What makes you like Superman?

[stargazer01]

What makes me like Superman? Everything. His hopeful and kind personality, story, characters, adventures, villains, his awesome powers. He's powered by the sun. That's so fascinating, imo.

I love that the power never goes to his head. He never thinks of himself as better than the rest, but he is. He is humble and nothing or noone is too small for him (like saving cats or dogs lol), but he can also be intimidating when he needs to be against an evil guy. He is also smart. His father was a great scientist. He's also a good reporter and tries to live like one like us whenever possible. His whole story is incredible. Oh and I adore his costume and enjoy the fact that he's hot.

[lordozone]

What make me like Superman is the same thing that make me like Captain America, even if I'm not a fan of the USA: Their optimism, their belief in humanity. They have seen the worst of us (Captain America during WWII and Superman during all his life with his super-senses) but they never give up, never go to the easy solution. And, sometimes, they win. They inspired me to persevere, to believe in me and others, even in the face of oblivion.

[Kuwagaton]

I like that in fiction you can draw together thought patterns across the experiences of characters. As it also can be in real life, the contradictions don't create an exclusive impression but a more dynamic one, provided the contradiction doesn't define the behavior. You get a lot of situational information to put into a single context, and the more content you have the deeper it gets. Superman is king of prolific fiction. Sure someone out there can argue for character X better than I can for Superman, but Superman as an example is bigger and more detailed than X. Again, even the inconsistent examples become perhaps as consistent as they are for us.

He's also a "neutral" character not defined by emotion. With other characters, the mood is set before the situation, and the response feels stock. Character Y is bitter and cynical, so you give them a joke because you know Y will be deadpan. Z has a particular callback to one of his most famous stories (of course Superman has these, but it's literally like the tip of an iceberg. See Daredevil, a character whose stories are typically either "Miller or Anti Miller") so you set him up for that specific response. Ironically people will describe Superman as the generic one, but because he can start a story with no particular mood, he can reach a particular mood without having to leave his default state and "cross" if I'm making any sense. And as a bonus, most other characters in his ballpark have partial if not full face concealment, that or they lack the different identities to reconcile. His fictional background is so thoroughly ingrained in culture and easy to study, so the people who want to and do make the effort to channel him often seem intrinsically locked into his thought patterns.



I started thinking about all this because of the recent Comixology sale including the first DCP issue. It made me dust off the Garcia Lopez collection over the weekend. I want to go into the storytelling and range of expressions in those stories at some point, but I think the great artists of the last few decades really deserve their own respective spaces.

[boltmonster]

My run from Man of Steel mini-series (1986) to Reign of the Supermen (1993) is all I need to say.

[dancj]

He is the original from which all other superheroes deviate.

[Doctor Know]

The sense of adventure, spectacle and fun. Supes is always going somewhere and doing something grand. 81 years of adventures. The greatest hero of them all.

[babyblob]

The thing about Superheroes is they have to be a reassuring presence. When they show up the common man has to know that everything will be alright. Other heroes dont do that. Batman doesnt really give people the sense of security that Superman does. People know that Superman will always do the right thing, that he will always be there to help no matter what the cost to himself. With heroes like Batman they are always questioning his motives. There are very few heroes like that. maybe Captain Marvel (Shazam) Spiderman or Captain America but thats pretty much the list. EH does whats right because he believes that is the only way to live. He never questions his motives or beliefs. While he is not my favorite hero I still respect what he stands for. Even in Red Son he tried to do what he thought was right, It would have been very easy in that story to go America is good and Russia is evil but they did a great job of finding the balance.

[stargazer01]

another thing I always loved about Superman is that he is hero for the whole world not just a city. His compassion and his adventures have no limits. Actually, he's a hero for anyone who needs it, it doesn't matter what planet.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I like Superman because I imagine him as always committing the most selfless act with every decision he makes. I think Superman never does anything unless it benefits everyone around him, and because of that, I always want to know how the most selfless person would behave in any situation. And the Super-feats!