAS to be there and has to show up has to wear on someone, even if they are at their core a great person. Examining that reality, superman's reality is the right thing to do for a Superman story.
And I should note "Superman but bad" has been done quite a bit. Homelander, and Plutonian being notable examples.
Then Dr. Manhattan is kind of the original Superman but sad and resigned type take on the character trope, which has also been repeated particularly by DC with Superman himself.
What can you do at this point that is new to an 80+ year old character that can breath new life into his mythos?