Action Comics #41 discussion

[Superlad93]

However, people will treat him differently, like a god, so he is essentially not "undercover" anymore, which could discourage less honesty from them instead of him in a kind of reversal. Lastly, he doesn't have the ability to write about them in ways that are meaningful to them and to him. In other words, I'm not sure that it's a net gain.

Well miss Lambert seemed to have no problem giving Superman a talking to regardless of status. But I agree that it might be harder at first to get some of the same benefits that Clark's relative anonymity allowed. We'll see if and how the address the benefits that Clark had vs now. Then we can see how he gets along without them.

[RobinFan4880]

Great issue! I am on board for this 100%!!!

[Virile Agitur]

i bet my smile could be seen from space while i was reading this issue.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Ehh this was okay. Wasn't a fan of the art. I'll give it one more chance.

[Auguste Dupin]

The issues I quoted do have people comment on the improvement of Metropolis in Byrne's run, but there were actual panels that showed what it was like. There are scenes of robberies and such, and clearly Secret Origin went into that much detail and more, placing the city's rejuvenation at the heart of the Johns' "genius" story.



Clark wanting to go back to Metropolis isn't specified as something he's doing to connect with the public, and fighting the Shadow Monster isn't about his populism or social justice either. I'm not saying it's not nice to see him be heroic, and caring about his neighborhood, but being heroic about cleaning up a mess that is his fault (in that it's about him) isn't exactly the same as him -- fully powered and dressed as Superman -- doing what one might sometimes see other Supermen do like charity events or, like his old self, pursuing social justice causes as Superman or Clark.



His opportunities have not changed. He could, as Superman, have interacted with the public before while being clothed as Superman or as Clark Kent. The interactions in this issue wouldn't be different between the public and Superman, for example. And as Clark, he could have interactions with people as a member of the community himself or as a concerned citizen/journalist caring about their story and wanting to use the power of the press to draw attention to issues facing regular people. Now, with his secret identity gone, I agree that he can in some ways have more honest interactions, since lies aren't involved. However, people will treat him differently, like a god, so he is essentially not "undercover" anymore, which could discourage less honesty from them instead of him in a kind of reversal. Lastly, he doesn't have the ability to write about them in ways that are meaningful to them and to him. In other words, I'm not sure that it's a net gain.

-It's not about him stopping robberies. It's about showing you that Metropolis needed some superdude to stop by and fix it (otherwise, as Francisco said, he should go to Africa or something). There were robberies before he arrived, there are robberies since, so what good he is doing in the long run? Byrne's Metropolis was fine before Superman, Morrison's was a dump where "nothing worked" (can't comment on Johns', on the account thatI barely remember anything from it).

-Populist heroes don't try to connect with the public. They just do it. If you have to try to connect with people, then you already disconnected. Here, Clark is really just being himself, and happens to connect with his old neighbourhood. And nobody said he was more heroic, just that he wasn't any less and that the fact he had more to lose by being so made it even more awesome.

-They didn't treat him like a god here. Between the children playing with him, every one being like "He's our man!", the girl hiting on him, Lambert lecturing him....If that's how they talk to their gods, these people are the worst religious persons ever. Here, he's clearly treated more like a celebrity than anything else, and even that comparaison doesn't completely hold up because they're pretty comfortable around him. He's a celebrity they happened to know as a person before they knew him as celebrity.
And that's what the secret id being discarded did. It humanized Superman in the eyes of his neighbours (and presumably other people as well). To them, he's not just Superman, the flying god who watches over them from above and who sometimes get down for a charity event before going back to his alien Fortress. He's Clark Kent, that guy who was leaving right down the street, the nice fella who helped you with your garbage. That's how it offers new interactions:now he's treated like Superman and Clark Kent mixed into one.
As for the writing, well....you win some, you lose some. I'm sure that if Superman were t start writing opinion pieces ona blog or something, he could go on writing about them in meaningful ways.

[Vinsanity]

Gah, I hope not. Last thing I want to see Clark doing is becoming a cop.

Considering all the issues with cops these days, it would be nice to see him be a cop but in the right way to show a message to both sides.

[Flash Gordon]

Considering all the issues with cops these days, it would be nice to see him be a cop but in the right way to show a message to both sides.

It's just a horrible fit for the Champion of the Oppressed.

[manduck37]

I thought the issue was ok, good not great. Some interesting ideas that I hope get explored and not just mentioned and dropped, like some of the consequences of his actions as Superman.

Stuff I didn't care for, the over the top "this is what being human is like!" stuff like eating or talking about the cold weather. Superman has lost his powers before. His new power takes his powers away for 24 hours. So eating and feeling the weather really aren't that new for him. So playing it up like this is already getting old. Lee Lambert didn't do it for me either. In her short appearance, she completely flip flops in her views on Superman. We go from "thank you for making a difference in everyone's lives and making things better for all of us!" to "your an alien that scares people so don't do anything ever again!" in the course of a panel. So it felt like a really forced conflict that didn't develop naturally in the story.

Stuff I liked, Kentville was pretty fun. I like some of his neighbors showing their support for a guy they got to know as part of the neighborhood. I also really like that he's determined to still do things the Superman way, like helping the police he feels he put in danger. Charging off into danger so that others don't have to risk their safety was very cool. The police moving in on Kentville was a pretty tense cliffhanger too. I can't wait to see how that plays out.

So for me, it was a mix of good and bad. The good stuff was the new ideas and Superman's attitude. The bad stuff was falling back on some of the tropes that have been overused, particularly lately. Now, let's see what Yang and Tomasi have to offer.

[Vinsanity]

All in all I cracked up laughing at 'Kentville'

[Kuwagaton]

Considering all the issues with cops these days, it would be nice to see him be a cop but in the right way to show a message to both sides.

That's what I would like, too. It's easy to fall into thinking that to be independent of authority is to be free, but most of the figure we see aren't much different than us. People who want a better society should work with those who have specific powers to make it happen.

Here's to hoping Superman isn't constantly pit against the cops. It's like your dad coming home with a mohawk.

[hellacre]

That was fun and it is finally good to see writers trying to balance the two sides of the man and showing he is the same. The challenges might vary but it is still Clark/Kal/Superman. It's good to see he can be good hearted and idealistic and wanting to do the best he can still with limitations etc without coming across naive, whiny, vanilla, preachy and not very smart. Fans had to tolerate way too much of a reactive, dim, holier than thou Superman ( who frankly had no reason to be whiny if you think about it) last canon from writers who complained he was tough to write and churned out mediocre stories.

Clark is a young man in his late 20ties and they actually really writing him with such a good modern feel like Grant did. I'm interested to see Yang tackle the immigrant aspect as well. The world has changed and this is not the 90ties. Here is a modern Superman keeping the attributes that make the character who he is but makes him feel up to date for newer readers to jump on board and enjoy him.

I hope when he gets back his powers we can see the joy still there and the challenges simply expand to suit the scope of the character as the mythos builds...ie bigger adventures etc showing the scope of his reach.

[misslane]

That was fun and it is finally good to see writers trying to balance the two sides of the man and showing he is the same. The challenges might vary but it is still Clark/Kal/Superman. It's good to see he can be good hearted and idealistic and wanting to do the best he can still with limitations etc without coming across naive, whiny, vanilla, preachy and not very smart. Fans had to tolerate way too much of a reactive, dim, holier than thou Superman ( who frankly had no reason to be whiny if you think about it) last canon from writers who complained he was tough to write and churned out mediocre stories.

Was that the way Superman was in Up, Up, and Away? Even Clark in Smallville's "Odyssey" went to rescue Chloe from a secret facility holding metahumans called Black Creek with his powers MIA. He tells Oliver, "With or without my powers, I'm not gonna let my friend rot in a LuthorCorp prison." It's okay to praise something without putting down something else.

I'm interested to see Yang tackle the immigrant aspect as well. The world has changed and this is not the 90ties. Here is a modern Superman keeping the attributes that make the character who he is but makes him feel up to date for newer readers to jump on board and enjoy him.

What does this even mean? What was the world or society's outlook on immigration and immigrants in the nineties? And, if Superman was being written for nineties society in the nineties, doesn't it stand to reason he was in line with the "modern" mindset at that time? In other words, I don't understand what you're saying when you use so many generalizations. Can you clarify, so I can appreciate your perspective better?

[RobinFan4880]

I thought the issue was ok, good not great. Some interesting ideas that I hope get explored and not just mentioned and dropped, like some of the consequences of his actions as Superman.

Stuff I didn't care for, the over the top "this is what being human is like!" stuff like eating or talking about the cold weather. Superman has lost his powers before. His new power takes his powers away for 24 hours. So eating and feeling the weather really aren't that new for him. So playing it up like this is already getting old. Lee Lambert didn't do it for me either. In her short appearance, she completely flip flops in her views on Superman. We go from "thank you for making a difference in everyone's lives and making things better for all of us!" to "your an alien that scares people so don't do anything ever again!" in the course of a panel. So it felt like a really forced conflict that didn't develop naturally in the story.

Stuff I liked, Kentville was pretty fun. I like some of his neighbors showing their support for a guy they got to know as part of the neighborhood. I also really like that he's determined to still do things the Superman way, like helping the police he feels he put in danger. Charging off into danger so that others don't have to risk their safety was very cool. The police moving in on Kentville was a pretty tense cliffhanger too. I can't wait to see how that plays out.

So for me, it was a mix of good and bad. The good stuff was the new ideas and Superman's attitude. The bad stuff was falling back on some of the tropes that have been overused, particularly lately. Now, let's see what Yang and Tomasi have to offer.

We haven't seen de-powered Clark in this continuity where he can just enjoy a hotdog and the rain. It is a new experience for him.

[GregoryD]

We haven't seen de-powered Clark in this continuity where he can just enjoy a hotdog and the rain. It is a new experience for him.

I'm willing to give this a shot, but his characterization has been BAD so far. First, he behaves like an idiot. He's BEEN at this power level before, doing the things he's doing. He acts like he's never had any sort of training in his life. He acts like he doesn't really have any sort of intelligence, when Morrison and post-Morrison writers explicitly highlighted his genius-level intellect. This is just another writer who just doesn't understand the character. He's not a big, stupid missile that you point at things, using luck when he gets overwhelmed.

[Auguste Dupin]

I'm willing to give this a shot, but his characterization has been BAD so far. First, he behaves like an idiot. He's BEEN at this power level before, doing the things he's doing. He acts like he's never had any sort of training in his life. He acts like he doesn't really have any sort of intelligence, when Morrison and post-Morrison writers explicitly highlighted his genius-level intellect. This is just another writer who just doesn't understand the character. He's not a big, stupid missile that you point at things, using luck when he gets overwhelmed.

Huh...What are you talking about?