Superman becoming the everyman.

[manwhohaseverything]

After crisis and into the modern age, superman writers had a tendency of making superman into the everyman in the name of "humanising" him. By everyman, i mean by superhero standards. An everyman in superhero would just be a normal guy with powers with all quirks, needs and tribulations of an average man.while,that can be done with superman and has been Interestingly(for me) with superman for all seasons, american alien.. Etc. It isn't a necessity for me.

Personally,it had the opposite effect for me most of the time. Superman becomes less interesting for me, that was something i expected. But, superman would be less relatable for me compared to former, was very much a surprise. Wierd thing is, superman as an everyman losses the moral ambiguity of the character much more. That's the reason i find it uninteresting. You know him hiding in plain sight, clark being who he is and superman being something he does and now, superman losing the secret id itself.. Etc.By the same coin spidey doesn't for some reason . I guess, spiderman writers keeping" the masked vigilante scorned by the media and a section of society part" helps with that.as peter he is the guy next door. As spiderman he is the masked menace or the amazing spiderman. And when they meet at the middle he becomes the friendly neighbourhood spiderman.

It is interesting to see superman with vigilante origin. Daily planet staff, lois reported the truth of the heroics and bad the superman does as unbiased journalists. While, the authorities see him as threat to law and order. It would have been a good conflict for superman and set up a conflict between staff and authorities. for me, you can't take away the super out superman. You will be left with nothing, not just a man. Those two are sides are intricately intertwined. He was born gifted.even if you take away the strength. There is intelligence and a whole lot more to content with. I guess, making the character just clark kent and putting less emphasis on the vigilante-superman or immigrant-kal el leaves him, as the everyman.

I feel the loss of secret id is another attempt at making him into the everyman. Fine, superman loses secret. But, then what? For me, Superman has no more contradictions. He is a guy that was taught to keep secrets and had a gigantic trust issue. It wasn't just about keeping his friends and family safe. Because as bendis said, he was doing a lousy job at that. Clark being a secret keeper, having a giant guard of iron wall that kept others out and still complaining about solitude and pitying himself for the same, was very interesting. Now, that is gone and there doesn't seem to be a replacement of the same contradiction with another contradiction by the writer. Granted, its too early to tell. But, it seems to be going that way.

From the looks of things, clark is just normal everyman, now. You know,just the guy next door only with powers.
1)he isn't an orphan. He has his parents, alive. Has a happy family life. No loneliness or solitude. It was the core of his vigilante aspect.
2)kal el isn't the all encompassing identity. Clark is. So the alien and outsider perspective is less. The core of his immigrant aspect
3)he wasn't the path maker or an outsider. There were others with powers before him and friends with powers beside him(jsa before him. legion and later, justice league).
4)Not the man of tomorrow who changes our outlook on things and works as an agent to bring us into the new tomorrow. Doesn't bring about any changes to status quo as a whole,anyways.
5)His powerset is bland cause, there are others with same powerset and others who do specific things better and leave him in the dust.
6)he isn't super-intelligent,his strength can be arguable and his speed isn't much emphasised. So, it removes anything that has wish fulfillment and wonder of the character. He isn't seen as gifted person who is supposed to be a cut above the rest.
7)he isn't regarded as a vigilante. He is looked upto by the authorities and law, instead.so no dangerous aspects to the character.
8)finally,the loss of the secret id. Clark's secrets and final contradiction are gone.
9)his powers aren't an aspect of his being. Just an added part that can be taken off.

One could say the president of earth is for that purpose of keeping superman from becoming the everyman and be somewhat the leader and man of tomorrow. As i said its too early to tell and clark wasn't the one to come up with the idea of united planets.

What do you guys think of the tendency of making superman into the everyman by writers? Do you love it or you hate it? Is it necessary? Do you guys like superman to be everyman who needs money, house.. Etc or do you like the man of tomorrow who doesn't need material things is trying to lead us to a better tomorrow with his gifts and morality? Do you like the vigilante superman or are you happy with just the superhero?

Finally, do you think my opinion that superman is becoming the everyman, itself?

[TheSuperMule]

Agreed on all points. This idea of "humanizing" him makes no sense and is, in my opinion what makes him seem dull or boring to a larger audience. The goal should be the other way around. He's an alien, who looks like us, sure, but can actually fly in space somehow. What the hell does he need food or sleep for? Also super-brain should be a thing. Miller recently explored this a little in Year One and will further expand on Golden Child I hope. I mean we're suppose to believe that a guy that can see through walls and has super hearing is unable to think faster than the average farmer? Writers tend to lean more only on the morals aspect of the character in detriment of anything else and what I usually get from that is super bored.

Which leads me to Bendis. His ideas so far have been TERRIBLE for Superman! He has no impact in his own books! Nothing of what happened so far has been a result of Superman's actions. He's just there. Flying around, screaming, looking surprised or hesitant. There's conflict, but he's not the one to solve it. Everyone around him is doing things! His son, his cousin, his wife. Heck even Zod is doing something in whatever planet he is now. Everyone else treats him like a doofus. Supergirl, Lois and even Jimmy downright mock him now, because Bendis keeps writing him like a manchild who's trying to act like the "edgy grown ups" and he looks "cute" when he tries because he "can't lie". Ridiculous. This secret identity reveal thing is stupid. We've just been over this! It's just shock value for the sake of shock value and because it's the only thing Bendis can do to stay relevant these days.

[Ascended]

I've never understood the need for Clark to be a regular Everyman that people can relate to either. He's not supposed to be one of us, he's supposed to be someone beyond and Other than us, but who lives and emotes and values as we do. As Morrison said, Clark's life is like real life with the volume cranked up and the knob pulled off. Superman is meant to be a fantastical allegory, but he can't be "fantastical" when he's completely, 100% "one of the guys" who just happens to fly to work instead of taking the subway.

It's strange too, that this gets aimed at Clark so much when there's so many popular characters who are just as otherworldly and/or unrelatable in their own ways. Batman, despite technically being human (yeah, no) isn't relatable. Black Panther too. And on and on. Sometimes I think the idea of Superman, of someone so much better than us, makes people afraid or angry. If Superman can be a better person, then what excuse do we have?

[Sacred Knight]

Yeah, making Clark/Superman an everyman is to me a pretty striking example of not getting the character and always will be. I've probably said this a hundred times and I'm sorry for being a broken record, but the relatability when it comes to Superman and Clark Kent is in the exaggerations of his superhuman, superhero, secretive life. How they become analogues for our own feelings.

[stargazer01]

Superman is larger than life. A god amongs men, but he doesn't see himself like that because he has lived among us his whole life. However, he is not like us no matter how he tries, he is much bigger and epic. His physical abilities are far beyond of mortal men, that changes his perspective about being human. He sees and experiences things in a whole new level. We are lucky he was raised well with good morals by loving adopted parents.

[Flash Gordon]

Superman should never be an everyman character. That's a big ole sign of not understanding him.

[Lightning Rider]

It's strange too, that this gets aimed at Clark so much when there's so many popular characters who are just as otherworldly and/or unrelatable in their own ways. Batman, despite technically being human (yeah, no) isn't relatable. Black Panther too. And on and on. Sometimes I think the idea of Superman, of someone so much better than us, makes people afraid or angry. If Superman can be a better person, then what excuse do we have?

I think you might be right. Without getting to into the weeds, I think the longstanding movement towards moral ambiguity in storytelling has made audiences hesitant to consider a figure above others in their moral judgement.

[Jim Kelly]

I sometimes think that the current generation of writers must be pretty crumby people in their real lives--unfaithful to their friends and family, involved in rotten deals, backing out of just causes--given they make out that most comic book heroes are just as bad as the villains and the villains are just as good as the heroes. They seem to subscribe to a moral relativism that forgives their lousy actions, supposedly because moral absolutes don't exist.