Originally Posted by
Myskin
How is this alien invasion situation different from the 100, 1000, 10000 alien situations with 'no hope', 'no choice', 'no alternative', which were told in earlier Superman stories? It's just another - and extremely generic, by the way - alien invaders story. Come on. How Superman deals with it, that's something which depends entirely on the writer. If Snyder chooses to make Superman use a pocket black hole to send the aliens on the other side of the universe, he can do it. If he wants superman to build a giant shrinking ray to reduce the alien ships to miniatures, he can do it.
On the contrary, if he decides to present a real, completely inescapable 'no choice' situation (that is, something which in comics never, ever happens, or at least very rarely), he should devote to this at least a couple of issues. Because, as I said, presenting Superman - who may be a man of action but not a soldier, nor a character willing to kill with easiness (he's not the Wolverine, nor the Winter Soldier) - ready to kill thousands of bad guys, you - the writer - should have the dignity of presenting the situation in a plausible way. You should have the guts to show Superman ready to kill and make him break his own rules. And then make him face the consequences.That's how you write a story. Especially a story like this, which potentially changes Superman's character for good. In case someone hadn't noticed, making Superman ready to kill thousands of bad guys is more or less comparable to making Batman cut the Joker's throat once and for all.
That's absolutely NOT what happens in the story, it's just Superman deciding to kill in a single panel, as if it was completely characteristic for him.
Not every story must be morally gray, but Superman Unchained was a morally gray story from the very beginning, since it was supposed to confront Wraith's and Superman's different philosophies. The final outcome is another failure of the story, since everything Wraith has understood, from Superman's teachings, and HOW he understood it, is completely confusing. The growth of the two characters is simply a mess.
Come on. As if there were a real alternative. Just name a superhero who wouldn't be open to self-sacrifice to save the world. Batman would do it. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Captain America, Wolverine, everybody would do it. Probably, even John Constantine and Booster Gold would do it. Self-sacrifice is one of the quintessential characteristic of every superhero by default. HOW a supehero deals with a menace, that's the real interesting point.