Is Superman dead? Are we responsible?

Superman is dead, and we killed him.

I read that title the other day, and I don’t have a link, so if anyone has it, I will post it here. The title got me thinking, and the article was even more interesting. The idea goes like this; Superman, the big, blue Boy Scout that stands for truth, justice and the American way can never be appreciated anymore. The world needs imperfection, it needs its dark place, and Batman, with all his flaws, his mortality and scarred psyche is a better fit with today’s America, leaving Superman out in the cold.

There is some interesting support to this hypothesis, and that is the same support for any argument in the movie business, the Benjamins. Superman comics have seen a considerable downturn from the days of yore, along with Marvels alternative, Captain America seeing the death of that character sometime ago. Also, the article credits the poor box office showing of Superman Returns to this hypothesis. Meanwhile, characters like Wolverine and Batman have both seen their renaissance and have shown massive popularity with their movies and comic sales soaring. Reports on the third Batman run rampant, and the second Wolverine movie, despite poor critical reviews is in pre-production already, so there maybe something to this.

Let me address the movie, Superman Returns, a movie that had many flaws. I agree the Superman in that movie has clearly lost his edge, I mean he was nearly killed by a mortal Lex Luthor and his thugs. The movie was panned for showing a lack of creativity and looking like a Richard Donnor remake. The other main critique in the movie was the lack of action, replaced by an increase in stalker-ness (not a word?). Execs seem to think the new Superman needs to be darker, like the Dark Knight, which set all kinds of records at the box office.

The problem here, in my opinion was three-fold. First off, the script was absolutely terrible, with the story being poorly thought out and kinda silly. The second was the direction; a lack of action and a very whiney Superman makes for a boring film. Thirdly, Superman had a very un-original villain in Lex Luthor. While Kevin Spacey played a great Luthor, we have seen him as a lead villain in nearly all Superman movies, and in this movie, his scheme was less than brilliant, I mean, he wanted real estate! I think, without a worthy challenge, Superman can never show his true worth. Dark Knight on the other hand, had two amazing villains in the infamous Joker, and an incredible two-face; while the movie excelled at not making a whiney Batman and focusing more on a bad-ass Batman, and showed it with the amazing amount of action.

Now, with the reason why the movie tanked being more about execution, and less about American values, the core idea is still valid, in my opinion. I do believe the days of the blue Boy Scout become increasingly numbered. Smallville is still going after 8 seasons, but mainly because of the flaws of Clark Kent and the ability to bring forth some great bad guys. I do believe society enjoys the flaws of the hero more than the strengths. As Willem Defoe’s Green Goblin said “the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying” and while that isn’t always true, I do agree we like to see our hero’s fight through adversity and overcome their inner demons. What kind of inner demons and obstacles can a superman really have? If there are any, we haven’t seen them yet in movie form.

So, either Superman gets a raspy voice, a scarred psyche and a really great villain, or we can say goodbye to a hero that was an icon, and has now fallen to something left for tales from the days of yore.