I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed, but Superman isn’t as popular as he used to be. Some say it’s because he’s boring (which is only a half truth at best). Here’s the problem, people don’t deal with the interesting arc of his character. Oh no. They ignore the juice and jump head first into the Death of Superman story as if that concept makes any sense at all.
And f@&* Doomsday. That character is a poorly put together ham and cheese sandwich. Though the over all “New Gods” concept is really cool... but why does this flake of a character get to kill the man of steel? Why not someone important like Lex Luthor or Brainiac? But I digress.
What people ignore are the “human” (or in his case kryptonian) elements. What happens when Lois and Perry and Jimmy grow old and die but Superman is still around saving the world. Isn’t he immortal? Does he age? What does he do with himself when the alias of Clark Kent no longer means anything? And (to poorly quote Watchmen) “Why should [he] save a world [he] no longer has any stake in?” But that’s what interests me about the character...
Maybe I’m biased because the first serious thing I ever sat down to write was a Superman Trilogy that covered all (at least most) of these questions. Superman Vs. The Old Ones. I still think it’s a badass idea...
But there’s another thing responsible for the collapse of Superman’s popularity. His movies are always (ALWAYS) lame. Who wants to watch Superman fly around for two hours fighting natural disasters? I mean, what’s the point? What we need is a Superman that’ll actually do battle. And if you wanna shove that Doomsday plot down our throats, at least have the decency to make that final war entertaining.
P.S.- A very similar thing happened to the Incredible Hulk... but they fixed that with this most recent installment.
P.P.S.- Neither of the above mentioned heroes are my favorite... but that’s a different article.
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