D Defends Superman: Man of Steel

I think Man of Steel gets a lot of undeserved flack. I don’t think Zack Snyder was trying to re-invent Superman, but to explain him. I think a lot of the reason that people started to think that superman was out dated, was because he was un-relatable. He’s this super powerful, perfectly moral guy and people can’t relate to that. Nobody’s that perfect. I don’t think he was trying to change the character, but show why he is that character by giving him actual reasons why he became so moral and protective by showing the journey of how got there. First off, he was completely new to the superhero game and didn’t fully know what he was doing or how to do it. Second, the earth was being attacked by a very brutal alien armada that was just as strong as him. It’s not like they were polite and like, hey let’s only fight over here so no one gets hurt. And they weren’t just focused on him. There was no realistic way he could fight all of them and simultaneously protect everyone. I think by both idly standing by while his father died in front of him, as well as seeing all the people who were hurt during his fight with the kryptonians, this gives him actual understandable motivations as to why he’s so obsessed with saving and protecting people in the future. People always complain about how superheroes never kill the villains, and how they always escape and just keep returning to do the same crimes over and over again. I think Snyder gave an actual reason why Superman has such a high moral code against killing. Because he did kill once and it was the worst feeling he ever had in his life.

He wasn’t cold after he killed Zod, he immediately screamed in agony. I don’t think Snyder was saying that Superman is no longer the hero we know. I think he’s telling a more realistic and modern Sci Fi story of how the world would really react if some strange alien suddenly showed up on earth. It’s not automatically “YaY!! We love this superhero,   but a story about a hard fought and slowly earned trust from the public and a Clark that doesn’t automatically know how to be the perfect hero, but learns along the way. The reason people dig Batman is because they understand and relate to his motivations. We didn’t really have that with Superman before, he was just perfect and moral. When they gave us the old school corny version in Superman Returns, it wasn’t received well because it was out dated and un-relatable. I don’t think Zack’s saying you can’t have a moral or protective character anymore, but it’s a journey to get there. I think he’s saying nobody’s born perfect, but we can learn from our mistakes and tragedies and use those lessons to aspire to become our best selves. I think in the end, we’ll not only get the moral and responsible Superman we know and love, but we’ll understand and relate to him more than we ever did before. Stories and characters can’t be told as simply as they used to be, comics have grown up since the days of Super friends and so should you.