MOS: Putting Superman in the real world

[DCCoolness]

I appreciate Nolan and the crew trying to put Superman in the real world, but I have some problems with this. In real life, we have people with special gifts (watch Guinness Book of World Record). If the President saw a kid rescuing his dad from a deadly tornado on Fox News, I doubt he would assume he is an alien threat. We see weird people all the time, but they are not aliens or Satan's spawns from Hell.

I can see some paranoid christians assuming he is a devil, but not a paranoid army wanting to blow his head off.

"Oh NO! A teen rescued an old man from a tornado by running really fast! ALIEN! KILL HIM!"
"A teen that can jump higher than a normal man! He must be evil! He will use his gift to kill us all!"

[Terok Nor]

MoS was reflective of the "real world" in the sense that both the real world and MoS contain 7-11, Sears, and IHOP.

[Mr. Mastermind]

Krptonians are life forms that have can wipe out entire armies. You don't think people would see that as a threat?

I personally have no vivid recollections of 1945 but I doubt the worldwide reaction was along the lines of "wow, what a weird and wacky weapon you got there Harry!".

[Qwathings]

Krptonians are life forms that have can wipe out entire armies. You don't think people would see that as a threat?

How would witnessing Clark rescuing Jonathan let people know what kryptonians are or what they're fully capable of? Would the Phantom Stranger appear and read out Clark's "Who's Who" entry to everyone?

[Mr. Mastermind]

How would witnessing Clark rescuing Jonathan let people know what kryptonians are or what they're fully capable of?

Yes, I'm sure the world would be perfectly calm and fine with the idea that some people are able to go at supersonic speeds. Because people would never buy into government and news media fear mongering at all...

[DCCoolness]

How would witnessing Clark rescuing Jonathan let people know what kryptonians are or what they're fully capable of? Would the Phantom Stranger appear and read out Clark's "Who's Who" entry to everyone?

BINGO! DING DING!

As long as you are not using all of your powers, the government won't give a hoot about you. I can see them getting worried if they see you wreck buildings and kill people. Why would they give a crap about a teen jumping higher than a normal man or running real fast? I'm sure they have important things on their minds.

Yes, I'm sure the world would be perfectly calm and fine with the idea that some people are able to go at supersonic speeds. Because people would never buy into government and news media fear mongering at all...

You can't be born with a special gift?? I don't see the army going after a man who can walk on glass.

[Mr. Mastermind]

You can't be born with a special gift?? I don't see the army going after a man who can walk on glass.

The moment your special gift allows you to easily break the law, the government might take issue with it.

[Qwathings]

I appreciate Nolan and the crew trying to put Superman in the real world, but I have some problems with this. In real life, we have people with special gifts (watch Guinness Book of World Record). If the President saw a kid rescuing his dad from a deadly tornado on Fox News, I doubt he would assume he is an alien threat. We see weird people all the time, but they are not aliens or Satan's spawns from Hell.

I can see some paranoid christians assuming he is a devil, but not a paranoid army wanting to blow his head off.

"Oh NO! A teen rescued an old man from a tornado by running really fast! ALIEN! KILL HIM!"
"A teen that can jump higher than a normal man! He must be evil! He will use his gift to kill us all!"

From what I can tell "realism" means that it's supposed to suck to be Superman. That's the sort of thing Superman's creators avoided when they created the character. Before Superman, there were a few science fiction stories that focused on why it would suck to be super human or why it would be terrible for the world that a super human existed. Superman did away with most of that in favor of telling adventure stories.

Gradually, over the decades, it has been thought that adding angst to Superman and fear into everyone else is adding realism to the story. I don't see how that helps the adventures. It might add some drama, but eventually it reaches a point where the story is more about how terrible it is being Superman and not about what kinds of fantastic adventures he can have.

The goal should be to find the right balance between these ideas of realism, or sophistication, and the bigger than life adventures of a super heroic character.

Did MoS find that balance? I think there are plenty of threads around here where people are still debating that.

Personally, I think they went overboard with how much it sucks to be Superman. They should have put Krypto in the movie, because Clark seemed to really need a puppy for most of that story.

[Qwathings]

Yes, I'm sure the world would be perfectly calm and fine with the idea that some people are able to go at supersonic speeds. Because people would never buy into government and news media fear mongering at all...

Those people were hiding beneath an underpass during a tornado, realistically they all died anyway.

Just kidding.


Seriously, though, we'll never see an alternative for the tornado scene, so we can only speculate how other ideas would have played out. Would Clark have been seen? Would he have looked like something that could have been dismissed away as tornado phenomena? Would the witnesses have believed what they had seen? Would anyone believe them if they blabbed about seeing someone do something superhuman while the witnesses were under the strain of being menaced by a tornado?

Who knows. We'll never know. All we know is what the movie presented to us, and to some people that might seem like an unrealistic scenario.

Realism, to me, is a son doing everything within his power to save the life of his father. That didn't happen, and the reasons why it didn't happen don't sound good enough for my taste.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

BINGO! DING DING!

As long as you are not using all of your powers, the government won't give a hoot about you. I can see them getting worried if they see you wreck buildings and kill people. Why would they give a crap about a teen jumping higher than a normal man or running real fast? I'm sure they have important things on their minds.

You can't be born with a special gift?? I don't see the army going after a man who can walk on glass.

Dude, I'm sorry, but your theory here is utterly ridiculous. Mr. Mastermind is absolutely right.

As long as you're not using all your powers, the government won't give a hoot about you?? Like, what the hell are you saying? Its not the issue of how many you're using, dude. Its the fact that you have them in the first place and that you have the potential to use them at all. You honestly think that the army and the government are going to sit on their asses and let a dude with herculean powers, who could probably take down entire armies on his own, run around in Kansas and pose a potential threat to national security? Uh...no! No, they're not! Its just that simple.

Also, those special gifts you mention never reach the level that we are talking about here. The fact is that, yes, people would freak out if they found out that little Bobby from down the road could suddenly fly at supersonic speeds, shoot fire out of his eyes, and lift a car with his pinky finger.

Honestly, and I don't mean to offend you, but your reasoning here is incredibly dumb, almost to the point where I don't even think its grounded in reality. Like, do you know anything about the real world, especially the post-9/11 world?? Part of me thinks that you have to be trolling.

[Cypher]

Yeah I didnt think it was very realistic at all. Especially with Clark stealing clothes and general petty things like revenge.

If I were Superman, and knew I could do everything, I wouldnt go around stealing clothes. Seems like a Superman someone wrote for someone who doesnt like Superman.

[Doctor Know]

Yeah I didnt think it was very realistic at all. Especially with Clark stealing clothes and general petty things like revenge.

If I were Superman, and knew I could do everything, I wouldnt go around stealing clothes. Seems like a Superman someone wrote for someone who doesnt like Superman.

@Bold
What was Clark supposed to do? Walk around town with his beef cake body exposed? Have some modesty! Lol

Also I seem to recall a certain Christopher Reeve Superman beating up a trucker in Superman II. Talk about petty revenge.

[planetman]

The question is how power is used. In the real world, the historical tendency has been for governments and elites to centralise power as a state monopoly and exclude the mass of the population from access to it. Challenges are met with brute force as seen recently in St Louis.

The original Superman had overwhelming power but declined to use it selfishly but instead for the good of others. That was the contrast with the "real" world set up by S&S in their science-fantasy story.

Snyder and Co decided to ditch that concept and impose their vision of "realism" on the character which turned out to have a mostly negative outcome, which, I believe, reduced the appeal of the movie to less than universal.
No doubt, I will again be accused of "relentless negativity", but, the negativity is all Snyder's and he's welcome to it.

Superman belongs to the set of positive characters in the worlds of fantasy and imagination. Turning that inside out makes no sense. They can, of course, change this in the next movie, but, given Snyder's track record, I
won't be holding my breath.

[confusiongrows]

Gradually, over the decades, it has been thought that adding angst to Superman and fear into everyone else is adding realism to the story. I don't see how that helps the adventures. It might add some drama, but eventually it reaches a point where the story is more about how terrible it is being Superman and not about what kinds of fantastic adventures he can have.

The goal should be to find the right balance between these ideas of realism, or sophistication, and the bigger than life adventures of a super heroic character.

Indeed. The New52 Supergirl book has struggled with this since day one and serves as a pretty convenient example of how it can go horribly wrong with these characters. I really liked the way the original creative team played the tragedy inherent in Kara Zor-El's original origin story fairly straight but emphasised her basic heroism at the same time, but some other writers seemed to forget about that and that's completely missing the point of the character. It's done some damage to her character in-universe and her brand image in fandom that her current and future writers need to work hard to move on from.

[Johnny Thunders!]

You could have video and witnesses, people believe what they like.