Yes this was a good article. At least it was not retreading the trite, they have only matching uniforms and powers cliches, people who do not understand Clark and Diana like to spew.
Being an outsider is challenging but it does not have to be a negative thing. It's an unique space. We have humans who feel like this whether they have an illness or suffer alienation or condition or even a gift that sets them apart from the rest of us. Metas feel this too, just on a different scale.But Clark and Diana do not allow their differences to make them stay apart from humanity and this is where their personalities come in. They care about others and the world around them. They have good hearts. They will always try to use their gifts to better the world for as long as they could. This is why Clark giving up his gifts for reasons like...Oh I want to be normal and not think about anything blah blah is so weak and so unbecoming of the character. I just do not see Superman doing that for his personal comfort as they make him do in some movies or tv. This is somehow equated with love. Honestly to me that is not love. I do not see Diana wanting him to do that. She wants him to be the best he could be. Surely as a long lived alien, he has the capacity to help humanity for many many decades, even centuries. Why would you give that up after operating for brief time? Up to even Batman is shown to have fought for justice until his body was broken and him an old man. Superman deliberately just giving up his powers to play house while the world around him needs him to me is a disappointment. It in facts shows a man who has no mettle and is not a hero but a dude who got powers and did not have the spine or will to be for the greater good. I also do not see Diana deliberately doing this for anyone either. If your powers are of part of your physiology, losing them would make you feel as if when a person loses a limb or a sense like feeling blind. Why should they even have to give it up and what the heck does that have to do with love??? I honestly think some of these troupes are so outdated.
I also see with Diana he embraces parts of himself he suppresses in this effort to fit in. I loved Soule raised these questions in his run and Miller does it too. Clark is a man of two worlds. Not just one. Writers need to stop being so wishy washy & be honest and examine what being alien would look like in our world. Diana would never allow Clark to give up, or the idea either would turn evil if one or the other dies is so ridiculous. Again this is a troupe they seem to try to equate with love in the mythos. But it's just showing up a weak willed individual who is mentally unsound. Millions of people lose people, homes, countries and they don't turn evil for one person. If they do go off the deep end or cannot move on in time, then that love taught them nothing much worth remembering. Diana and Clark, when written well, can keep each other real and in touch and in check on every level. No one is more truthful to Clark than Diana and vice versa. Question, is are writers in touch that they are willing to allow both to listen and answer those questions.
Co signed.
Those conversations that Clark and Diana used to have. Notice how the current writers don't even want to give them any panels for it. Compare what we used to get from post crisis Perez through to Loeb,Jimenez , Cooke, Waid and so many of more to new 52 and elseworlds. Examine those conversations. Deep. Resonant. Empathetic. Challenging. Tender. Sometimes fun. It's not about singing odes that they could not be who they are without the other. No. That does not even make sense to me when writers do that. Does a doctor or scientist stop being what they are if they can't sleep with x or y? No. I really do not understand why DC tries to make love interests define heroes and their motivations. It's just lazy writing to say x needs y to be who he/she is or having x lay it on so thick about the love interest as if he/she alone in this vast wide world inspires the hero.
SMWW can be who they are without each other. That is the point in being who they are. They are supposed to be individuals who are heroes. But they are also good together. That is also the point of being a power couple. It's about personal responsibility to self and the world, giving emotional support, listening, offering counsel to each other etc., allowing each other to be the best they can, learning, making mistakes as well but growing and never losing sight of the greater good. I don't want SMWW perfect because no one is but I don't want contrived nonsense tossed at them that other writers try to do either. I long for the day someone can write SMWW the way we use to have them. Since Rebirth I honestly have not read one decent conversation between them. There was only one moment to my knowledge, that was the wordless touch in Heroes in Crisis but I think that should be credited to Clay Mann's expertise as an artist than King really caring for them as a duo.