Originally Posted by
Ascended
That's cold bro.
Stone cold.
You're right, punching is usually Superman's way. And usually I give that a free pass because he's a man of action and gratuitous violence is how we solve our problems in the DCU. But the fatal flaw with 775 is that it's not framed the same way other superhero narratives are; it's literally a debate; not a metaphor or allegory or escapist fantasy, but a straight up conversation/argument about a real-world issue, with two sides trying to prove their stance to the other. That changes the rules of engagement in my mind. If you're gonna write a story where Clark argues instead of fights, the endgame can't be "Clark punches his problems away." Or, if you're gonna stick to that endgame, then Clark should at least get a few good points into his argument first.
Besides, there *are* valid reasons and arguments against capital punishment and lethal force. They're easy to Google, and were easy to find back in '01 when 775 came out. That's the thing that really kills me with that issue; there *were* good arguments Clark could have made. But he didnt make them.
But again, this is just me. If you or Midnight or whoever likes the issue I'm not saying you're wrong, just that there's a lot of ways to look at these characters and "my" Superman might not be "your" Superman, but that doesn't mean one of us is wrong.