Superman is a Dick

[shanmonster]

Wherein Superman becomes a callous megalomaniac:

Love and compassion.

Bitchy, bitchy, bitchy.

Tyranny.

Respect for your elders.

Habitat for Humanity.

Return later to see a murderous, racist Superman gleefully wield power over life and death. What a dick.

Comments

[twopiearr.livejournal.com]

Not to undermine your point (Superman's inherant arrogance kept me out of superhero comics as a genre for a long, long time) but I can't help noticing that 80% of your exhibits come from external Superman continuity rather than from Action or Superman titles themselves...

[thatnickguy.livejournal.com]

Man, talk about the "silver" age of comics. Fortunately, Superman is a little more upstanding these days. If I were you, Shan, I would get one of three things to think twice about the way Superman is:

1) Action Comics #750: Taking on "heroes" who kill.
2) Superman For All Seasons
3) Superman: Secret Identity

Of course, this is speaking as one of the biggest Superman fans around, so I could bias. :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

External or not, can you deny he is a dick based on these covers? Just you wait. He gets worse.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

As far as I can figure, in the silver age, Superman spent more time pranking Jimmy Olsen (and being pranked in return) than he did fighting crime. What a dick!

[twopiearr.livejournal.com]

oh, believe me, i would never attempt such a denial. especially after reading Our Worlds At War and Batman: The Dark Night Returns (which is, in my opinion, the best of the books in which Supes attempts to kill the caped crusader). but most of the external contiuities are written from the title character's perspective, which subtly influences how Superman himself is presented.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I once had a customer come in my comics shop years ago who announced, "I don't like Superman."

This is not an unusual sort of utterance to be heard in a comic shop, but I felt obliged to ask him why.

"Because he's not Celtic" (pronounced SELL-tic).

Soon afterwards, this guy launched into how he knew Merlin (who is SELL-tic), and that he liked my boots.

He was very creepy.

[badcat42077.livejournal.com]

It's wasn't the 'throwing bones at dancers' guy, was it?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Nope! Although it could conceivably have been his son.

[nehmet.livejournal.com]

I never realised Superman was such an asshat. And he's so gleeful in his asshattishness!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

That's what makes the covers so deliciously funny to me.

[balthcat.livejournal.com]

So they're sincere?

What's the point of them? o_O Why would they make him so nasty?

[cynebeah.livejournal.com]

I love you shanniebobannie and i want to lick your armpits and carry your cootie babies of doom.

Now i need to go poop!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Synchronicity abounds. I need to poop, too!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

It makes you want to read the comic to see what's making him act in such an uncharacteristic manner.

[vureoelt.livejournal.com]

Huh. Did he have good reasons then?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I've never followed Superman continuity, but I'll betcha some flavour or another of kryptonite is to blame in a bunch of those instances.

[vureoelt.livejournal.com]

I guess so. So why pull all these covers as "representative of Superman"? I'm not sure what your goal is here...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Gee, I wonder what humour means?

[vureoelt.livejournal.com]

Huh. Totally missed the mood indicator. I thought you were axe-grinding or something.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Superman and I have a longstanding vendetta against one another.

[synisterchyck.livejournal.com]

I like Superman but not as much as Batman.

Batman worked for every thing he has. Superman just fell from the stars and that made him well, super.
Ok. I'm such a geek.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Just you wait. Batman is a dick, too. He'll have a few cameos in upcoming posts.

[vureoelt.livejournal.com]

... I KNEW IT! :)

[albtrss.livejournal.com]

Impressive.

I hope you don't mind me adding you to my friends list.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Not at all!

I have lots more Superman abuse to come....

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I can only imagine what you think of the Flash.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I have a low opinion of pretty much every superhero.