Indeed, their powers are often seen as a curse. In many ways, Marvel comics was born as a response to Superman. He was faster than the Flash, stronger than everybody, and-my biggest peeve-his breath wasn’t just super powerful, it was in effect a freeze ray, which makes no sense at all. But unlike with balloons and the money supply, there was never any natural limit he could reach. But power inflation always kicked back in. In the 1980s John Byrne-one of my favorite writers and artists when he was at Marvel-tamped them back down again. In the 1970s his powers, which had mostly been increasing steadily from 1938 onward, were scaled down. But it didn’t take long for him to be able to hover, take sharp turns in the air, and even carry incredibly heavy stuff while doing it. He couldn’t fly, he could just leap really high-“tall buildings in a single bound”-on account of Earth’s weaker gravity and his greater strength. But how many times can you write that storyline?īy the way, the original Superman wasn’t nearly so powerful as modern Superman. Sure, you could kidnap people he loved and make him do stuff. If it’s anything like a fair fight, he’s gonna win as surely as Godzilla will beat Bambi. But with Superman, the outcome is never in doubt. Lots of superheroes are ultimately unbeatable. This makes him boring, because without kryptonite, which got to be a tedious plot device from overuse, or magic, which is often a stupid plot device from the get-go, he was unbeatable. He’s too powerful, too good, too handsome. The Kryptonian do-gooder has been a problem for DC for decades. With all that out of the way, let’s get to my problem with Superman and Snyder’s Superman. Moreover, even if Bunch’s claim has massive explanatory power, it is nearly powerless to make these movies more enjoyable than they are-or, in the case of, Batman Vs. Sure, it’s going on in Batman’s head, but there are no cults of Superman, no shouts of “The End is Nigh!”, no claims that Superman is the fulfilment of Fifth Monarchist prophecy. I just don’t see a lot of evidence that’s primarily what’s going on-in any of these movies. I agree that would be a fascinating premise for these movies. “The idea,” Bunch wrote in The Washington Post, “beginning with ‘Man of Steel,’ was a simple one: What would happen if gods appeared on Earth?” I do think David-and Sonny Bunch-put way too much stock in Bunch’s Rosetta Stone explanation for the whole Snyder project. On the one hand, on its own terms as a superhero movie, it’s fine. The cinematography is a little annoying in parts, but it definitely holds your attention.Īs for the writing? Eh.
SUPERMAN MAN OF STEEL CAST MOVIE
Also, David is surely right when he says, Man of Steel “was perhaps the most intensely serious Superman movie ever made.” I don’t think he needed the lawyerly “perhaps.”Īs a movie, Man of Steel is better than a lot of the previous reboots, though I still like the 1978 Superman quite a bit. But puddle water makes for a better thirst quencher than strychnine, too. It’s all much, much, better than Aquaman. Actually, I’ll tell you even if you don’t want to know. But if you want to know what I think about Zach Snyder’s Superman reboot, which sets the stage for the larger Snyderian captivity of DC, (not the town) I’ll tell you. And, well, I blame David French.ĭon’t worry, this isn’t a review. Because of his relentless boosterism-including as a guest host of my own podcast!-I rewatched Man of Steel. In the course of peddling so much muchness, David has been extolling Man of Steel, Snyder’s Superman movie, and the launchpad for the whole revamped DC extended cinematic universe. He’s even taken to doubling down on the crazy by describing Sonny Bunch as a “nearly infallible” pop culture guru, in no small part because Bunch has been a leading proselytizer of the Snyder oeuvre. I proudly count myself in the former camp.”Īnyway, David has been on a tear of late, lionizing Zack Snyder, the Snyder cut, and the whole catalog of DC superhero movies. He is a staunch defender of the Aquaman movie, writing, “Look, there are two types of people in this world-those who want to see a mass cavalry-charge of laser-shooting sharks and those who don’t. But when it comes to pop culture, his opinions can be so wrong (though not always, we agree on some things) that I start to wonder if the post-liberal integralists might have a point about him. First, when it comes to moral and legal matters, there are few people whose opinion I value more than David’s.
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