http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080614/ennew_afp/entertainmentuscomics_080614070214

Quote :

"Superman, the original comic book superhero, turns 70 this month, but his strength and invulnerability draws fewer fans in the 21st century world of flawed, postmodern heroes."

Quote :

"In his 2007 master's thesis at Georgia State University, another student of the genre, Aaron Pevey, wrote that Superman lost popularity precisely because he is invulnerable."

Is this truly the common opinion? No other comic book character even comes close to the S in my book in terms of excitement and general epic tone. Plz to explain?

6/14/2008 1:40:11 PM

I was never a Superman fan.

6/14/2008 1:42:25 PM

i was a huge comic book fan as a kid and superman never interested me hardly at all. superman generally LACKED excitement for me compared to other characters.

6/14/2008 1:45:48 PM

DC in general sucked except for Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

...and maybe some Alex Ross and MacFarlane illustrations here and there.

[Edited on June 14, 2008 at 1:49 PM. Reason : k]

6/14/2008 1:47:03 PM

MAYBE IF THEY HADN'T FUCKED UP THE LAST MOVIE

6/14/2008 1:54:00 PM

Right right....but care to explain why? Or is it just 'cause?

6/14/2008 1:54:28 PM

Superman is just boring to me. The only movie/comic I liked is where doomsday killed him. (the only superman comic I own btw)


any Mainstream Marvel Superhero > Batman > Superman

6/14/2008 1:55:26 PM

i think superman is not appealing because people are too skeptical these days
they dont even believe in god so they think that heroes must have the weaknesses of everyday people so they can seem more real

this kind of relates to my scifi thread, the fantasy scifi is not as popular is the scifipunk because its too unbelievable

6/14/2008 1:56:39 PM

Quote :

"i think superman is not appealing because people are too skeptical these days they dont even believe in god so they think that heroes must have the weaknesses of everyday people so they can seem more real"

That's a crying shame.

6/14/2008 1:59:17 PM

6/14/2008 2:07:02 PM

Outside of Lex Luthor, there aren't any memorable villains for Superman like there are for Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, etc. That's why superheroes like Batman are more appealing to me

6/14/2008 2:09:28 PM

Everyone hates a Boy Scout. Especially a stupid one.

Batman FTW.

6/14/2008 2:25:26 PM

6/14/2008 2:31:07 PM

^ Those speech bubbles say "I'm done talking. Get out of my cave."

6/14/2008 2:34:02 PM

I was just reading DK2 the other night..and cataclysm.

[Edited on June 14, 2008 at 2:47 PM. Reason : and now i'm going to read no man's land]

6/14/2008 2:46:44 PM

nerds...

6/14/2008 3:07:48 PM

i agree. just break down the name "Superman" you would never have a new hero with a name like that anymore.

"Awesomedude"

6/14/2008 4:55:43 PM

he'll be back...these things run in cycles

it's too much of a modern myth to fade away just because people like their superheroes in black in the moment

oh yeah and they should have made superman more like the Kingdom Come version in that new movie, it would have been way more butch

6/14/2008 5:31:00 PM

6/14/2008 5:34:02 PM

^^
haha you just love Alex Ross

6/14/2008 6:06:30 PM

You're all missing the best part of this:

Quote :

"In his 2007 master's thesis"

dude did a fucking thesis on Superman

6/14/2008 7:46:39 PM

superman was always my favorite comic book character cause i thought he was like the most "invincible"

6/14/2008 7:58:49 PM

^ That's why he was always my least favorite. I always preferred Batman because he is more like a detective than a super hero.

6/14/2008 8:27:53 PM

superman returns was just on. does this movie have a bad reputation? i really enjoy it everytime i watch it, and my only complaint is that there was no big fight.

6/14/2008 8:48:00 PM

yeah i didnt hate it...didnt really "love" it...i too woulda liked a big fight rather than lifting up a fucking chunk of land

6/14/2008 9:28:46 PM

The author got it right; Superman sucks because he's invincible. I mean, he already has the problems of having absolutely no character, sucky villains, and being completly unsympathetic, but the fact that there's no tension in his fights really kills him for me.

6/14/2008 10:57:12 PM

Hulk is becoming the new invulnerable superhero who gets stronger when he gets angrier and gets angrier the more he gets beat up...I wonder if he will begin to lose appeal.

6/15/2008 12:03:35 AM

Quote :

"I mean, he already has the problems of having absolutely no character,"

The constant inner-struggle and selflessness with regard to pursuing Lois? (speaking classical Superman, of course)

Quote :

"sucky villains"

Yeah, Doomsday was totally not the most epic fight in the history of comic books.

Quote :

"and being completly unsympathetic"

Unsure what that means.

Quote :

", but the fact that there's no tension in his fights really kills him for me."

See the picture someone posted about 10^

6/15/2008 12:26:48 AM

Superman has always sucked ass.

He has one weakness that you can see a mile away in any sort of plot

6/15/2008 12:29:04 AM

You pour souls. Alrighty then. Good thread. I've got a pulse on the article now.

6/15/2008 12:30:31 AM

Kingdom Come can be read as one giant plea for people to like Superman again, and I still don't.

So yeah.

Fuck Superman and his simpleton ass.

6/15/2008 12:37:59 AM

I'll agree with the people not liking superman.

I did when I was a really little kid, but soon I wanted my heroes to have flaws and weaknesses (more than 1)

Quote :

"Hulk is becoming the new invulnerable superhero who gets stronger when he gets angrier and gets angrier the more he gets beat up...I wonder if he will begin to lose appeal."

I don't mind the hulk, because usually when he gets that angry and powerful he basically becomes the bad guy. I don't mind powerful bad guys.

For me, Wolverine is becoming the new invulnerable superhero. It's ridiculous the stuff he supposedly lives through, to where there's basically no excitment to a fight, because you know he's going to win eventually, even if he's reduced to a smoldering scrap of metal.

6/15/2008 1:00:59 AM

lol i was always one of those "superman could just kill everyone with his laser beam eyes" kinda people

[Edited on June 15, 2008 at 1:06 AM. Reason : or if not that, he could just zoom around and no one would catch him then]

6/15/2008 1:06:28 AM

Since some of you obviously don't seem to know this, I'll help--part of what's affecting Superman's wider popularity is this notion of the superhero as a symbol of imperialism:

Quote :

"By working outside the law, Superman is in affect breaking it. True, this 'good' character is a well-meaning hero. However, he pays no attention to the rights of others as he is obsessed with the global interests of America, and whoever defies these interests becomes his natural enemy. This civilized looking but ferocious character is easy to recognize by the masses as he culturally and geographically stands for the global superpower, the west. He stands as the symbol of western imperialism."

http://jas.cankaya.edu.tr/jas6/(08)ErtugrulKoc.pdf

Though I would counter that Superman should actually be viewed as the ultimate immigrant success story.

Superman is even used in anti-American propaganda in Cuba:

Quote :

"Che Guevara was yesterday, Elian Gonzalez is today. And that's precisely how Cuba is playing him. In what's called the Museum of Ideas in Cardenas, he has already been cast in bronze as the revolutionary hero preparing to throw Superman — in Cuba a symbol of imperialism — onto the rubbish pile of history."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/28/60minutes/main888950_page3.shtml



And the image of a caped, white superhero as an oppressor has even taken hold in American popular culture:



Evil Empire – Rage Against the Machine

A secondary point might be that Superman is portrayed as a square "Boy Scout." These days, many prefer not to be reminded of or compared to virtuous Boy Scouts, because they themselves are not Boy Scouts--literally or figuratively.

And there's the Nietzschean stuff, of course, but I'm not even going to get into that.

[Edited on June 15, 2008 at 1:20 AM. Reason : .]

6/15/2008 1:14:18 AM

somebody embed the Christian Bale interview thingy where he talks about kicking Superman's ass

6/15/2008 5:30:55 AM

Superman is just fucking lame. Seriously, who gives a shit.

I think superhero comics by and large are garbage anyway, but srsly, aside from Kingdom Come, Supes is pretty terrible as a character in the way he's portrayed 99% of the time. Might as well have a comic about Jesus.

Yes, if it were still the thirties and the cultural significance of two Jews making a comic about a modern-day golem carried the weight that it did back then, then it might be something. But these days he's just a dick in his underpants.

6/15/2008 7:46:01 AM

I want darkness and grit in my movies

superman is to clean

GIVE SUPERMAN ALSHEIMERS

thats reality

6/15/2008 7:49:00 AM

reality is, superman could defeat batman and spiderman without even flinching

(and i'm a huge batman fan)

6/15/2008 9:20:47 AM

That's why he sucks.

I think I'm going to write a comic about a character that's completely omnipotent, and can do anything he wants with just a thought. He will never face any real challenges, plus he's like the perfect person and always does the right thing, then I will have to find some way to stretch the book out since every bad guy he fights can be killed in like 1 frame.

Wouldn't that book be exciting!?!

6/15/2008 9:26:32 AM

omnipotent hero vs omnipotent villan?

win?

6/15/2008 9:36:44 AM

My feelings toward Superman are basically the way I feel about The Hulk, both are attempts at making one unstoppable character, and that is never as interesting.

Superman at least has one weakness, the shit they've done with some of The Hulk's story-lines are completely ridiculous. He really has no weakness, can't die, and even if you kill Bruce, he's still alive as The Hulk, haha.

6/15/2008 9:45:33 AM

Quote :

"I think I'm going to write a comic about a character that's completely omnipotent, and can do anything he wants with just a thought. He will never face any real challenges, plus he's like the perfect person and always does the right thing, then I will have to find some way to stretch the book out since every bad guy he fights can be killed in like 1 frame. Wouldn't that book be exciting!?!"

I think they already made that as a novel and it's the best-selling book of all time.

6/15/2008 9:48:10 AM

I always thought superman was sack of shit because he could do EVERYTHING and still managed to lose. That's beyond epic fail

6/15/2008 11:27:04 AM

Quote :

"For me, Wolverine is becoming the new invulnerable superhero. It's ridiculous the stuff he supposedly lives through, to where there's basically no excitment to a fight, because you know he's going to win eventually, even if he's reduced to a smoldering scrap of metal. "

Isn't that how all superheroes work? THEY ALMOST ALWAYS WIN? The outcomes are easier to see than a pro wrestling match.

6/15/2008 12:11:43 PM

Also, the way superman fights with all of the powers he has is boring. If you could do all the shit he could do, fighting would look completely different than an exaggerated barroom brawl.

Superman isn't creative enough to come up with a martial art that maximizes his abilities. Contrast this with batman, whose only skill is ingenuity.

6/15/2008 12:26:37 PM

i guess i'm the complete opposite
i always liked superman b/c of all the crazy/unreal stuff he could do. i thought it was awesome that he was practically invulnerable and had tons of abilities

6/15/2008 12:51:32 PM

Quote :

"he'll be back...these things run in cycles it's too much of a modern myth to fade away just because people like their superheroes in black in the moment"

aye

6/15/2008 1:23:00 PM

Quote :

"DC in general sucked except for Alan Moore and Frank Miller. ...and maybe some Alex Ross and MacFarlane illustrations here and there."

are you crazy? DC fucking rocked. Green lantern? Batman? Superman? Justice League? I mean, c'mon...

6/15/2008 1:31:04 PM

if they make a new superman movie with darkseid as the main villain you'll all be shitting yourself





[Edited on June 15, 2008 at 2:04 PM. Reason : ]

6/15/2008 1:55:14 PM

we can only hope

6/15/2008 1:57:04 PM