I bring us here today to introduce something i have been dying to try out. Every week i will attempt to "contemplate" From my VERY Limited and New view point, the near infinite facets of Comic books, Manga, and Entertainment Media that happens to Catch my fancy that week. I am fairly New to Comics(one or two years in fact) which explains the "Newbie."I am also fairly young, which explains the "Limited"
Well without further Ado, Here we go.
This week I will focus on Comics, or more Specifically, the Morality of New 52 Superman
Oh Boy, were to begin? OH i know! We shall start with the cornerstone of human consciousness(oddly enough, he ISN'T human) and enough Morality to keep the justice league in check.(The super strength helps too). The one and only SUPERMAN!
Due to his insanely long publishing history(seriously, i wasn't even born for some of this stuff) and multi-universal versions with completely different characters floating around out there.(Ultraman anyone?) I suppose i should narrow it down to the version of Superman. Pre Crisis being before my time, and having not read much of Post Crisis superman(Not my fault, My roommate finds him Pretentious and bans his comics) i guess ill go with the New 52 Installment version of him and compare it to another, younger Version of him for effect.
To start, let me explain. I have always viewed Superman as kind of a Wuss. I mean, all that power and he still lets people beat him now an again. So in my sparse readings containing him, i came up with the Nugget that is N52 Action Comics #01. This issue changed my view of superman and everything he stands for. Not even the entire Issue, but Right from the get go had my Jaw on the Ground and me Scanning the pages with a Maniacal Fervor. and if you don't understand why, you haven't read Action Comics numero Uno
Neither does it help that he goes on to pull a full on batman, Reminiscent of The flash in JLU Animated.
As you can see, This superman is clearly Inexperienced with his Powers, hes younger, rowdy, and basically your average teenager. He knows that he is stronger than those around him and wants to make sure everybody else knows he is to.
It's sloppy, Rough, Odd, and downright perverts the Images that people gain of Superman from Other Media. And you know what? We Like it. No matter how much we argue the Fact of Supermans' held back morals being Part of his character and an essential key to what makes Superman. We all feel that little School girl inside of us Squeal with Joy when the Big Man really Lets go. It's awesome and it feeds the Dark side in all of us. Which begs the Question-"why not more?" the answer to which is vague and fluctuates from one person to another, so will just give my opinions on "Why".
Plot
Seriously, the ultimate weapon in any Story, whether it be comics or a web toon, Is the Story itself. It keeps the Viewers interlaced within a fantasy world, Makes them weep when the Hero or heroine dies, and makes us leap with joy at their triumph over the "Big Bad" and sadly, Is the reason why Superman doesn't simply Crush every lame-name villain(Kryptonite man...really?) that he comes across lately. It's also because, NO ONE want's to read that. It's repetitive, Boring, and Our dark side gets Full of it after about two doses of it. He NEEDS to Struggle, Because without it, he is just another Power Ranger Megazord Stomping the enemies with one super move and Posing(PR was the Shiznit though..) and it lets the sweet little golden nuggets when he actually lets loose all the better.
"Heroism"
No matter how cliche it may sound, He IS still a hero through and through. Seeing him smash a skull every other week kind of ruins the Image.
He Grew up
As mentioned, Above is a younger superman, We love him, but what happened? Where is the Reckless abandon we saw? WHY ISN'T HE SMASHING SKYSCRAPERS?! because at some point in his Superpowered life, Superman realized-It isn't about doing whats right, its about doing whats right so that nobody gets hurt. So he can save People from a Burning building, Whats it matter if he set the building alight with his Heat vision? So he can hold his breath and Lift Metropolis from being half submerged(Stick with me) Who cares when the sinking is an after affect of his Fights? In other words: Power means nothing when all it's used for is cleaning up after yourself
A combination of all the Above has Made the superman we all know and love.
To Conclude-
Yes this has been short, but time runs short for me. I bring this all together with this-
The superman of N52 may be a giant fluffy Bear, but it's for that reason we love him. Do we wan't him to cut loose more often and finally teach the world what it means to be SUPERman? Yes. But should he totally lose all sense of his moral compass, He would lose sense of what it means to be superMAN and we as Readers would Lose interest entirely. It would make everything he has been though, all of the Death that has shaped his views on the world(Jonothan IS dead in New 52, correct?) the lessons he has learned from the destruction he has caused, And he would no longer be an Icon to Humanity and instead become a Monster that needs to be put down. What some people grew up with would disappear entirely, their memories would be crushed and buried, their Dreams fade, and Hope for the future dim slowly.
Feed back is appreciated, i may have missed, well, everything. But i really just needed to get some thoughts written(typed?) down. I hope you enjoyed this session of "Contemplation from a Newbie"
Sorry if it sucked :P
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