The Clockwork doesn't care

[Music] if you got the time I'd like to stay a while do you [Music] remember if you can read and like Superman your favorite Superman story is probably Superman that won't end up Allstar Superman a Timeless work of art that pushes the entire medium of comics into the Realms of respectable literature the film then cuts out five of the 12 issues for its limited 70-minute run time and it's all right both opens with the same bullet points that distill Superman down to his most essential understandable elements doomed Planet desperate scientists Last Hope kindly coule Superman so immediately we're made aware of how Mythic his basic and essential ingredients are and how familiar we've become with Superman stories Lois even wres article about him saving scientists before it even happens we don't know that yet Lois I always write Superman stories before they happen and le as expected is behind it he's already in prison in fact I'm getting older and he isn't the world of Allstar Superman has a very specific retro poppy style where they goofiest people and things can happen while the science is really specific and imaginative like when Dr Leo quintum presents a voyager Titan designed for deep space voyages nanut that shrink down to understand the mysteries of the cell and atoms quintum wants to escape a doomed Planet Humanity's past a dream inspired by Superman the purpose of all of this is to present a world where looking up to Superman isn't about worshiping a God but daring to be curious daring to be imaginative a world that's in the process of becoming a Utopia you're our inspiration Superman but then Superman's exposed to Too Much s triping his powers killing him something something something changing your mind oh I love [Applause] Superman you want me to [Music] be tell me what do you see superheroes are not real breaking news I know and instead of trying to make them real why don't we Embrace their impossibilities to give ourselves the imagination to be better Allstar Superman is about many things but what personally really touched me was its complete and total subscription towards this Superman is the man of tomorrow because he can accomplish anything and in doing so he teaches us to dream bigger and I thought really the basis of Batman for me is Batman always fights death Superman always Fates The Impossible all while being a really nice guy cuz the comic is also a character character study of someone who should be cynical he's dying and there's nothing he can do but in Superman's final days he continues to be naturally compassionate there's a cut moment where Superman stands in front of a mirror struggling to figure out how to tell lo as he's dying and as he slouches in the Clark Kent way the mirror still shows Superman standing the disguise is the ideal I could see how you'd make the mistake but despite this great B I'm not Superman this this is what's important to him Being Human experiencing a sense of everydayness which includes insults and being ignored by the woman he loves but not today today Lois learns of the truth through her we see his beautiful man cave that's a museum and an art gallery she sees his descendants one who looks like her father Superman also has a baby Sun eater incredibly dangerous but he looks after it why do you feed him SIDS little ones I make here on my Cosmic Anvil Grant Morrison and Frank Wiley really masterfully present Superman as both the Sun God and as a simple kind soul living in a world that isn't always so agreeing with him in very harmonious proportions Lois's birthday present is then the gift of being able to spend a day with his superpowers then they bump into Samson and Atlas who both wants Lois pissing Superman off what do I have to do to make you keep your hands off of my girl this is where the comic in the film begins to diverge not in terms of cut contents but in terms of the actual characterization of Superman James may say the mostly accurate lines and the animation does a great job in simulating Frank Wiley's art but the performance itself is way Sterner and doesn't really have the soft and friendly presence from the page just look at when borell points out Superman is puffing out his chest in the comic it's true he looks like a kid acting tough in the film it's more of an insult that Superman's genuinely intimidating presence isn't working but you don't have the best interest of this planet's people at heart and this is you puffing up your chest as a result the stuff with Samson and Atlas Superman comes off as being very weirdly possessive I don't like you much Samson anyways Superman answers the unanswerable question to save loest cuz these two jerks lured the bad guy over what happens when the irresistible Force meets the immovable object they surrender Superman then breaks their arms as the day ends he puts Lois to bed unfortunately the film also removes Lois talking about being able to smell the trees in Canada seeing gorgeous radio waves and hearing the Stars singing she got to see the world as he did and from that we learned that Superman may appear innocent soft and naive you know a big kid but this isn't actually a flaw he's informed by so many things that we can't even comprehend he sees and hears more all the time it's a truly Joyful Way To Live the next part is also just entirely cut Issue four where Jimmy Olson saves Superman by turning into Doomsday the black K Superman was everything you're not a bully a coward a liar and I'm sure Jimmy osen sounds exactly like this he's a a good kid made in Superman's image and I don't know I guess it makes sense to the Filman stad jumps straight to issue five Clark interviews Lex you're right like a poet but you move like a landslide Lex actually likes Clark he respects his skill as a writer and since he's a buffoon he sees him ironically as the sort of man Superman's very existence mocks in a world without Superman you're humble modest comically uncoordinated the unattainable lowest Lane might have noticed good old Clerk pining away in the corner human in short you're everything he's not you keep talking about me but I'm here to interview you I'm just saying a strapping Farm Boy with brains Integrity no discernable style of his own your priz catch for a cynical City girl but with him around you're a parody of a man a Dullard a [ __ ] Lex hatte Superman cuz here's a god who's natural in all of his strength who invites people to sit with him and that contradicts and devalues Lex's Pride as a self-made capitalist God who looks down on other people therefore altruism to Lex is the ultimate failure of imagination alternatives to truth justice and all the other things you can't weigh or measure however there is goodness in Lex when parasite escapes to try and suck off Clark Lex tries to protect him if you want to survive this stay with me his obsession with being strong could have actually manifested itself as a need to protect the weak but he's too Dawn in love with the story he's written for himself the story he wants clock to write he doesn't want the world to know he's dying of course so break the news G there's a few things I wish they kept like when Lex talks about how 65% of men subconsciously trim their eyebrows to look like Superman and this really passionate expression Clark makes when he tries to emphasize it didn't have to be this way but as an adaptation it's rather Splendid especially since it makes Lex less vitriolic he doesn't take every opportunity to insult Clark it's such a waste you and Superman could have been friends instead you're going to die ah but he'll die first therefore you really feel the tragedy of this bold man's wasted life a life which Superman can see the potential of every time he looks at him and also It prepares the film for ultimately a different payoff with the character they also cut out issue six where the Superman Squad from the future arrives on the day Jonathan dies Clark as a result questions what's the point of his powers what's the point of anything if he can't even say goodbye but he actually did the bandaged Superman from the future was him and he got three extra minutes it's an incredibly beautiful and smartly constructed issue but I guess I got to get rid of it cuz we've seen Jonathan die loads already the next two issues seven and eight are also cut where Superman escapes Bizarro world he meets zarro a one in five billion anomaly who's a poet and actually like a normal person he wants to leave too but Superman can't risk his life but he promises to contact him if he makes it back and inspires him with some really powerful words why else did this world this incredible organism make eyes like yours to see beauty and meaning where others see chaos in the film Superman's like poochie he just abruptly leaves after breaking Lo's heart we can't have children our biology is too different it's very sad but in 2024 there's actually a lot of comfort in seeing super happy man Family Man anyways in the missing months Lilo and barl legendary Kryptonian astronauts tears were Superman build down they dismiss joro and his son as ineffectual dreamers you could have built a new Krypton in this squala but it doesn't matter they're dying but despite their cruelty K looks after them after everything we've done you still show us kindness they give Kel permission to save them the only way he can The Phantom Zone in the comics issue n specifically there's this really satisfying full page where they stand above the inmates bringing order so for them this isn't punishment it's a task another big adventure as they say the point of all of this is that kryptonians can be arrogant but they are noble people dreamers a look to the Future qualities Superman inherited instinctually and has inspired Humanity to follow while at the same time he also carries Humanity's humility he's experienced love work grief and values kind action he doesn't just dream what civilization can be but what people can be humans bizarre Aros and kryptonians alike this all culminates in this incredibly beautiful issue that's also totally cut Superman's last usual day he visits dying children frees the kandorians on Mars with the help of Dr quintum and to see if the world can go on without him Superman created one to study our world and we created our own Superman with a paper and a pencil and my parents were terrified of the bomb so when you were a little kid that's the scariest thing in the world right and then I discover Superman com and Superman can walk out of a nuclear explosion laughing and his suit isn't even scorched so suddenly for me imagina there was a thing that could defeat the bomb it was called Superman if the bomb started as an idea so did Superman he can be a better idea he's not just here to fight the bad guys but he's here to hug us tell us we're stronger than we think Let's Get Zapped but he drinks the super serum beforehand and starts killing everyone he's been secretly working with salaris the son Luthor's secret Ally has finally revealed himself as a result Earth son is now poisoned so Superman leaves with his robots joining him out of loyalty the sun eater also AIDS but they're all killed so Superman is so angry that he takes the opportunity his friends gave him and tears Solaris until he pleads for mercy and in the film he replies I don't think I have any left which is pretty up cuz that's actually the exact opposite of the comic in which he says by the 24th century I'm told you'll are being rehabilitated to work with Humanity instead of against them Rehabilitation begins here Solaris Lex attacks Clark enters the afterlife where we have one of my favorite Superman scenes ever which the film of course cuts out Superman wakes up on Krypton where Jal explains how because Kryptonian cell structure has adapted to store energy Superman's death is actually him mutating to a new stage solo Radio Consciousness cuz matter cannot be destroyed or created he will enter a high existence Kel can either surrender to this process or go back one last time to fight evil the choice is rather obvious but jell tries to give his son a Break by eulogizing what he's done to have given them an ideal to Aspire to embodied their highest aspirations they will race and stumble and fall and crawl and curse and finally they will join you in the sun K in time you will no longer be alone Man of Steel took the speech and ultimately repurposed it as a set of instru CS which doesn't really make a lot of sense cuz seconds before jell talked about how Krypton fell apart due to its lack of Free Will so of course now he's giving orders what if Henry caval just wanted a simple life bro what what are you going to do tell him he can't I don't know the point is this speech is a beautiful moment that highlights just how unassuming Superman is the only thing that's on his mind is to concern for others and accomplishing the next great feat the sun is poisoned don't you get it sorus double crossed you and poisoned the sun you Fain stupid little man Lex cares more about the insult than actually doing something about it but then Clark wakes up increases Lex's personal Gravity by 500 times which accelerates his 24-hour superpower serum cuz gravity is connected with time everything is connected and Lex like Lois before finally sees everything the way Superman does he can see the universe is indifferent cuz like it or not everything is connected but that also means all we have are each other and this is how he sees things all the time every day it's a cruel joke the mechanistic Clockwork of reality hinging on a precious impossible Defiance of entropy on life and the Clockwork doesn't care it's like like it's all just us in here together we're all we've got as Lex cries and realizes Superman kisses lows for the last time his last great feet is flying into the sun purifying it time passes Lois believes he's coming back and Lex accepts his imminent execution but he tries to make things right just a little bit he gives quintum the Kryptonian genetic map he reversed engineered of course it will require an ovom from a healthy human woman in the comic Superman actually did that alongside instructions on how to combine human and Kryptonian strands which leads to the most important Superman line of the allall this is how much I trust jul leio thank you Superman thank you indeed as a result comic Lex is just kind of described as being faded and small but either way the future is secured there is a Superman 2 the world is saved from its past by the man of tomorrow in the comics Superman's last great feat is looking after us even after his death making sure we're taken care of in the film his last great feat is turning someone with so much hate into someone who believes this Allman film I think is the best movie they could have made under their 70-minute conditions do McDuffy took a pretty episodic series of Adventures that also had very strong metatextual themes to him exploring how Superman is The Conjuring of our greatest versions of ourselves and was able to turn it into a more cohesive drama about Redemption love and being a nice guy what's consistently removed are parts of the story that concretely show the promise of a better tomorrow shaped in Superman's image while at the same time the film puts a highlighter on the pre-existing Lex Luthor stuff so his Redemption can give the loose series of events a stronger emotional frame a more powerful payoff to something set up earlier on consequently up close these two pieces of media are about different things in one Superman's great final Feats are examples of the impossible he's not just a person but a dream the face of tomorrow and the other his great feats are things Lex could have accomplished too if he cared enough and the fact that he wasted his entire life so many times makes that all the more tragic you're right but that also creates a different satisfaction to the fact that it's him that secures Superman's future but I certainly had a similar feeling between the two in the end of the day we can invent so much as human beings and the idea we would conjure someone so much better than us to lead our imagination and work so hard to keep them alive that is truly a precious thing Allstar Superman isn't just about Superman's final days but it's about experiencing his everyday routines to show us the true content of his character underneath his superficial reputation Superman is not special due to being all powerful and he's not boring because he's too good because the combination of always being powerful and always being good requires the deeper strength and level of Enlightenment that when taken seriously can show us something we can actually imitate in our own everyday routines imitation is man's nature and if he bewis it so shall he surpass imagination's greatest Paragons if we imitated Birds by using our minds to imagine and create vehicles that let us fly Superman is also our invention to create a man of tomorrow we can follow the comic argues Superman as the first superhero is the purest version of this literary and philosophical goal if Batman can teach us how to overcome trauma Superman shows us how to embrace the beauty of every day such a different [Applause] [Music] in Superman some of the loftiest aspirations of our species came hurling down from imagination's Bright Heaven to collide with the lowest form of entertainment and from their Union something powerful and resonant was born Albert in its underwear he was Brave he was clever he never gave up and he never let anyone down he stood up for the weak and knew how to see off the bullies of all kinds he couldn't be hurt or killed by the bad guys hard as they might try he didn't get sick he was fiercely loyal to his friends in his adopted world he was Apollo the sun god the unbeatable Supreme self the personal greatness of which we all know we're capable he was the righteous inner Authority and lover of justice that blazed behind the dodged shirt front of hierarchical conformity in other words then Superman was The Rebirth of our oldest idea he was a god his throne top the peaks of an emerging dim store Olympus and like Zeus he would disguise himself as mortal to walk among the common people and stay in touch with their dramas and passions I'm going to end this video with that big quote from Grant Morris and super Gods because of course I would [Music] oh [Music] [Music] yeah man I love making these comparison videos what can I [Music] say where's the flash when you need him

Channel: Implicitly Pretentious

Views: 65,548

Keywords: superman, all-star superman, dc, dc animations, lex luthor, lois lane, batman, grant morrison

Id: YUbm0AfPMUI

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2024