superman returns: more stuff

[mimesere]

HE DIDN'T KNOW.

Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent DID NOT FUCKING KNOW LOIS WAS PREGNANT WHEN HE LEFT EARTH. He didn't know he had a kid until the LAST FIVE MINUTES OF THE GODDAMN MOVIE.

Do you *seriously* think he would have gone on a quest to find his biological family if he'd known the woman he loves was going to have his *child*? Do you SERIOUSLY FUCKING BELIEVE THAT? Because if you do, I'm sorry, that's retarded. The minute he found out and was NO LONGER IN A FUCKING COMA, he hightailed it out of the hospital and WENT TO SEE HIS KID. 'Cause yeah, that's the action of a deadbeat dad.

Stop it, fandom. Please. Just stop it. You are smarter than that.




I thought the whole *point* of Superman was that here is this guy with god-like powers, who can do ANYTHING he wants to do, and what he *wants* to do is help people. That he can't *not* help people. That he has to struggle *every day* with the knowledge that what he *can* do and what he *should* do aren't always the same thing. As far as I know the origin story, Jor-El told him to be all Mr. Inspiration Pants so that the people around him -- i.e., us -- would follow that example of HELPING OUT THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU and thus, you know, make the world a better place.

What I know about Superman is that he's a genuinely good guy, a great reporter, has a hell of a temper, doesn't always think things through all the way, and generally prefers a SMASH THINGS GOOD more hands-on approach towards solving problems. He's relatively well-adjusted, he's concerned about himself getting out of control such that he gave Batman the means to an endgame *just in case*, he loves his ma and his pa and his wife and his friends (and his son) and his city. He loves the holidays and brings people home for Christmas. He's the last son of Krypton, he's an immigrant, he's an orphan, he's adopted, he's a father. He thinks Batman is pretty fucking awesome and takes the piss out of him anyway. He's not the most politically capable person ever, but he tries, and he hates on political corruption like whoa. Also, he hates Nazis. He's an outsider, he's a good listener, he *likes* people, he loves sassiness and intelligence and guts, he's naive, he's stubborn, he's trusting, he *believes*.

But that's boring, I guess. Nothing interesting there.


My Superman canon consists of the following so far:
Superman: The Movie
Superman II
Superman Returns - movie, novelization, comic adaptation
Look! Up in the Sky...
Kingdom Come
The Death of Superman
Superman: Red Son
Superman: Birthright
Superman: For All Seasons
Mythology
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Superman/Batman: Supergirl
Superman/Batman: Absolute Power
Batman: Hush
JLA -- assorted collections
Trinity
Justice League -- the animated show

Also? anonymous_sybil wrote fic. Which you should read. Yes.

Comments

[gloss]

I fear to ask what's going on. *trembles* I do love your description of him, though.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

*snuggle* It's a criticism of the character that makes me insane in the exact same way that "Norrington is a villain!" made me insane in PotC fandom. Like, it's something that has nothing to do with the *character* and everything to do with the person making the criticism and it makes me *nuts*.

And Supes is awesome like burning and I love him.

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

Is this about a person on my flist? Because I swear, he's totally kidding.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Heh. Not unless they are also on my flist. Like, I can take criticizing the movie on a lot of levels; I won't agree, but I can see that they're valid criticisms. But the people who went in to SR expecting a snarky, quippy action-fest *or* the people who are all, "OMG, Supes is a dick for being a eadbeat dad!" make me insane because that's their issue and not an issue of the movie itself. For the first, Supes is not the snarky quippy action-fest guy, and for the second, he didn't *know*.

arrgh.

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

HE DIDN'T KNOW.

Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent DID NOT FUCKING KNOW LOIS WAS PREGNANT WHEN HE LEFT EARTH. He didn't know he had a kid until the LAST FIVE MINUTES OF THE GODDAMN MOVIE.

Do you *seriously* think he would have gone on a quest to find his biological family if he'd known the woman he loves was going to have his *child*? Do you SERIOUSLY FUCKING BELIEVE THAT? Because if you do, I'm sorry, that's retarded. The minute he found out and was NO LONGER IN A FUCKING COMA, he hightailed it out of the hospital and WENT TO SEE HIS KID. 'Cause yeah, that's the action of a deadbeat dad.

Stop it, fandom. Please. Just stop it. You are smarter than that.

Thank you. No, seriously. THANK YOU. This criticism is ALL ABOUT dinging the character just to ding him. And you know what really, really, *really* frosts me? Is that a lot of times, the same people who are all "deadbeat dad" or call him an asshole or whatever because he took Lois on *one last flight* to SAY GOODBYE AND APOLOGIZE TO HER are the *very same people* who don't like the character/think the character is uninteresting because he's BORING AND ALWAYS DOES THE RIGHT THING ALL THE TIME.

And I'm just like ... Look, you can't have it both ways. You can't ding him for being boring and perfect and always knowing the right thing to do and AT THE SAME TIME get on him when he actually makes a flawed or questionable decision. If you're not interested in the character because he's "too much of a Boy Scout" or whatever, then no, you don't get to call him names when he does something that's *less than perfect* because good goddamn, isn't that the very thing you've claimed you needed to see him do to find him interesting -- something less than perfect?

But yeah, the "deadbeat dad" thing makes me rage with the fire of a thousand Kryptonian suns. So just ... thank you.

[gloss]

think the character is uninteresting because he's BORING AND ALWAYS DOES THE RIGHT THING ALL THE TIME.
Uhhh, they do know he's Superman, right?

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Apparently not.

*sad face*

So, I was going to randomly pimp Supes to you some more and do that by comparing him to Oz and it occurred to me that I *really* have a kink for people who are (rightfully) concerned about what happens when they lose control and, perhaps more on point, I am super fascinated (hah. super.) with people who recognize the importance of discipline and self-control...

er. which is a lot like stoicism in a way and we all knew I had a thing for that, so I will stop now.

But Clark! Supes! Is the BEST!

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

There was a whole paragraph in there about the phenomena of ragging on Superman for being both too perfect and not perfect enough, but I deleted it because it used the word fuck a lot. Er. More than I already used it.

I was *really* pissed last night, apparently.

[polaris-starz.livejournal.com]

Was Superman: Birthright the Kurt Busiek one? Because I absolutely adored that story.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Superman: Birthright (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401202527/sr=8-1/qid=1153980416/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2071820-3326218?ie=UTF8) is the Mark Waid version of the origin story. Superman: Secret Identity is the Busiek.

And now you make me want to go find that one. Oh darn, have to read more about Superman! It is such a chore. Woe.

[gloss]

Busiek's writing Action Comics right now and I think you'd really groove on the story. Superman gets his powers back but not everyone trusts him...

[anonymous_sibyl]

Deadbeat Dad? Superman? *cries* Sometimes, fandom, I can't even.

And than you for the rec. Just, Richard, you know? He needed something.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

dude, I *know*. It makes me cry sometimes too.

And Richard is *awesome*. I love him! He is adorable! and oh oh, James Marsden has a wonderful blooper on the reel that you will love, for it is cute like burning.

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

Deadbeat Dad? Superman? *cries* Sometimes, fandom, I can't even.

I *know*.

I think what most kills me about the criticism -- aside from the burning stupid of it, mind you -- is that it's *so clearly* based on some supposition of what *might* happen in the future rather than what ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE. Sure, if, in the SEQUEL, Superman's all "la la la, could not care less that I have a son, la la la," then maybe I'd be able to see the argument. But like Sheila said, in *this* movie, the one on which he is ostensibly being judged, he FOUND OUT IN THE LAST FIVE MINUTES. And while he was IN A COMA. Once he woke up, he *went to see his kid*. That's not the action of a man who *doesn't give a crap*.

There is *zero* indication that he knew Lois was pregnant when he left (and by God, I'd think she'd be *even more pissed off* than she is if that had actually been the case), so it's just straight-up dinging the character just to ding him to act like not only did he know, but he didn't care both when he left or once he got back. And the thing is, people already ding the movie for being too long. Had the screenwriters decided that Lois and Kal-El needed to have the conversation right then and there of what it meant that he's really Jason's father, then the movie would have been *another twenty or thirty minutes long*. At least. 'Cause that's not a conversation you can have in two minutes.

And, and, *and*? The *entire point* of the Superman/Lois rooftop & flight around Metropolis sequence was her basically telling him "You left and I moved on" and him accepting that after apologizing. Some people have already given him grief for *taking her flying at all* because they apparently view that as some attempt on his part to wreck her new existence. If just *taking her flying* is allegedly him trying to mess with her life, then what, exactly, would immediately laying some claim to Jason be? *A whole lot worse* in terms of rocking the boat of her stable new life. This isn't the kind of situation people in *real life* are able to address in two minutes; it's ridiculous to expect Superman to deal with it that quickly. Of course he needs time to process the mere fact that he *is* a father, let alone what that fact actually means in terms of not just *his* life, but *Lois', Richard's and Jason's*, too. But I bet you good money that if he actually *had* laid claim to Jason in the last two minutes of the movie, people would be calling him a dick for *that* (even though him *not* immediately laying claim to Jason apparently makes him a deadbeat).

And, er, clearly, this is as much a sore point for me as it is for Sheila. *g*