Is Superman misunderstood?

A lot of people don't seem to understand the whole point of Superman. People think that Superman is just the strongest, so he must be super macho or he does whatever he wants or something. All they see when they see Superman is his strength and power, and they completely ignore Superman's moral code, his humility, and his strong character. Then there are people who think THEY are a superman. Which kind of defeats the whole point of Superman. Superman is supposed to be something bigger than us. A greater force for good. If we could match Superman, then he really isn't a "superman".

But my point is, some people when they look at Superman only see his powers, and that's all they want from the character. They just want his power, and they completely miss the big picture. I leave you with some quotes from Grant Morrison that I feel really describe what Superman is supposed to be.

“Actually, it's as if [Superman is] more real than we are. We writers come and go, generations of artists leave their interpretations, and yet something persists, something that is always Superman.”

― Grant Morrison, Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

“Because it all derived from Superman. I mean, I love all the characters, but Superman is just this perfect human pop-culture distillation of a really basic idea. He's a good guy. He loves us. He will not stop in defending us. How beautiful is that? He's like a sci-fi Jesus. He'll never let you down. And only in fiction can that guy actually exist, because real guys will always let you down one way or another. We actually made up an idea that beautiful. That's just cool to me. We made a little paper universe where all of the above is true.”

― Grant Morrison

“You 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, Kal-El.

They will stumble, they will fall.

But in time, they will join you in the sun.

In time you will help them accomplish wonders.”

― Grant Morrison, All-Star Superman, Vol. 2

Yes, most people hate Superman because of what they think they know and not what is true.

You would be surprised how little people actually know about Superman.

Superman has the reverse Aquaman Syndrome.

I very much agree, this is a good way to put it lol

All the people hating on Superman have probably never read a good Superman comic (in my experience at least)

That's how I pretty much was. I never liked Superman until I got bored and went to the library and on a whim picked up the Death of Superman.

I loved to read books when younger and understanding the basics of Superman was my favorite part of the character.

When he turned a villain into a hero by just refusing to kill him or her and putting his life on the line even to save the bad guy or girl.

This spoke so much about character and whom he is and what he stood for.

I can say I have read allot of stories and seen so many good and some bad lol.

The spirit of the hero lay in Superman but not just Superman the hero but Clark the down to earth farm boy and Kal-El the Alien who landed on a strange world and one day called it home.

I get the feel for the character and one day he seen a women flying and they came together for the famous kiss and Diana met Clark and you got that first hint at what a soul mate was and how long it took for the world to say. I think they have something in this. A spark lit the night and said to the dreamer in us all. Superman and you just could not help but Wonder.

We wondered for many years and it has come to pass.

A day in the life , a world amazed and I for one see the boyscout and the dreamer that looks out into space and he says.

"I think we can do it this time people , I think we can do super things if we try"

Live Long And Prosper...... Tribute to Lenard Nemoy.

In life we have but so long and then are idea is passed on our spark dances and goes someplace else.

The OP does have a point, there are a lot of unfair and false ideas about who Superman is and what he stands for. Hell, even DC and Warner Bros have completely the wrong idea about Superman nowadays, making him grim and gritty and edgy has never been what Superman is about. But it's for those people for whom DC and WB have been trying to make a new type of Superman but it's just not working out for them at all.

Well, I think Superman can be in a "grim and gritty and edgy" setting, as long as the character himself is still a strong moral hero. I love Man of Steel, btw. It had its flaws, but it was still a pretty good movie. I think you have to watch it multiple times to really understand some of the symbolism and stuff in the movie. There is a lot of references to Jesus in the movie. I think some people dislike the movie because of this; however, if you ignore every work of fiction that references Jesus, you'd be ignoring a large portion of classic works (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Scarlet Letter, Robocop, etc).

But I find DC Comics's handling of the character to be good. Sometimes he's written badly, but when you write a few Superman comics every month for 75 years, there are going to be bad issues. Superman Vs the Elite is probably the best Superman story that captures Superman's character. I also think the "Adventures of Superman" comic does a good job of capturing Superman's character, although I've only read a few issues.

A grim and gritty Superman story setting has to be done just right and very carefully to ensure that Superman doesn't become tainted by that atmosphere. A problem that DC seem to be ignoring by the way. And I'm afraid that I absolutely detest Man of Steel for corrupting and ruining my favourite character and what he stands for. I don't want to watch it multiple times because each time, it's a tortuous, nail grinding, gut punchingly bad experience to see my childhood favourite superhero become 'modernized' and 'relatable' to a so called general audience. I understand the symbolism just fine from one viewing, it beats the "I am Jesus" metaphor over your head so hard, you'd be left with a concussion if it were real. Superman has become far more of a humanist hero than a religious one nowadays. I don't dislike the movie because of the unsubtle Jesus metaphors annoying my atheist views, I dislike it for far worse reasons than that.

Recently though there have been far more bad Superman stories than good. Some might say Superman is in a better place than he was at the end of the Pre New 52 canon but the more I see New 52 Superman brood, whine and screw things up, the more I miss the classic Superman and what he stood for. Stories like Superman vs The Elite and Adventures of Superman are in short supply nowadays.

From the very beginning Superman had religious connotations to him. He was made in the 1930's. It was just part of the culture back then that almost everyone was either Jewish or Christian; atleast, they'd say they were. Superman's super strength could be attributed to figures such as Hercules or Sampson. Superman's origin story is borrowed from the story of Moses. So the religious connotations were there from the beginning. I don't think Superman was ever "humanist". He's always been portrayed as more of a traditionalist, usually he's Christian when he's given a religion (Which isn't often).

Lex Luthor is the one who is portrayed as Humanist or Atheist. But its important to note that Lex Luthor's version of humanism is specifically an amoral version of humanism. He doesn't believe in a right or a wrong, so its ok for him to do anything that benefits him. Sometimes, Lex Luthor is portrayed as having been raised religious, but rejected it when he became an adult. Although this is rarely brought up, because of the unfortunate implications of giving a hated supervillain real world religious beliefs. Lex's hatred of Superman is because he believes Superman is holding mankind back, and Lex believes he could solve all of mankind's problems, himself, but that Superman must die, first. His hatred of Superman is sometimes xenophobic, sometimes revenge for Superman causing Lex to lose his hair, but sometimes its because he views Superman as a "god". He thinks humans should be self sufficient, and shouldn't need some alien with super powers to save them.

If you find this offensive, then, to quote Shakespeare,

“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.”

Its not real. Nobody believes its real. So you can just ignore any parts you don't really like. And there are many different versions of Superman and Lex Luthor, allowing you to pick which ones you like.

I don't deny the religious connotations in his origin but ever since DC's acquisition of the character rights to Superman, Superman's morals and actions have been far more in line with what a humanist believes than serving as the Jesus/Moses allegory the Shusters were inspired by. And I strongly disagree with your point that Superman is religious too, that's a very dubious and misguided statement to make of current Superman. He did go to church in the past but in Superman For All Seasons, Clark said he didn't want to go to church anymore because he didn't want to hear all the people confessing to their sins and the worst of humanity. He wanted to focus on the best of humanity in his own way and that's a very humanistic line of thinking. If that doesn't convince you, there's also this panel which has become one of my favourite Superman panels.

Two examples of Superman acting very much like a humanist, thus countering your point about Superman being a traditional Christian in comics.

Besides, your example applies just as much to Superman as it does to Lex. Superman can't be painted as a Bible bashing Christian because that would offend his atheist fans, myself included. As for Lex, I can definitely say that Lex's atheism fits with the nihilistic secularist perspective and not that of the majority of atheists. Moreover, Superman also thinks that humanity needs to rely on itself too, he just helps out with the bigger problems. Though it's true Superman might worry he's helping people too much or too little, he still believes in the human potential to better ourselves, our talents and our ability to solve our own problems. Another humanistic philosophy.

I don't find your view offensive at all. It's just another view people are entitled to have which can be discussed and talked about, hence my rebuttal. And I'm more than aware of the escapism of superhero comics, hence my interest in them, but it doesn't change the fact that the damage to Superman has been done in recent years. Not to mention that there are now supporters of The New 52, Injustice and Man of Steel who think this is how Superman should be rather than the inspirational, kind hearted and friendly Big Blue Boy Scout he was before. It's hard to focus on your favourite version when he's no longer around and we're stuck with something else instead.

I personally find something inspiring in all the different versions of superman.

The golden age superman always stood up for the little guy and never let the men with the money and power control the him.

The silver age superman was friendly( for the most part) and was the more Christ like figure that many people think of today

Post crisis took the best parts of the silver age and brought him into the modern world. He's the down to Earth Superman that most people on here grew up with. He's the guy who'll help you up if you had a bad day and believes in the strength of humanity.

Kingdom come Superman had the powers of the post crisis superman, but the maturity and attitude of the golden age superman. This is personally my favorite superman

The New 52 superman is interesting because its incorporating all the different eras of superman into one, but also adding a 21st century flair to him.

I probably like Golden Age Superman the best. Have you seen the Public Domain Superman cartoons? Those were the bomb. Since they are public domain, they are easy to find on Youtube, but good luck finding a good quality version.

I think some of the misunderstanding and/or hate for Superman comes from the pointless battles that people put him in. Battles like Goku vs Superman or Batman vs Superman. Some get too wrapped up in feats and not in what the character is all about.

To me the greatest problem that leads to misunderstanding Superman, is because each writer gives us a different Superman. There isn't a solid view of who Superman should be and what he should do.

And of course some fans appreaciate some writers more than others, seeing in their version of Superman, the version they like the most.

And althought that's true with most characters, none is affected by it more than Superman.

Lets face, the way I, you, and maybe each other fan of Superman, see him, is different from one another.

Superman has so much potential, and reaches to so many people, that given all the different versions we've been shown of him, it's no wonder, people seem to misunderstand him. But the main question is... Are they really misunderstanding Superman? Or are they only defending the Superman that to them is the real one?

Superman > your favorite character

Thanks for creating this topic i can just send this to everybody saying that superman's a boring character instead of explaining myself ^^.

I don't think his purpose was to be an alegory to any religious character, but at the same time he should be a figure of good that any religion that values moral good could look up to.

Always

@superadam: Superman fans are so annoying. Why can't you accept some people don't like Superman? your answers are "because you don't understand him" or "because you are a Batman fanboy" or my favourite "because you hate America". Jesus Christ. I think Superman is out of time, his costume, his story, his moral, it's so old. I read some Superman stories and some of them are really interesting, but the character is just boring. People love superheroes like Spiderman, Deadpool, Daredevil, the X-Men etc etc, have you idea how much Superman seems old compared to these characters? Do you like the man of steel? fine, but please stop saying people don't like him because they don't understand his potential.

I'm saying people LIKE him because they don't understand the character. A lot of his fans have this idea that Superman is "gangsta" and he does whatever he wants. Which runs so opposite to the actual character.

Also, I don't like America (I'm an anarchist), but I still like Superman.