Monday, March 8, 2021

#209 Not Boring

From time to time my blog doubles as a Superman blog. Superman is back on TV these days with a new show, Superman & Lois, so let's talk about Big Blue. When Superman comes to the big screen or small screen I get excited and look for news stories online. Inevitably I run across articles or comments complaining that Superman is boring. Superman! Boring! Today I am here to passionately object. Superman is a lot of things, but Superman is not boring.

First, Superman has a full set of superpowers, including the power of flight. He can do so many incredible extraordinary things. He can go anywhere. But I won't just tell you. Let me show you:

Look at that! I think that scene is so cool. Honestly I could probably watch an entire movie of Supes flying around like that. What's so boring about having super-strength or x-ray vision or super-speed?

But wait, you might say, that's what makes Superman boring. He has too many powers! Nothing is a challenge for him. But that's just not true. Superman faces all sorts of threats that he has to struggle to defeat. Writers will find ways to pit him against other survivors from his home planet or other aliens or monsters that can drain his powers. And there are other ways to challenge Superman, too. Throw a huge hurricane at a populated city, putting millions of people in danger. Superman can't just fix that in a moment. Or, have multiple disasters or villains striking at the same time. Even Superman can't be two places at once. How will he decide what to do first? How will he respond when he fails or can't save everyone? There's good drama there! That's not boring.

Plus, despite what you may think, Superman is far from invulnerable. Sure, almost nothing can physically hurt him. But Superman is also Clark Kent, and he has tons of ordinary people that he cares deeply about. Like any good person, Superman hurts when his loved ones suffer. I would argue that Superman is more connected to more regular people than a lot of superheroes. He has an everyday job as a newspaper reporter that he has to balance with his superheroics. He's not rich. He doesn't isolate himself. He gets involved in people's lives. Sometimes he lets his boss down or struggles in his friendships or worries about whether or not he really fits in when he feels different from the people around him. In those ways I think Superman is more human, more relatable than most other heroes.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I think that if you think Superman is boring, there's a decent chance you just haven't experienced a good Superman story yet. I can come up with a couple dozen off the top of my head and could probably give you a list of a hundred if you gave me a day or two. That being said, maybe Superman isn't for you. While I appreciate Superman, maybe you appreciate different characters or different genres of stories. That's okay. But after more than eighty years as a popular and frequently adapted character, I think it's safe to say that Superman isn't boring.

Grace and peace,
BMH

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