Is Superman Still Relevant Today?

superman was born superman his alter ego is clark kent clark kent is how superman views us and what are the characteristics of clark kent he's weak he's unsure of himself he's a coward clark kent is superman's critique on the whole human race bill from kill bill ah so superman was always dark and nihilistic quite peaceful insight from bill a psychotic assassin who also happens to see humanity as weak and cowardly is superman still relevant today arguably a question carrying more weight than one might initially perceive but to many possibly even to those who still like and respect the character of superman if asked this particular question the answer would be no but why exactly superman is a character with decades of history and so has undergone a considerable track of evolution since his first introduction including a literal change from villain to hero like in the reign of the superman where superman was a bold telepathic villain more akin to lex luthor than the hero we're familiar with when superman is mentioned today the focus is on what the character has become rather than what he used to be and this fundamental change of superman from the simple super to the towering symbol of hope lines up well with the evolution of the superman crest while the symbol itself has remained relatively the same the meaning attached to it has grown significantly more profound originally representing a plane s for superman to the ill family crest 2 by the time of superman birthright a kryptonian symbol of hope therefore when questioning the relevance of a momentous character like superman in a more modern society in a more modern era with more modern values and perspectives it isn't superman the villain or necessarily superman the hero but superman the great symbol of hope to which we often prefer and it's this version of superman that is all too often defined by his endlessly expending arsenal of powers and strict ethical code but as superman continued to evolve until he was more symbol than man it became somewhat difficult to see said man behind all the super and in an era where leaders of modern entertainment insist that modern heroes should shift and supposedly reflect the ever-shifting face of the real modern world there has been a drive to push a more realistic or a more practical spin on modern heroic characters where light happy tones are replaced by an underlying sense of dread where optimism is usurped by pessimism and hope is exchanged for cynicism suddenly the smiling superman is no longer considered relevant but a naive relic of the past an icon of a more simplistic bygone age in the eyes of many current creators superman's utopian views crumble in the face of realism and furthermore as a character lacks complexity and therefore also lacks the sophistication modern trends supposedly demand from the modern hero so taking all of this into consideration is the current depiction of superman the eternal symbol of hope the man of tomorrow the boy scout still relevant in our modern world maybe a better question might be that if the concept of superman were proposed today i.e if a superman existed and another hero with godlike powers were proposed would he be accepted the uncomfortable truth is that the answer would still likely be no or not as easily accepted as superman himself but why well one reason might be because despite one's love or hatred of superman in some respects our preferences and heroes just like the character of superman himself has evolved over time a look at the greek myths for example would begin with stories that focused on the personification of primordial entities like gaia the earth mother and her husband uranus aka the sky daddy these primordial beings gave birth to the titans and the titans to the olympian gods and the olympian gods to mankind well technically it was the titan prometheus but it was zeus who placed the order from stories about the earth and the sky who birthed our world the story centering around the vile chronos who devoured his own children out of fear for his own life the tales of zeus's constant extramarital affairs and hera's eternal jealousy to finally stories of demigods like the laborers of hercules and the rage of achilles during the trojan war hercules son of zeus king of the olympian gods and achilles who was granted invulnerability by bathing in the river styx the underworld's fabled river of death there has been a noticeable shift in scope a blatant move from protagonist who claims literal godhood to those who can only claim half god's status and as we march closer to the present day and more importantly into a world post introduction of superman we've begun to favor mortal men who attain their talents through sheer force of human determination like john rambo diehards john mcclane 24's jack bauer and john wick the hero who bleeds has arguably in some sense become more prevalent and supposedly more desirable in essence we've seemingly moved from a focus on gods to a focus on mortals the everyman and keep in mind there is a lot of weight to the claim that the godlike superman is far too powerful especially in a world brimming with people hungry for more complex heroes the super and superman after all used to amount to being faster than the speeding bullet more powerful than a locomotive and the ability to leap over very tall buildings in a single bound total no roster of supervisions no super omnipotent level of super hearing and no flight many of the powers often associated with the character were attached during the 1940s stemming from the adventures of superman radio drama and his powers just kept growing forever after even in a world filled with time travelers super scientists and men who can bend light into objects through sheer force of will superman stands unique for example one can always look to the age-old rivalry between superman and the flash in the legendary contests of speed a situation where super speed is simply one of superman's many powers while it remains the flash's entire claim to fame and the outcome usually ends in either the flash winning by the slimmest of margins or superman proving himself to be the outright faster hero and while it is true that the great man of steel has a lengthy list of weaknesses none are really tied to the heart of his powers if all kryptonite were to vanish redstone radiation contained and no magic to be found superman would be acting to a god with no readily discernible drawbacks superman is always superman no blowback from his powers no time limits seemingly no limits at all so when compared to a character like deku for my hero academia a fellow noble character who also inherits nigh god-like powers that essentially make him the superman of his universe the price he pays is his body he's certainly one if not the most powerful hero in its class but using his power leaves his body shattered and ultimately useless and this weakness is also technically true for the hero who gifted him these great powers in the first place his mentor almight the current superman of the my hero academia universe though almight is far more practiced and mature and could use his superman-esque powers to their fullest without breaking his body almight is still required to have a fully functioning body to maintain it this is exemplified in the first episode when we discover that almight's alter ego has suffered very serious permanent damage to his body and so can only access the power of all might for a very limited time each day and that limit permanently decreases should he push himself too far as we supposedly made the change from gods to quasi-mortal to fully mortal men the question remains where does this leave a character like superman is he truly just an overpowered optimistic relic of more optimistic days long past an optimistic nature that can all too often be overlooked after all to some superman's primary feature is his tremendous power it can be easy to forget that superman's evolution saw him become far more than a simple powerhouse just as superman's iconic s became a sign of hope a character of superman too became a shining beacon of morality his message of wisdom and hope coupled with his kind and caring nature of what earned him titles like men of tomorrow the man with steadfast ethics the man who does the right thing the man who shows us the way in short superman's strength of arm evolved right alongside the strength of his character and both have become inseparable defining elements of the iconic hero but while one can imagine a character with so much strength being a challenge to write for and boring to read it's possible that the utopian morals of superman have caused or at least played a large part in his alleged irrelevancy looking at dc's oversaturation of harley quinn along with the popular trend of heroes acting less heroic one might reasonably argue that modern audiences have evolved just as we pulled away from beings with unchallengeable strength maybe we have also pulled away from beings with seemingly unshakable morals perhaps we have become hungry for characters like harley quinn over the ethical monolith of superman perhaps the idea of superman has passed its prime and is now viewed as a mere indulgence of severe naivete and perhaps this is the reason why we're seeing a new shift from traditionally virtuous and morally incorruptable heroes to outright villains or more specifically characters who display actions motivations and characteristics normally attributed to villains after all this pattern seems to coincide with the assertions made by the lords of modern media assertions that a modern entertainment seeking populace seeks entertainment starring dark flawed and morally ambiguous heroes often drenched in gratuitous nihilism and juvenile levels of cynicism aka the usual heroes but with a light switched off and a lot more crying murder and no no words from dc's sad puppy dog obsession with harley quinn gleefully transforming her from sympathetic psychopath the psychopathic symbol of female empowerment to the infamous scene depicting the alleged hero captain marvel breaking a man's hand and stealing his motorcycle because he asked her to smile or the stunning and brave marvel voices comic depicting she-hulk breaking a man from a prison truck injuring the innocent driver also the prisoner's victim could indulge in revenge rather than settle for justice and that succinctly summarizes the overall change instead of a shift in scope as we saw in our move from god to man it's a shift in morals a change of emphasis from justice to revenge in the words of zack snyder the man who so proudly excreted the movie batman v superman then affleck's batman killed a guy i'm like really wake up it's a cool point of view to be like my heroes are still innocent my heroes didn't lie to america my heroes didn't commit any atrocities that's cool but you're living in a dream world there are few better examples of the previously described moral shift than the portrayal of batman and zack snyder's murder verse a portrayal that has fostered its own infamy by making murder a heroic virtue or at least a glorified vice in snyder's batman v superman bruce wayne has grown to middle age and in a similar way to snyder's desire for his audience to wake the fud up bruce wayne likewise has woken up to the same dark reality snyder wished to drop on his audience a sweeney todd like epiphany without the delightful song to quote 20 years in gotham alfred we've seen what promises are worth how many good guys are left how many stay that way referring to his loss of faith and shattering of his heroic delusions and of course if there's a one percent chance he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty this last line in particular feeding into what seems to be the philosophy of zack snyder's murder verse blatantly showing the audience that bruce wayne has indeed succumbed to the dark reality of the world and just like captain marvel and she-hulk as cast aside his crusade for justice for one of vengeance batman's murder spree shows us that he no longer grants criminals the benefit of the doubt and just like the smile of superman long gone is batman's dedication to life in the hopes of saving both the innocent from the criminals and the criminals from themselves snyder's bruce wayne is one steeped in darkness and cynicism a version of bruce wayne who by zack snyder's own words has woken up from the dream world where heroes are still innocent where they didn't lie or embezzle or commit atrocities to quote there was a time above a time before there are perfect things diamond absolutes but things fall things on earth and what falls is fallen in the dream they took me into the light a beautiful lie a reference to bruce wayne's dream where he's lifted from the dark and into the light by bats in other words in his dream world ruse doesn't have to be alone there is meaning and friendship in his fantasy there he can always believe there will be those who can carry him when he falls but it's his waking world the real world that leads him to a harsher reality one devoid of meaning friendship and heroism throughout both snyder's man of steel and batman v superman superman is often revered as a christ-like figure and as superman writhes on the ground struggling to breathe inside a kryptonite fart cloud we can almost hear zack snyder's words echo in batman's voice when he belittles the great symbol of hope you're not brave men are brave and so by the time we get to the final confrontation we see superman lying helpless and batman dragging the hero off to certain destruction i bet your parents taught you that you mean something that you're here for a reason my parents taught me a different lesson dying in the gutter for no reason at all we see that in the contest of man vs god it's the mortal man who wins but whether you approve of the movie's quality and its peculiar direction the question remains is sex schneider ultimately correct is this noticeable shift away from the ideals of the idealistic superman a sign of maturation have we in fact moved past the great heroic paragons of virtue in favor of gaudy grumps and capes that the idea of the great modern hero is less of a superman and more of a morally ambiguous vigilante so we get a batman who kills we get a superman who trashes trucks and emotional fits of rage we get a captain marvel who threatens to steal from people she does not like and we have a she-hulk who breaks a prisoner out of jail so her client can get revenge because justice just wasn't good enough but are these darker depictions of our modern day superheroes really what we wanted as odd as it might sound just as superman's traditional heroism potentially makes him irrelevant as a modern hero quinn's traditional villainy goes a long way to granting her the coveted status of modern day role model but maybe not so odd would put within the context of the cinematic depiction of captain marvel who was portrayed as heroic or in the right which stole a men's motorcycle for telling her to smile or she hulk who was also portrayed as in the right when she freed a lawfully jailed prisoner so her client could deliver unlawful retribution but do anti-heroes and villains truly have more substance than traditional heroes are they more complex less naive more mature are they more narratively significant than characters like superman and is this why so many mainstream creators and works have tossed aside traditional heroism in favor of the morally ambiguous and if this is the case if we've actually moved past traditional heroism tossed superman into a relevancy the next obvious question is why well let's hear the proposed reason directly from the mainstream creatives themselves the same creatives who have creative control over many current year american superheroes during an episode of the women of marvel podcast a group of comic book professionals got together to discuss their experiences in comics this particular panel consisted of sana amanot vita ayala teenie howard and leia williams and over the course of the episode the panelists begin to echo the same ideas behind the aforementioned cultural shift to coattini howard i also love how you brought up a villain because that's something i laugh about a lot like when people bring up the very valid like academic discourses about queer coding and villainy but at the same time i'm like i identify with villains just like zack snyder the panelists continue to voice their preference for anti-heroes and villains over traditional heroes another panelist for example would expand on the topic by pointing out the additional attention focus and development many villains have gotten in recent years very rarely today do we have a villain that is just cookie cutter it's like oh you were traumatized and abused as mentioned earlier this moral and cultural shift has not gone unnoticed by creatives at large but it isn't until the panel gets into why that we get a real insight into how those who control the heroes in the mainstream media actually see our heroes i feel that we identify with villains because of their struggle very rarely today do we have a villain that is just cookie cutter it's like oh you were traumatized and abused and you were like i'm going to reflect that back oh i would never do that but i feel that real deep it would be a catharsis another panelist would add we find something instantly recognizable in these characters that are queer coded and vilified specifically and are misunderstood by everyone around them even if we don't consciously know why we're drawn to these characters it's kind of an experience that is recognizable but perhaps the most telling and possibly the most damning comment of all went as follows and for a long time too with villain characters just in general not specific to marvel they also had a lot of room just not to be queer but just to do things that were a little more nuanced and complicated than the cookie cutter hero characters because you get all this pressure for the hero to kind of stay in one lane because that's the moral character and the moral center of the story whereas with the villain it's like no you can have moments of softness at moments of doubt and all of these things and then you're still the villain and this comment on villains became more significant when we switch from their perspective on villains to their perspective on heroes i would rather see that story i.e a villain story than the one where the person is like hi i'm a good person and that's it i'm going to punch the bad guy and there we have it right from the ladies of modern media maybe it is the struggle of the anti-hero the struggle of the villain that ultimately attracts our attention especially when opposed to characters like superman as the panel put it cookie cutter good guys who just punched the complex bad guy maybe it is the outcast nature that speaks to our modern sensibilities and allows us to relate with these tragically flawed beings rather than the perfectly moral paragon of superman maybe it is that same-flawed nature that leads us to prefer anti-heroes and villains because they better mirror the glaring imperfections in the real world because here heroes aren't perfect there are no perfect paragons of virtue there are no superheroes as snyder put it in the real world our heroes are liars and embezzlers maybe the traditional heroes of yesteryear are born out of cultural naivete from a far brighter and optimistic time maybe we finally realize that superman's ethical utopia is an impossibility the stuff of mere dreams and maybe we have woken from that dream world where our heroes are still innocent and maybe we have indeed outgrown the man of tomorrow or maybe it all hinges on something else entirely earlier the question was asked if the concept of superman were proposed today would he be accepted maybe he still wouldn't be however maybe superman wouldn't be accepted today not because we've outgrown him but specifically because superman with both his powers and ethics combined has already become so iconic maybe that's the reason why he's been so continuously copied cloned and parodied because he's the foundation for the very idea of the superhero and that the makeup of his character defined the entire genre itself and maybe these modern day creators who have lost faith in heroes and revere villains have no idea what they're talking about so is superman still irrelevant today let's look at it from another angle shall we superman is too powerful superman is unrealistic superman isn't cool superman is just a naive boy scout these are the kind of responses one might receive when one brings up the idea of superman as a character and more importantly as a hero as the women of marvel pointed out we've apparently gravitated towards villains because we identify with their struggle after all how can a man like superman a man with seemingly no limits struggle at all he is the man who has everything you know because the women of marvel were in fact correct about one particularly important issue that despite humanity's assorted differences and regardless of culture or era we are universally attracted to the struggling hero and this struggle makes up the core of joseph campbell's monomyth perhaps better known as the hero's journey the young would-be adventurer begins as a normal person that person then struggles past the threshold guardian endures attests of the mentor defies temptation into evil traverses the abyss and returns transformed as a hero so when the pilgrim finally returns home he can pass on his wisdom gained through these various trials to the next generation and while this journey doesn't always fit every story perfectly it exists because campbell saw narrative patterns that existed in myths legends and stories from around the world so when the women of marvel say i feel that we identify with villains because of their struggle that part is true whether you are watching a testosterone pumping action film or reading a romance novel our need to see protagonists struggle and face down challenges is arguably the narrative foundation for any story however one thing that seems to have been utterly forgotten is the reason joseph campbell's monomyth became better known as the hero's journey so while it is true that villains do struggle if we take a closer look the reason given to us by the women of marvel and even zack snyder makes no sense at all and the likely possible reason why so many mainstream creatives have replaced traditional heroes with the anti-hero and the villain is far more disturbing but what is a hero to begin with according to the greek philosopher plato a hero practiced what he called the four cardinal virtues prudence temperance justice and fortitude prudence the ability to discern the correct course of action in each situation at just the right time temperance the practice of self-control and moderation justice having a strong sense of fairness fortitude endurance the strength to carry out the other virtues the ability to confront fear uncertainty and intimidation let's jump back to the earlier example of my hero academia as mentioned before superman is a hero of nigh limitless power power which seemingly comes with no direct cost in a place devoid of his roster weaknesses there is no price he must pay to fuel his abilities and as mentioned before this is opposed to characters like deku and almight who are limited by their physical well-being or suffer under time limits but the story of my hero academia just like the story of superman isn't really one about power the true narrative is about the nature of heroism and not only is the idea of heroism versus power acknowledged by the show it's a core element of the story episode one gives us a world obsessed with powerful heroes deku is a boy equally obsessed with becoming a great hero the catch is he is completely powerless even in a world where super abilities are extremely common deku has not one superpower to his name before long the supernatural became the totally normal dreams a reality the world became a superhuman society with about 80 percent of the population possessing some uncanny ability neku's rival katsuki bakugou is a fitting personification of the societal status quo powers generally emphasize while heroism is celebrated but isn't necessarily required bakugou is powerful he's smart confident and skilled and out of his entire class he is the one student expected to graduate on to ua the most prestigious hero academy in japan quite an accomplishment especially given its 0.2 percent acceptance rating as a result he's the most celebrated and respected student in his class however bakugou isn't what one might imagine when one might imagine a hero he's shamelessly prideful crossing a line into hubris he's self-absorbed violent and cruel he's everything deku isn't to quote don't let me in with this bunch of losers i'm the real deal but these guys will be lucky if they end up sidekick to some busted d-lister and it's this comparison we can make between deku and bagago that speaks to the true message of the work deku begins his journey at the lowest rung on the social ladder he's powerless he lacks confidence he is constantly mocked and laughed at deku is lacking in every way bakugou is not in the eyes of society without a quirk he is virtually worthless all men are not created equal this was the reality i learned about society at the young age of four and that was my first and last setback yet despite his severe lack of power and inexperience by the end of the first season deku displays every single one of plato's cardinal virtues we can see hints of this right from episode 1 and the world of my hero academia the path of a superhero is a quick path to money and fame the greatest most popular most effective heroes receive the most praise and more importantly the most money so those wanting to be heroes aren't necessarily walking the path of the greater good this attitude aligns well with the attitude of the my hero academia universe power fame and money have far overshadowed truth justice and sacrifice and once again we see this painted perfectly when we focus on how the character of bakugou and the character of deku react to the hero almight to quote bakugou i'll end up more popular than all night himself and be the richest hero of all time people all across the world will know who i am when bakako looks at almight he doesn't see an icon of heroism instead he sees a powerhouse swimming in fortune and fame it becomes clear that bakugou has been seduced by the shining allure of wealth rather than the painful burden of sacrifice his motivation is selfishness rather than selflessness while all might is powerful popular and rich deku's focus rests elsewhere ever since i was a kid i thought that saving people was the coolest thing you can do i want people to see my fearless smile and feel safe and be the kind of hero everyone in the world looks up to just like all might both admire all might however bakugou admires what the hero has earned while deku admires what the hero represents superman is the man who does the right thing almight is the man who smiles in the face of death oh and keep these little facts in mind we'll be coming back to them in a bit deku's most notable virtue is fortitude the ability to confront fear uncertainty and intimidation having the endurance to keep going even when all hope is lost as mentioned deku's lifelong dream is inspired by the heroism of all might to become a hero however fate has made this goal a glaring impossibility yet deku perseveres believing in his dream even when everyone tells him it's hopeless from the doctor informing deku that his dream is medically unobtainable to his peers who constantly mock him to bakugou who bullies him to his mother who denied support to even the great almight himself when deku asks all might if a quirkless kid could ever become a hero almight responds not without a quirk an answer that echoes back to the prevailing idealization of power and glamour showing us that even the noble almighty to at least some degree has fallen to this worldview deku despite having his childhood dream crushed by his idol still pushed through all that pain and stepped in to save bakugou when he was captured by a monstrous villain knowing full will he stood no chance of winning sometimes i do feel like i'm a failure like there's no hope for me but even so i'm not going to give up ever and this hints to deku's second strongest cardinal virtue justice also known as a strong sense of fairness bakago is selfish arrogant and cruel and deku has been the primary target of the most vicious instances of bakugo's ire all culminating in bakugou ruthlessly mocking deku burning his most cherished possession at the time and urging deku to end his own life while a normal person might hold a grudge and leave their bully to die deku saw bakugo as a person in peril and attempted to save the life of his tormentor and deku would show similar concern for altriko yiraraka when she became the target of a giant robot during the ua entry exam although yuraraka and deku had briefly met beforehand she was nonetheless a complete stranger as far as deku knew he faced the choice of either leaving yoraka to fend for herself and possibly passing the exam or saving her likely forfeiting any chance of getting into ua and sacrificing his dream yet just like he did for bakugou again deku put everything on the line to save someone in peril and this leads to the next cardinal virtue prudence from very early on deku has displayed a natural talent for knowing exactly what needs to be done when he tried to rescue bakugou his actions ultimately failed but remember when i mentioned that all might had fallen to the prevailing worldview while deku couldn't rescue anyone his selfless actions inspired almighty to step in when he otherwise would not have meaning deku's words and deeds were exactly what all might needed to rediscover his heroic spirit if you hadn't told me about your life if you hadn't run into that fight i would have been a worthless bystander watching from the crowd deku may not have saved the day but his heroic actions inspired the man who did and again when he rescued yuraraka he chose the correct course of action both to save someone and to pass the exam deku may not have known how to pass like a typical ua student he may not have known how to save the day but he knew exactly what to do when circumstances demanded that he act like a hero this all culminated into deku developing a plant that led himself and two other heroes to victory over an overwhelming group of invading villains now we come to temperance deku is a naturally heroic character but that doesn't mean he lacks flaws temperance is something deku tends to struggle with right from the very beginning in short deku is over-indulgent we did our first hint of this during his initial training with almight where he becomes so obsessed with inheriting almight's power that he constantly overworked himself you're overworked the aim to pass american dream plan was created with your body in mind it was fine tuned to ensure your progress was swift but manageable which means you haven't been sticking to it you're overdoing things that's going to have the opposite effect of what we want however this flaw isn't forgotten in fact many of deku's major trials become tests of temperance perhaps one of the most critical was a test presented by his homeroom teacher mr izawa specifically during the pitch test where each student was to throw a ball as far as they could keep in mind that at this point deku's power is all or nothing deku's nature is to put his all into everything he does no attempt at moderation unfortunately for this reason using his power leaves his body broken and useless after just one use and so on his first attempt at the pitch test deku planned to break his entire body in order to dominate the test while failing the following ones it's here that izawa steps in in the past there was an oppressively passionate hero who saved over a thousand people by himself and created a legend even if you have the same a reckless valor you'll just be decked and turned into a useless doll after saving one person izuku midoriya with your power you can't become a hero i'm izawa izawa points out that deku would be useless at any practical battle when use of his power and his body becomes worthless so either deku immediately learned to moderate his power or he would be summarily expelled deku ends up succeeding passing the test while only sacrificing his finger instead of his body so despite struggling with moderation when it came to a test when it mattered the most deku still successfully displayed the cardinal virtue of temperance but what does this have to do with superman and how relevant he is today why go over the virtues of dekku at all because deku's character his journey and the world of my hero academia show us precisely why superman is so important in the women of marvel who are as a reminder some of the people in charge of defining the modern superhero discuss how they identify with villains because of their struggle how they would rather see the villain's story over the alleged two-dimensional heroes who just arrived to punch the bad guy or claiming that villains have more room for nuance and complexity than the so-called typical cookie-cutter heroes because said heroes must always quote stay in one lane all these assertions seemingly insinuate that heroes don't struggle and that they definitely don't struggle like villains do this of course is absolute nonsense heroes face the same temptations and can even suffer the same circumstances as villains but heroes don't fall prey to them fortitude justice prudence temperance these elements form the makeup of a hero the traditional cardinal virtues but why would a hero require these virtues to begin with why would a hero require the fortitude to endure pain and hardship why would a hero require a sense of fairness strong enough to differentiate the ideals of justice from revenge why would a hero require the prudence to determine the correct course of action and why would a hero require the temperance to maintain careful self-control because what seems to have been forgotten by the wonderful women of marvel and is perfectly illustrated by the journey of noble deku is that heroes struggle too remember when i said that while bakugo admired the wealth that heroes earned deku admired what heroes stood for the main lesson we see throughout my hero academia through both the characters of all might and deku is that above all else the purpose of a hero is to inspire those around them and that it isn't the level of their power nor the number of abilities that capture our adoration it is ultimately the hero struggle that inspires us to see them defy temptation when most of us would give in see them push forward when most of us would run see them act when the rest of us would hide see them eagerly sacrifice what the rest of us would never surrender to see them show mercy when the rest of us might return cruelty with cruelty willingly take pain upon themselves show bravery despite their own overwhelming fear in the words of all might i'm the guy who's always smiling right i'm the symbol of peace people everywhere have to think that i'm never afraid but honestly i smile to hide the fear inside it's just a brave face i put on when the pressure is high it was almight's unshakable confidence and bravery that inspired deku to become a hero i made a decision that day no matter what anyone else thinks i have to believe in myself and i'll keep smiling just like him and ever since i was a kid i thought that saving people is the coolest thing you can do i want people to see my fearless smile and feel safe and be the kind of hero everyone in the world looks up to just like all might and when all might lost his way it was deku's selfless attempt to rescue bakugou that inspired all might to remember his purpose as a hero once again and of course it was deku's selflessness and his heroic nature that convinced all might that she was a quirkless nobody to inherit his more than considerable power young man you too can become a hero so whether it be deku or almight or even superman himself the question was never about a measure of strength but what the character does with that strength deku is just a modern take on the age-old heroic journey the latest face on a hero with a thousand faces the journey of deku at its core shows us the same lesson we see in the journey of superman that power does not make one a worthy hero it is a hero that makes himself worthy of his power and that philosophy forms the heart and soul of superman's eternal struggle to put the struggle another way power tends to corrupt an absolute power corrupts absolutely great men are almost always bad men john emmerich edward dahlberg acton superman faces the same temptations we do but like the ideal hero he doesn't allow himself to fall prey to them superman is often criticized for his seemingly limitless nature he's practically the embodiment of absolute power however it's precisely this lack of clear physical limitations that paint the character as the eternal hero personified while any character can possess overwhelming power especially in a superhero universe superman stands unique as the rare example of one who indeed possesses boundless strength while remaining morally incorruptable but this moral incorruptibility isn't easy superman is a man who constantly faces the burden of his own magnificence in other words his struggle is a never-ending battle against temptation in the immortal words of plato for a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories and the reason why superman can face down a legion of mad scientists monsters and aliens on a daily basis and still refrain from letting the idea of what he can do overtake the idea of what he should do is because just like deku superman displays all four of plato's cardinal virtues and there are very few better examples that explore the heroic nature of superman and the colossal scope of his character than grant morrison's all-star superman while the work is a passionate love letter to the beloved hero the overarching story is built from a series of smaller adventures each one revolving around a legendary challenge each of which serves to highlight the heroism of superman a good hero possesses the fortitude to confront fear uncertainty and stand courageous against intimidation in the all-star storyline superman is destined to perform 12 labors before his death superman saves the first manned mission to the sun superman brews the super elixir superman answers the unanswerable question superman chains the cronivore superman saves earth from bizarre home superman returns from the underverse superman creates life superman liberates the city of kandor superman defeats solaris superman conquers death superman builds an artificial heart for the sun superman leaves the recipe to make superman too 12 tasks so momentous that only a man like superman could have the fortitude the strength to confront the fear uncertainty and intimidation of overcoming such challenges all while facing down the most terrifying uncertainty of all his own mortality or as hamlet called it the undiscovered country but to quote superman i see it like tiny fireworks below my skin at least this explains the weird bioelectric discharges what a bizarre irony if the source of my powers winds up killing me but everything else has failed time and time again superman is faced with obstacles believed impossible by those around him obstacles that would be physically or emotionally crushing for anyone yet superman still possess the fortitude to fly into the unknown against impossible odds and succeed every time a prudent hero possesses the ability to discern the best course of action to be taken and win to take that action in other words the prudent hero can arrive at the correct answer when most could not and in a time frame most could never make superman answering what's called the unanswerable question being one of the most notable tests of his prudence when lois lane is captured by the ultra sphinx the only way to save her life is to answer a question so difficult that answering it correctly is historically counted as a labor on the same level as defeating a monster that eats time and conquering death to reiterate superman faced a challenge deemed in canon to be virtually unsolvable and with lois lane's life on the line with the pressure mounting his practice sense of prudence still guided him to victory in comparison let's see how zack snyder superman handles his loved ones being held hostage ha ha have your mother i'm gonna kill you oh a just hero possesses a powerful sense of fairness one that takes precedence even over their own feelings the just hero is principled and strives to hold those principles over any need for personal satisfaction they strive to do what they believe to be the right thing as mentioned the all-star storyline follows a slowly dying superman as he attempts to leave the world a better place after his passing but it was superman's most infamous enemy lex luthor that sparked the hero's demise by causing superman to be oversaturated with solar radiation to quote your trip to the sun exposed you to critical levels of stellar radiation more raw energy than your cells are able to process efficiently apoptosis has begun cell death there can be only one outcome even for you leo quintum while most people might want revenge on their killer before they met their end superman did not instead the hero ended up saving his killer's life several times when superman as clark kent visited lex luthor in prison for an interview why because even after all the evil luthor had done even after orchestrating his death superman still believed in the potential good of his arch enemy to quote superman i'm dying the world is yours at least for the three weeks you have left before they execute you it's not too late to put that brilliant mind to work lex i know there's good in you superman could end lex luthor's life in an instant and no one could stop him but to superman that wouldn't be just to superman everyone deserves a chance to change a chance to choose for themselves to superman it's never too late to believe in the goodness of others even when they have fallen as far as lex luthor the tempered hero respects the virtues of moderation discipline and sacrifice superman's constant challenge is to maintain control of his powers and by extension keeping control of his emotions should superman lose control he could easily become a man who would use his power for his own selfish ends stop showing the world the way toward ethical utopia and start bending the world to his will over the course of the all-star storyline superman dies when lex luthor ingests an elixir that gives him the same powers as superman for 24 hours luthor of course immediately begins conquering metropolis unchallenged with his friends immortal peril superman sacrifices the paradise of the afterlife he sat face to face with everything he ever wanted and rejected the offer instead choosing life and conquering death when superman returns to life he is greeted by a super-powered lex luthor who by this time had killed superman twice is threatening his friends and has already schemed his way out of the death penalty and superman may have momentarily conquered death but he was still dying superman should be angry perhaps a normal person would see only two options to fight lex luthor into submission despite knowing that all of this could happen again except you wouldn't be there to save the day or compromise your principles and kill lex luthor making sure something like this never happened again essentially giving us a similar outcome to the final fight between batman and the joker and frank miller's dark knight returns an instance where batman finally loses control and breaks the joker's neck but that isn't what happened superman ultimately wins by defeating luthor's villainy it appears as if superman was trying to conquer luthor with a gravity gun in reality superman used the gravity gun to manipulate time causing luthor to burn through the elixir much faster but this wasn't the real victory the elixir boosted luthor's senses so significantly he could see past the strength in the laser vision and really begin to understand what superman sees every day to quote luthor it's so obvious i can actually see and hear and feel and taste it and the fundamental forces are all yoked by thought alone i can actually see the machinery and wire connecting and separating everything since it all began and through tears luthor explains how superman sees the world this is how he sees all the time every day like it's all just us in here together and we're all we've got so after luthor finished his hunter as thompson style epiphany nearly all fight vanishes from the villain even luthor seemed to find some closure in the face of the renewed global calls for his execution he seemed so fated so small now that he finally got his dearest wish leo quintum even with everything on the line when emotions were high in the stakes even higher when superman went head to head with the man who killed him twice who threatened everything he loved for the entire world deemed worthy of death he still kept his emotions in check superman still possessed the discipline to choose the righteous path so when john emerick says great men are almost always bad men superman proves that he is the rare man with the moral fortitude temperance prudence and profound sense of justice to reject the corruption that often plagues those with absolute power why because superman is not just a hero he's the personification of the archetypical hero anyone remember the hero's journey one major element of joseph campbell's the hero with a thousand faces the book that formed his famous monomyth was the idea of archetypes archetypes were explored in depth by swiss psychiatrist carl jung for example two recognizable archetypes one might see in the hero's journey are the sage mentor figure who bestows wisdom on the hero like yoda to luke skywalker and the lover who inspires love within the hero like the princess to luke skywalker but while campbell barely adopted the archetypes carol young was born in them to quote from the archetypes and the collective unconscious there are as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life endless repetition has engraved these experiences into our psychic constitution not only in the forms of images filled with content but at first only as forms without content representing merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action the ruler the artist the rebel the jester the innocent are all other common archetypes one might see in story and myth but let us simplify this down to the archetype most important to the character of superman which is of course the hero the hero represents our need to overcome obstacles and achieve goals as described by carl jung only one who has risked the fight with the dragon and is not overcome by it wins the horde the treasure hard to attain these archetypes tend to be heavily associated with the hero's journey but just like campbell's monomyth said archetypes and the symbols that represent them were universal all of them present in one way or another throughout history and regardless of cultural boundaries in the words of joseph campbell whether we listen with aloof amusement to the dreamlike mumbo-jumbo of some red-eyed witch doctor of the congo or read with cultivated rapture thin translations from the sonnets of the mystic lao tzu now and again crack the hard nutshell of the argument of aquinas or catch suddenly the shining meaning of a bizarre eskimo fairy tale it will be always the one shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story so what does this all mean it means that the idea of the hero exists universally across the world and universally across every age of human existence in other words as long as humans have been alive there have been heroes to again quote joseph campbell throughout the inhabited world in all times in under every circumstance the myths of man have flourished but where specifically does the hero archetype come from while stories and myth might be where archetypes tend to manifest they actually come from our unconscious mind or as carl jung titled it the collective unconscious the idea of the collective unconscious answers the inevitable question how can archetypes be universal how can two storytellers from two different cultures and two completely different eras share so many similarities or have such similar views of heroism essentially the collective unconscious is composed of elements which are inherited and which all humans share as described by young we can also find unconscious qualities that are not individually acquired but are inherited eg instincts as impulses to carry out actions from necessity without conscious motivation in this deeper stratum we find archetypes the instincts and archetypes together form the collective unconscious i call them collective because unlike personal unconscious it is not made up of individual contents but of those which are universal and of regular occurrence and according to jungian analysis anthony stevens thus on appropriate occasions archetypes give rise to similar thoughts images mythology feelings and ideas in people irrespective of their class creed race geographical location or historical epoch archetypes are patterns humanity has developed through universally shared experiences for example we've all had teachers or a mentor in some form and when you think of a teacher what kind of image comes to mind an old man with a beard someone sporting a coat with elbow patches images for teachers can manifest in a variety of ways stern absent-minded naughty one archetype a thousand different images a thousand faces you might say and every single image is linked together by one trait wisdom because everyone from the ancient caveman to the medieval european blacksmith to the modern fast food employee required knowledge to do their job and a mentor to teach them rey and just as the mentor ties back to our need for knowledge within both dreams and stories the hero represents our need for mastery to yet again reference young the hero's main feat is to overcome the monster of darkness it is the long hoped for and expected triumph of consciousness over the unconscious just as the lover is symbolic of our need for intimacy like lois lane to superman the hero symbolizes our need to master skills our need to much like superman develop the necessary abilities to overcome otherwise terrifying and daunting obstacles so much like the legendary beowulf we too can risk the fight with our own grendel and not be overcome and doesn't that description summarize superman and the fantasy he symbolizes almost perfectly all-star superman shows us that through mastery of temperance prudence justice and fortitude he is able to complete one seemingly impossible test after another but why superman in particular stands above all other heroes as poster boy for the modern heroic archetype is as also highlighted in the all-star storyline that the character of superman shares many parallels with the protagonist in plato's allegory of the cave a story that centers around a set of prisoners who knew nothing of the real world except the shadows they saw on the wall having known only shadows their entire lives the prisoners began to believe that there was nothing beyond these shadows and that discovery ended there they became content in their own ignorance not only accepted but relished in their own self-imposed limitations that is until one prisoner broke free and found his way out of the cave there he discovered the real world in all its bright colorful glory he sees that the world he'd known had only been a mere shadow of the truth a shadow of a greater existence and a greater understanding so how does this relate to superman and his all-star storyline well let's jump back to lex luthor's final defeat and more importantly what he says this is how he sees all the time every day like it's all just us in here together and we're all we've got even the man possessing the colossal genius of lex luthor until that moment had been a prisoner staring at the shadows unable to look past his own perceived understanding and rejoicing in the fact that he understood the shadows better than most and even with superman's powers he could only see shadows until superman showed him the way but we also see in the all-star storyline another harsh truth also presented in plato's allegory i saw how to save the world i could have made everyone see i could have saved the world if it wasn't for you says luthor to which superman responds you could have saved the world years ago if it mattered to you luthor in comparison superman stands as a significant parallel to the freed prisoner in plato's allegory because superman more than most is the hero who shows us the way the man of tomorrow just as the escaped prisoner became enlightened and would eventually return to the cave to share his knowledge with those prisoners who remain behind superman has seen past the shadows and like the great hero returning home from his journey he returned to share his wisdom mainly because he actually has wisdom to share instead of trying to pedal off meaningless shadows as enlightenment and keeping that in mind it's no wonder so many hollywood elite look at superman with the same dour expression the awkward nerd might give chad or ray palpitate might give luke skywalker but superman doesn't teach us through words alone just as my hero academia's all might through heroic action inspired a young decker to become a hero and just as deku would eventually inspire all might to remember his own heroic ideal superman likewise shares his wisdom through inspirational acts leading us out of the metaphorical cave through example and by that example he proves that it isn't about intelligence or power that allows us to see the greater existence and it isn't genius or talent that makes superman a beacon of inspiration after all luther was a genius and had gained all the powers of superman but it didn't make him a better person it didn't make him superman superman is a living reminder that powers might make one super but it's one's nobility that makes a hero the fortitude to face hardship the prudence to make the right choices the fairness to put greater principle over one's selfish desires and the discipline to remain temperate and in control despite possession of overwhelming power these four cardinal virtues are things any one of us can practice and develop as superman shows us no task is utterly impossible whether it be lex luthor winner of the genetic lottery or deku the ever popular loser of the genetic lottery we already possess the potential to leave a positive mark on the world a lasting legacy to develop an expertise in all four cardinal virtues if it truly mattered to us the catch however is that it takes work and dedication it takes fortitude to face the possibility of failure and break from one's comfort zone it takes prudence to know the right choices from the wrong it takes a strong sense of fairness to remain just when your first impulse might scream revenge and to properly empathize with those who may have wronged you and it takes temperance to remain collected under pressure in the words of jor-el the father of superman they can be a great people kal-el they wish to be they only lacked the light to show them the way if you were to listen to the women of marvel or zack snyder heroes like superman have fallen from grace the symbol that superman became has been replaced by the vengeful captain marvel the crazed harley quinn or batman or more specifically zack snyder's batman just like so many modern creatives snyder seemingly believes himself to be plato's escaped prisoner the enlightened man who has seen beyond the shadows and discovered the truth and through his depiction of batman seeks to show us this truth we are the dreamers content with shadows while zack snyder is the awakened philosopher to quote it's a cool point of view to be like my heroes are still innocent my heroes didn't lie to america my heroes didn't embezzle money from their corporations my heroes didn't commit atrocities that's cool but you're living in a dream world and we've seen how snyder's batman recalls the innocence of dreams as a beautiful lie we see how the sentiments of snyder's batman is of a man who has awakened to the cruel reality of the world one where the smiling superman could never exist this is a batman who had seemingly bought into the beautiful lie where heroes are innocent and don't commit atrocities and whose optimism had been gradually worn down until he was rudely enlightened to snyder's world beyond the cave but instead of light he saw nothing but dark 20 years in gotham how many good guys are left how many stayed that way but it isn't only through batman alone that we see these nihilistic ideas but through snyder's superman as well all this time i've been living my life the way my father saw it riding wrongs for a ghost thinking i'm here to do good superman was never real just the dream of a farmer from kansas since men of steel onward clark kent had been nothing but a pretender a man studying medicine when he really wanted to be an artist all to make his father proud snyder seems to scoff at the idea of the ideal superman so we get a superman who snaps the villain's neck a superman who gives up who abandons humanity who has forsaken his legendary universal empathy and who has greatly diminished all sincerity behind his heroism even when lois lane attempts to comfort superman and when superman ties his heroic persona to his father's dream rather than his own she doesn't contradict him or try to separate clark kent from jonathan cant two potentially suggest that clark kent may reflect his father but that the heroic nature of superman is clark kent and his alone instead lois says that farmers dream as all some people have it's all that gives them hope superman had just confessed that he'd become a hero for no other reason than to live up to his father's dream saying that the idea of superman only existed within that dream but ultimately wasn't real it's all been a lie and lois counters by agreeing again where batman labels the optimism of his dream a beautiful lie we see that the idealistic hero people believed superman to be was another beautiful lie existing only in a farmer's dream with lois's argument being that maybe the heroic superman really has all been a lie but that clark kent should just continue the facade because people find hope in that lie superman's purpose then switches from optimistic the enlightened hero burdened with leading humanity to a better future to nihilistic the sad pretender burdened with heroism while most tend to remember the super of superman and forget the man's humanity snyder has remembered the man but has forgotten what truly made him super his nobility for example when superman speaks with a vision of his father to gain wisdom or a reason to go on we get this superman did the nightmares ever stop jonathan kent yeah when i met your mother she gave me faith that there's good in this world so what does this mean it means lois tells clark to continue the lie of superman it means that clark kent's heroic sacrifice is to knowingly continue living that lie for the sake of others and it means just as jonathan kent needed martha kent and because superman is simply a role he plays instead of who he is the character loses his heroic compassion he no longer genuinely cares for humanity instead snyder's superman like bill from kill bill only has a selfish compassion a compassion only for his loved ones and so will continue to play the role for their sakes and continue defending humanity for their sakes a change of mentality from what can i do for humanity to what can humanity do for me and bruce wayne's dream of the future which isn't as nice because it shows him reality instead of a fantasy we see an outright corrupted superman superman she was my world and you took her from me flash bruce listen to me now it's lois it's lois lane she's the key you were right about him you've always been right about him going by what we see snyder paints a picture of a superman turned murderous dictator because he lost lois lane meaning that lois lane was superman's connection to humanity and when she goes so does any shred of superman's morality any reason to be heroic at all and that wayne's killer instinct had been right all along even frank miller's superman was more compassionate than that and he lasered off green arrow's arm in other words this superman is less of a noble deku and more of a bakugo needing a reason to help other than compassion or empathy to summarize in zack snyder's view the iconic superman was too perfect his humanity completely incomplete without constant depression smoldering anger and destructive emotional outbursts oddly enough this echoes the sentiments given by the women of marvel surprise surprise when they praise villains for their struggle their apparently unique potential for nuance and narrative freedom as opposed to the rigid cookie-cutter good guys who just show up to punch the bad guy if only superman and heroes like him were less heroic if only they lost their temper more if only they didn't have the answers and made the wrong choices more if only they crumbled under the strain of their own burdens more if only they preferred payback a little more than empathy and justice if only they were more like villains if only they were us when you listen to the overwhelming praise for villains and preference for scowling howling heroes these questions stop sounding like reasons at all and begin to sound like excuses but excuses for what we've seen through the struggle of deku through the smile of almight the 12 legendary laborers of superman and practically every iteration of the hero's journey that not only do heroes struggle but these struggles and the heroes victories over them are what reforge ordinary people into champions and their assertions that villains have more potential for nuance and complexity to quote and for a long time too with villain characters just in general not specific to marvel they also had a lot of room to do things that were a little more nuanced and complicated than the cookie cutter hero characters because you get all this pressure for the hero to kind of stay in one lane again describing villains as having a variety of makes and molds while the stuffy superhero supposedly comes in one single standard issue model but where else could you find more nuance and complexity than exploring the contrast between superman and batman as michael e uslin batman film producer and comic scholar yes that job actually exists apparently once said bob kane was just a kid but he created batman he was just a teenager it was late 1930s the comic book industry was brand new but he had an interesting assignment dc comics was looking for a compliment to the first superhero they had presented which was superman and to bob what made the most sense would be to go in the opposite direction and create a character who could be a superhero but really based in humanity but it's not that one hero struggles and the other does not it's that the struggles of superman are different when compared to the comparatively mortal batman both heroes possess a strong sense of ethics and both are very physically capable but their areas of vulnerability are different while batman struggles might focus more on his physical limitations rather than his ethical ones superman struggles focus more on his ethical limitations rather than his physical ones both characters are heroes after all and they became heroic by overcoming their respective limitations as said by joseph campbell the hero therefore is the man or woman who has been able to battle past has personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid normal human forms the injustice timeline for example and its depiction of a tyrannical superman is exactly what might happen should superman ever fail to overcome those ethical limitations push too far again by the death of lois lane where the joker sets off a nuke in the middle of metropolis superman is unable to overcome this ethical obstacle kills the joker and begins his reign of tyranny to recall the words of the women of marvel with the villain it's like no you can have moments of softness and moments of doubt and all of these things and then you're still the villain again we see a downplay of characters like superman and the ideals of traditional heroism heroes don't struggle enough heroes aren't complex enough heroes can't express themselves enough apparently this means pillars of moral fortitude like superman can only show moments of doubt softness and weakness by becoming a villain or forever casting aside his moral perfection and injustice superman seems to support these sentiments and let us not forget that a more emotionally volatile superman who loses control who crumbles beneath the weight of his own burdens who constantly doubts himself and snaps the next of his enemies he isn't offering death threats to was also the answer of zack snyder however contrary to what is apparently popular belief superman can fail and remain a model of ethical practice in fact we see this in ellen moore's whatever happened to the man of tomorrow a story in which like the injustice timeline superman fails in his role as a hero by the end superman had lost nearly everyone he had cared about many of his friends and allies died helping to defend the fortress of solitude and one final battle against superman's greatest enemies then we get to the final fight the true mastermind reveals himself to be mr mixoplek a powerful entity from the fifth dimension to quote superman bizarro the prankster the toy man metallo brainiac the kryptonite man the legion of super villains there's only one name missing isn't there i know you're there mixoplick mixoplick had been responsible for the destruction of superman's life until that point filled with rage and sorrow superman defeated his enemy by doing the unthinkable to quote torn in half between dimensions he panicked when he saw the rey and made a fatal error just as i knew he would i killed him lois i intended to kill him i just couldn't risk letting anything that powerful and malignant survive so i made up my mind and did it i broke my oath i killed him at this point alan moore's superman might not seem too dissimilar from snyder superman after all both versions intentionally killed their enemies out of necessity but the difference is what happens next lois tries to ease superman's guilt over his murder of mexiplex she offers superman the same excuse snyder uses to excuse superman's murder of zod to quote lois lane but you had to you haven't done anything wrong however superman doesn't accept that idea and he responds by saying yes i have nobody has the right to kill not mixoplick not you not superman especially not superman and what choice does superman make to again quote lois lane as he walked into the blinding golden light he turned and looked back over his shoulder he smiled at me i never saw superman again superman had exposed himself to gold kryptonite which permanently removes all of his powers so while snyder's more complex than nuanced superman christens his career with a murder alan moore's superman ends his career with one more superman knew that once he betrayed his oath and his role as a hero he no longer believed himself worthy of his tremendous power superman had the fortitude to face a future without powers the sense of justice to recognize his wrongdoing the prudence to choose a suitable punishment and the temperance to carry out said punishment with a hero you can have moments of doubt weakness and even failure and then you're still the hero neil gaiman's whatever happened to the cape crusader is all about batman's mini failures his inevitable failures where he can't escape the death traps or when a lucky burglar delivers a fatal blow when he can't overcome his mortal physical limits the batman dies but here batman doesn't break his oath why because what made batman the hero he became was not his extraordinary abilities but his endless fortitude his endless perseverance to quote batman the end of the story of batman is he's dead because in the end the batman dies what else am i going to do retire and play golf it doesn't work that way it can't i fight until i drop and one day i will drop but until then i fight while superman inspires us through his strong sense of justice and constant tests of temperance batman inspires us through his unwavering fortitude in the words of harvey bullock and then the floodwater hit like a battering ram and washed batman away and people said to me how did you keep going i said because he kept going and there lies the true friction between the two characters and how they see the role of a hero it isn't that they hate each other these two heroes simply place their focus on different virtues in fact this is summed up quite well in the last exchange between superman and batman superman i told him our job is to inspire them to be better than they are so that they can be better than they are and look at you you're frightening them you're as bad as the worst of them he said no batman no clark i won't stand between the worst of them and the city superman they've made a treaty all of them if i take you back to gotham they'll kill you they won't stop until you're dead and he smiled that scary smile he said and while they're trying to kill me they aren't killing innocents now take me home so i did that was the last time i saw him superman surrendered his powers because the moment he betrayed his morals his sense of justice he stopped being superman he was compromised in his view a man who kills doesn't get to be superman and the same goes for batman's fortitude batman is the hero who never stops the man who keeps going when all others would not but the moment he stops is the moment batman dies to quote martha wayne you don't get heaven or hell do you know the only reward for being batman you get to be batman both characters are written and have evolved into traditional heroes not anti-heroes and not villains and yet they struggle they're complex and nuanced they have moments of weakness and doubt and failure superman meets every critique the women of marvel offer as to why they identify with villains over heroes except superman didn't have to lower himself he didn't have to turn evil he didn't have to stop being a hero in other words a hero doesn't have to be perfect a hero can fail like superman a hero can even betray their ethics but what separates heroes from villains is their ability to endure failure and then choose to make the difficult journey back to the moral path whereas villains do not in the words of the greek philosopher aristotle you are what you do repeatedly an honest man does not become a liar because he once lied an honest man becomes a liar if he continues to lie and likewise a hero doesn't stop being a hero because they fail to be heroic they only stop being heroes when they toss away their heroism and keeping with the universal nature of superman and the heroic archetype he represents here's what mark hamill said on the topic of disney's horrific depiction of luke skywalker the hero of star wars i said to ryan i said jedis don't give up i mean even if he had a problem he would maybe take a year to try and regroup if he made a mistake he would try to right that wrong right there we had a fundamental difference but it's not my story anymore under ryan johnson the character of luke skywalker was given a similar treatment to zack snyder's superman to change a once hopeful optimistic and enlightened hero into a false idol a grim faithless iteration a gutted hollowed version of a much greater man to once again quote hamill it certainly surprised me to hear luke say it's time for the jedi to end i said what luke was the most optimistic and hopeful character and i had a real you know sort of back and forth with ryan hamel no longer saw luke as the idealistic hero he was once written to be just as so many no longer saw snyder superman or batman as the superheroes they were written to be because our idea of a hero is deeply embedded in our psyche our collective unconscious to quote campbell for the symbols of mythology are not manufactured they cannot be ordered invented or permanently suppressed through deku we've seen that heroes struggle through the all-star storyline we've seen that even superman struggles through the contrast of superman and batman we've seen that heroes aren't the cookie cutter characters that modern creators claim that even two noble heroes can be nuanced complex and as different from one another as any two villains and through the story of whatever happened to the men of tomorrow we can see that a character like superman can show moments of doubt weakness and failure without falling into villainy wonderfully demonstrating the bountiful narrative potential for stories and heroic adventures so if superman shares every trait that the women of marvel claim draws them to villains then as mentioned before these claims stop sounding like reasons and begin sounding more like excuses but again excuses for what we might be given a big hint when the women of marvel say this you get all this pressure for the hero to kind of stay in one lane because that's the moral character and the moral center of the story so when you remove the similarities we're left with only one clear difference as to why the women of marvel identify with villains over heroes just like snyder superman is burdened by his heroic obligations the women of marvel are burdened by morality the women of marvel feel restricted by ethics perhaps in the same way a tourist might feel restricted by a native language it becomes pretty telling then that so many modern protagonists written by many modern creators both villain and hero have ranged from morally ambiguous to downright morally insane so we get a superman who destroys a man's truck and livelihood for being a jerk we get a she-hulk who actively defies justice so her client can get revenge we get to captain marvel who assaults a man and steals his vehicle for again being a jerk we get a spotlight on villains like harley quinn who today can sometimes be seen alongside the justice league but is still depicted as a murderous psychopath as poison ivy says in the harley quinn cartoon series you're a bad guy but you're a good person keep in mind that this good person isn't opposed to gory displays of savagery nor violent conquest to quote harley quinn alira out getting lunch i was beating up an old lady to get a parademon army from another galaxy to which ivy responds you really want to kill thousands of people just because ah harley quinn what a pretty petty paragon of inspiration in kingdom come superman faces off against this very mentality when the world claimed that superman was a relic of the past and demanded more violent aggression from their guardians the result was similar to what we see now in modern media heroes who aren't heroic and closer instead to idolized villains to quote superman in our absence a new breed of metahumans has arisen a vast phalanx of self-styled heroes unwilling to preserve life or defend the defenseless a legion of vigilantes who have perverted their great powers who have forsworn the responsibilities due to them in other words going by what we've been given it isn't that traditional superheroes like superman are too perfect rather modern writers like zack snyder and the women of marvel don't know how to write characters who are morally sound but why not prudence temperance justice fortitude these are the virtues of which moral heroes are made but there's one thing that true heroes have in common that villains aren't required to have discipline heroes represent selflessness sacrifice dedication villains represent self-indulgence whereas heroes push toward their goal even at the cost of their immediate wants or most cherished desires villains encounter temptation along their journey and fail to overcome it choosing instead to indulge in their vices like a greedy hog from snyder's superman to the romanticized harley quinn these modern heroes ask the same question why be a hero at all it's a reminder of the iconic line from spider-man with great power must also come great responsibility but what we essentially get from zack snyder the women of marvel ryan johnson and creators like them is an aversion or outright resentment of not only responsibility and discipline but the maturity of character required to handle said responsibility to summarize they write like angry children resentful of having already grown up so we get heroes who throw emotional tantrums and act out of self-gratification rather than for the greater good and the emancipated yet still murderously insane harley quinn is the ideal role model beautiful quirky and dangerous enough to satisfy almost any indulgence suddenly we're pointed to the possibility that the people in charge of forging today's role models who are choosing characters written and characters idolized are the same angry juveniles who like peter pan have fallen in love with the idea of never growing up to quote leon the professional i'm old enough i need time to grow up the usual term for these kinds of individuals is pure eternus or the eternal child joseph campbell again provides a comment that highlights this exact idea in the united states there is even a pathos of inverted emphasis the goal is not to grow old but to remain young not to mature away from the mother but to cleave to her overall terms like relatable or realistic or deconstructed are simply excuses for the creator's inability to comprehend the character of a moral character or even comprehend the idea of a character who actively enjoys sacrificing for the greater good who is fulfilled by things these creators may only see as unwanted burdens unable to comprehend characters who are satisfied putting others before themselves who understand the notion of giving rather than receiving noble characters who simply love being heroes creators so egotistical that they equate relatable character with good character an unrelatable character with bad character the aforementioned mentality that heroes should be more like us instead of moral pillars for us to aspire to because as a master craftsman might pose a challenge for a student to one day reach or surpass his skill a superhero championing all four cardinal virtues might pose a challenge for us to one day reach or surpass their nobility so as a student might wish his master's demands were less demanding perhaps the want for relatable heroes i.e the one for heroes to be more like us rather than a want for us to become more like them is a wish for the ideal superman to be easier to reach a yearning for a lower standard the mentality of zack snyder superman and the women of marvel and so many other creators like them is that of a rebellious child who believes the example set by superman is too utopian when it absolutely is not in the words of aristotle if you hone your virtues every day when the time comes you will know what to do but unfortunately for the pure eternas self-improvement takes work discipline and emotional maturity something beyond selfish gratification something unthinkable for the pampered eternal child who is not only content worshipping their childhood shrines but rebels at any suggestion of doing otherwise but this rejection of maturity and responsibility is not just something joseph campbell pointed out that one might disagree on the value he places on story and myth even popular comedian bill maher pointed out this trend growing rampant in our modern culture to quote 20 years or so ago something happened adults decided they didn't have to give up kid stuff and so they pretend comic books are actually sophisticated literature and because america has over 4 500 colleges which means we need more professors than we have smart people some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like otherness and heterodoxy the silver surfer and now when adults are forced to do things like buy auto insurance they call it adulting and act like it's some giant struggle and this brings us to the other possible reason why the idealistic superman in particular is often dismissed why modern creators have fallen in lust with the imperfect evil or corrupted superman after all there must be something for the rebellious eternal child to rebel against because as the man who shows us the way a man compassionate enough to forgive while remaining stern enough to deliver discipline a man who pushes us towards excellence could arguably be seen as a father figure for humanity and as campbell noted the unfortunate father is the first radical intrusion of another order of reality into the beatitude of his earthly restatement of the excellence of the situation within the womb he therefore is experienced primarily as an enemy stop bothering me dad i don't want to play sports while the mother is often seen as the nurturer the father like mufasa to simba is often seen as the teacher in fact when speaking of the father writes a passage are not too far behind rituals that symbolize the growth from child to adult a journey of maturity and responsibility to quote campbell the so-called rites of passage which occupy such a prominent place in the life of a primitive society are distinguished by formal and usually very severe exercises of severance whereby the mind is radically cut away from the attitudes attachments and life patterns of the stage left behind normally after a time of training and education the child is torn away from the mother and thrust into life as an adult perhaps a more recognizable example might be a final exam final exams are usually taken at the end of the school year to determine if a student is ready to pass to the next grade a few more notable examples from comics might be samurai executioner with yamada saimon's execution of his father as proof that he's ready to take over the role of executioner a western example might be found in neil gaiman sandman when elder tribesman initiates his grandson by telling a story traditionally passed down through the generations to quote when he returns to the tribe he will truly be a man he will have heard the tale at night he will sleep in the young man's hut in both instances each rite of passage signifies that our protagonist has left childhood behind and has been granted passage to adulthood much like the elder tribesmen to his grandson the teacher to his student or yamada assimon's father to his son superman demands excellence from humanity he knows the way and he teaches us by example to paraphrase superman must be better than us so that we can be better than us so when the women of marvel say they relate to villains and reject the idea of the traditional superhero when we break it down their preference for morally questionable characters seems less like a necessary or enlightened choice and more like a rebellion against maturity a refusal to better themselves a refusal to leave the bliss of infancy and endure the rite of passage as mentioned by bill mayer in a world burdened by adulting one's worst enemy would be a figure like the ideal superman who demands they grow out of their infancy and whose very existence stands as a constant reminder of their failure a constant reminder that a better world exists but they lack desire to leave the cave and travel along their own hero's journey and so they might understandably begin resenting heroes like superman and feel closer to villains because villains don't have such requirements villains don't demand better from those around them the life of a villain is one of hedonistic indulgence to once again quote the women of marvel you get all this pressure for the hero to kind of stay in one lane because that's the moral character and the moral center of the story i feel that we identify with villains because of their struggle very rarely today do we have a villain that is just cookie cutter it's like oh you were traumatized and abused and you were like i'm going to reflect that back oh i would never do that but i feel that real deep it would be a catharsis i would rather see that story than the one where the person is like hi i'm a good person and that's it i'm going to punch the bad guy because choosing vice over virtue doesn't require sacrifice or maturity and so despite heroes having the same potential for variety diversity and story the eternal child might choose villainy as a sanctuary because villainy doesn't demand excellence in the words of superman i'm here because the world's in bad shape we have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in i want you to join the league willingly before you do you should know that we have rules heroes act in a certain way this isn't it those of you who take up with us willingly will be expected to be as responsible as you are powerful you'll be expected to behave better those who don't will be dealt with our job is thankless but we do what has to be done right now we're humanity's only hope be heroes because modern creators like most people understand indulgence they understand selfishness and pleasure they understand characters like the villains and the vigilantes who oppose superman eternal children who shy away from the maturity and the excellence demanded by superman and selfishly indulge in their power as supermen called them a vast phalanx of self-styled heroes unwilling to preserve life or defend the defenseless a legion of vigilantes who have perverted their great powers and who have foresworn their responsibilities due to them as the creator of bane and comics veteran chuck dixon pointed out the problem that superman has and it's not really a problem it's a problem for the creators it's a problem for the writers they don't know how to write good stories about a guy who is a boy scout a guy who has a moral spine a code of behavior he's a gentleman he's a paragon of virtue they simply do not know how to write that kind of character and make it interesting and the claim that villains have the freedom to be more complex because heroes are restricted by morality and yet the roadmap is drawn even though it seems like a very tight set of restrictions it's not there's a lot of room in there to tell great stories and on the topic that superman is too powerful to be interesting well he has the power of a god you know it's not interesting because how can you challenge him well the writers in the 50s and the 60s certainly came up with plenty of ways to challenge him and the idea of zack snyder that superman must be changed or updated to produce suitable modern stories because superman's powers ethics and ideals are not suited to his personal vision of how superman should be to this dixon says i've been in that corner and it was tough and it was challenging but i did it i didn't whine and cry and change the rules just to write my version of superman or somehow alter superman to my quote unquote vision in the end it isn't that superman is a bad or impossible character to write for he's just a more challenging character to write for just as the riddler might require a little extra work to develop riddles and a criminally extravagant scheme to tie them to superman 2 requires extra effort along with a fundamental understanding of a character with as dixon put it a moral backbone so instead of embracing virtue themselves they are content with taking virtue from those who have those like superman and as we've seen with captain marvel she-hulk and harley quinn romanticizing and ultimately glorifying their vices when creators attempt to convince us that our vision of the traditional hero is but an immature fantasy of a child that abandoning the shining light of superman will wake us from our dream world and enlighten us to the real one the truth is that the opposite is true because following superman means embracing discipline maturity and virtue it means undergoing the right of passage and accepting the responsibility of adulthood so instead we get an outright rejection of these ideas and a denial that the virtuous idealistic superman could ever be a reality at all maybe then it's no coincidence that so many new marvel characters in the spotlight are immature teenage versions of adult heroes but hatred for a character like superman is nothing new in fact plato explored this exact hatred in his allegory of the cave earlier we explored how superman could be seen as the escaped prisoner who ventured forth from the world of shadows into the real world and discovered a greater existence however when the prisoner decided to return to teach the other prisoners the escaped prisoner's eyes had gotten used to the sunlight and he could no longer see the shadows and so just as superman is often mocked for being too naive the escaped prisoner was also mocked for perceived lack of intelligence and eventually threatened with death but mocked or not threatened or not the prisoner returns to enlightens fellow prisoners because he chooses to unlike snyder superman who claims to be carrying out the dream of an old farmer the prisoner returns out of a want not an obligation foisted upon him by others superman became the symbol of justice and hope because of his actions it wasn't a burden placed on him by others but by his own compassion to paraphrase aristotle he became what he consistently did so maybe superman like all might smiles because he's a hero maybe superman's smile was worn because he genuinely enjoys being a hero superman suffers but for the sake of others he will suffer gladly and modern egotistical creators from comics to hollywood who believe dark gritty realism starring fragile neurotic heroes is the height of narrative sophistication have succeeded only in showing us shallow shadows while like the prisoners in the cave scoffing at a greater existence and writing it off as stupidity suited only for a dream world to these creators heroisms selflessness and genuine sacrifice seem like concepts beyond their understanding or their willingness to understand the legacy of superman is one forged over time with great care and love in this regard maybe superman isn't too dissimilar from that man and as frank miller once said about the great cape crusader he comes from a very dark beginning but you don't keep doing something for that long because you're depressed maybe even when our heroes change from primordial beings to titans to gods and then to mortal heroes it was indeed an evolution as stories and those who crafted them discovered the truth behind the ideal traits of the ideal hero stories which ultimately led plato to theorize the four cardinal virtues so when they say that the idealistic superman is a relic from the past a hopeful monolith of a bygoned era and that the real world superman wouldn't smile and he wouldn't love being a hero in the dark reality of today maybe the nebulous they have forgotten that superman loves saving others he loves protecting those in need and he loves showing us the way also superman first stepped into pop culture in 1938 with action comics number one when was this more optimistic time exactly was it during world war ii when the world stood on the brink of being conquered by a genocidal maniac was it during the cold war under the very real looming threat of nuclear annihilation is the world worse off now than it was back then and if the answer is yes wouldn't the shining light of hope shine even brighter in such dark times maybe superheroes were never meant to reflect the state of the world but what it needs most when asked what superman represents philosophically former superman actor christopher reeve answered a friend and that's what people really need most they don't need a strong arm vigilante force they need a friend maybe then it might not be a surprise to learn that the thought of superman as nothing but a tired symbol of the past is a lie as recent as march 26 2020 a poll showed that marvel might be the most popular comic book company but superman took the crown as the most popular hero so is superman still relevant today as long as there are monsters to fight as long as there are people in need of a friend as long as people yearn for a better tomorrow and as long as we need heroes the icon that is the idealistic superman has been is and always will be relevant after all in the darkest night we will always need a shining light to show us the way so

Channel: Literature Devil

Views: 142,878

Rating: 4.9233007 out of 5

Keywords: Superman Kingdom Come, All Star Superman, My Hero Academia, Batman v Superman, Harley Quinn, All Might, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Superhero, Superman, Is superman evil, is superman overpowered, Is superman a mary sue, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Zach Snyder Superman movies, DC comics fandom, Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Joseph Campbell, Hero with a thousand faces, Carl Jung archetypes, Plato philosophy, Plato allegory of the cave, comics explained

Id: d6YsDwg0HiY

Length: 84min 3sec (5043 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020

Reddit Comments

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[u/Roykka]

TL;DW: The Literature Devil discusses the heroic ideals Superman represents, if those are still relevant, and why both have fallen out of vogue in modern entertainment industry.

Episode VIII is mentioned shortly after 1h mark, and parallels are drawn between Superman and Luke Skywalker, including between Snyder!Superman and Jake.

However, listening to the video, I could not help but to think how Rey is essentially this smilar Morally Correct version of Luke, much like Batfleck is to Snyder's version of the DC. Somebody who needs no discipline, no standards of excellence, and no striving to do the right thing. Only knowhow which is given to her free anyway by the Sentient Cosmic Force, and her intrinsic self, because she is inherently, unconciously righteous.

Meanwhile Luke is torn down from the qualities that made him heroic in the first place. Particularly interesting are Jake's "criticisms" levied towards the Jedi. That they, somehow, created Vader and Kylo Ren, and led to Jake's own failure. The plotline is seeped in complaining about morality being something one actually has to make an effort to adhere to, rather than something that makes you unable to do wrong. That it's hard.

[u/Syn7axError]

Before I watch this video, my preemptive answer is "Yes, but the character was slowly made lame over time."

Just like Luke Skywalker is still great, but you have to deliver what makes him great.

[u/natecull]

I would love to see writing ideas for a Nolanesque Superman who wasn't portrayed as a threat because of his alienness / power level and as a stand-in for discussions around the ethics of government/military violence.

I can see why the character is awkward to fit into a realistic technothriller type of universe, but then Batman also seemed pretty hard to fit into that universe and Begins turned out really well.

It is an interesting challenge and I'd like to see how it might work.

[u/aaa1e2r3]

Literature Devil has his own tag on the sub?

[u/TheRealDestian]

Even as a kid, I always found Superman to be boring AF because he's either invincible, has been exposed to kryptonite and he's screwed, or he's brawling with other superbeings which generally isn't interesting to watch.

I kinda feel like he's the original Gary Stu: feels very much like a self-insert, everyone loves him, and was generally flat as far as personality and character growth went.