Here we go again. JL Atlantis DVD SPOILER

[Superlad93]

Yes, but I'm not talking about adventuring or being physical. I'm talking about the very concept of "necessarily evil" for the greater good. He hurts others, he does so often, and fans don't seem to have a problem with it because of his in-story reasons.

Take out the word "Hurting", insert the word "Killing" and watch that entire line of reasoning become malleable and warped. He kills others, he does so rarely, and yet the act is highlighted as a problem among fans regardless of his in-story reasons.

You mentioned earlier that the concept of "necessary evil" within a story was an "excuse". My point is that even when you reduce that concept to an "excuse", it's still an "excuse" that people are perfectly willing to accept when it suits their sensibilities.

I've explained this in my other post. The answer is comic books being an action medium but not meaning that killing must enter it.

So the question for me is this, if he's letting you down when he kills others, why isn't he also letting you down when he harms others? If he's supposed to be perfect to the point that the situation itself is no obstacle, then he has no "excuse" to justify failing to met a standard for good, right? This is one of the reasons why I dislike holding Superman to a higher standard because he happens to be Superman.

He's not letting me down because he's only articulating and symbolizing real ideas by filtering them through two fisted comics. It's like Superman is physically fighting intangible ideas like depression, loneliness, fear, xenophobia, intolerance, small mindedness by putting a face to them and punching then. The same way that we beat back these thing but by being better and stronger people. Physically killing these personifications is a whole other matter that deals with how you would get rid of these issue.

But yeah again he's not letting me down because that is how the medium requires him to express himself and his message. It makes for an exciting read and visual rush when done well in regards to this particular character (how it's expressed can be different from character to character and the intent behind of those characters. The controlled brutality of Batman or the cartoon and sometimes abstract nature of a Green Lantern)

The physicality of a Superhero comic is something that I've thought of quite a bit past just the obvious fighting styles and such. There's a whole language to it that is unique to each character comic. A flavor really. And like I said before it would be quite the interesting take if we were presented with a pacifist Superman who used his powers as tools in clever ways to beat his foes. For a while we the reader would be none the wiser because it's not spelled out that he is in fact a pacifist. It could work just as well as a hot blooded two fisted Superman (which I do enjoy).

If there was a story where the DC public believed that Superman was letting them down because he refused to rule the world, and they based their belief on the premise that he's "better than them", what would you say?

That that's not what the character is about. He's only better than us in the sense that he is fictional and able to do anything. This is beautifully visually articulated by in story power and capability. But what it really comes down to is the fact that he is a better version of us that we can get to if we try hard enough. Not literally but figuratively. If we just try our very uncompromising best in our own personal superverses than we can be Superman.

The in story articulation of this idea changes from era to era depending on what we need from Superman at the time. So to answer your question directly I'd say DC would be writing an interesting story where Superman would have to show the world and it's people just how special they are in just being themselves, thus bringing us back to his prime directive of being a metaphor or living symbol. It could actually be an interesting character arc for the people of DC. A nice on the noise commentary about what Superman is about and means to us.

I've thought about a story along these lines before but just not in such a liner manner. So yes I like the idea quite a bit.