"Super"man
I have always hated Superman. In middle school, I went through a comic book phase. I still love comics and the movies and the characters, but the books got too expensive to continue my hobby. Primarily, I read The Amazing Spider-Man. Like the old school original Stan Lee and Steve Ditko 60's Spider-Man comics. I am a Marvel girl. I love Marvel. Marvel is better than DC, I think we all know that. Therefore, I never really read Superman. I have only read one Superman issue in my entire life and it was the worst thing I have ever experienced. I have also seen one Superman movie, which was the second worst thing I have ever experienced. I hated Superman for a few reasons:
1. He has no weakness (that humans can easily attain).
2. He can reverse time, so if he ever messes up, all he has to do is fly around the earth a few times and try again.
3. His disguise is a pair of glasses.
Superman is TOO good. It is beyond frustrating. The reason I love Spider-Man is because he does not always win. He has help when stuff gets really bad, and The Avengers and the Fantastic Four are constantly cleaning up after his mistakes. But Superman just always wins. It's like one guy wrote all of the villains first and then other guy went in and just kept randomly making other powers for Superman to have to beat all of the villains. Spider-Man has weaknesses. He is a humanized super hero that makes you question whether or not you also have powers. Superman is some stupid extraterrestrial being with literally any power ever created. Humans have guns? He is bullet proof. Humans discovered fire? Good thing Superman can exhale the arctic tundra. O my gosh! Humans can fly on planes?? Superman can fly on his own. Big metal door blocking Superman? No problem! He can either burn it, see through it, or use his mega strength to get through it.
I started this to get to my point that I do not hate him anymore, but after writing all of my cons for him, I am starting to forget my newfound pros.
I go on my explore page of Instagram whenever I poop. Which, now that I have been on an antibiotic for like twenty days, is quite frequently. On the explore page, I came across a fan account for the show Supergirl. I figured, why not? And I gave the show a whirl. It is, of course, horrible. It is cheesy and weird and not very good acting. The fighting sequences are awkward and confusing. And yet, here I am, on episode three with no intent of stopping. And I have discovered some really cool things about Superman, profound meanings that I had always overlooked before.
1. It is cheesy, I know, but Superman does have one weakness that humans can attain: love. All good stories have a coinciding love story. You may not be able to relate to flying around the city and beating people up, but you can certainly relate to Clark and Lois falling in love. I kinda like the metaphor here. Every human's weakness is love. All humans (yknow besides sociopaths) have compassion for other humans. We may not always hold the door open for each other, but I like to think that we would all stand in solidarity together against bigger issues threatening us. If there were a shooting, no one is going to leave alone. You try to help as many people as you possibly can. Humans are so cute and nice and loving. We would all do anything for love, but we may not do anything for any other thing in life.
2. Being able to reverse time is a nice little metaphor for us humans having the ability to make things better. People often say, "I wish I could start over and make things better this time." Well, gosh darnit, you can. Just get out there and try again. We do not need to actually reverse the spinning of earth in order to get a second chance. Humans have made a lot of mistakes. Personally, and on the larger scale. We have all messed up a relationship. And we have all contributed to the harm of our mother earth. But, that does not mean that we should give up. It means that we should reverse the spinning of earth and try to fix our mistakes. Some scientist is gonna read this and try to reverse the spinning of earth in hopes of fixing climate change.
3. Lastly, the stupid glasses. The glasses are such a beautiful symbol, I do not know how I ever missed the meaning before. No one expects a hero to live among us humans in harmony. All it takes is a pair of glasses to disguise a hero because no human believes in such things. This is such an incredibly harsh critique of society. That we have no faith in our peers. That we do not see each other as capable of such amazing feats. But maybe it also is a compliment to humans, as none of us are looking for heroes. Maybe it is a sign of independence and human strength. We do not need an alien in a cape to protect us, we have ourselves.
Just some thoughts. I still hate Superman, but I respect him now.
1. He has no weakness (that humans can easily attain).
2. He can reverse time, so if he ever messes up, all he has to do is fly around the earth a few times and try again.
3. His disguise is a pair of glasses.
Superman is TOO good. It is beyond frustrating. The reason I love Spider-Man is because he does not always win. He has help when stuff gets really bad, and The Avengers and the Fantastic Four are constantly cleaning up after his mistakes. But Superman just always wins. It's like one guy wrote all of the villains first and then other guy went in and just kept randomly making other powers for Superman to have to beat all of the villains. Spider-Man has weaknesses. He is a humanized super hero that makes you question whether or not you also have powers. Superman is some stupid extraterrestrial being with literally any power ever created. Humans have guns? He is bullet proof. Humans discovered fire? Good thing Superman can exhale the arctic tundra. O my gosh! Humans can fly on planes?? Superman can fly on his own. Big metal door blocking Superman? No problem! He can either burn it, see through it, or use his mega strength to get through it.
I started this to get to my point that I do not hate him anymore, but after writing all of my cons for him, I am starting to forget my newfound pros.
I go on my explore page of Instagram whenever I poop. Which, now that I have been on an antibiotic for like twenty days, is quite frequently. On the explore page, I came across a fan account for the show Supergirl. I figured, why not? And I gave the show a whirl. It is, of course, horrible. It is cheesy and weird and not very good acting. The fighting sequences are awkward and confusing. And yet, here I am, on episode three with no intent of stopping. And I have discovered some really cool things about Superman, profound meanings that I had always overlooked before.
1. It is cheesy, I know, but Superman does have one weakness that humans can attain: love. All good stories have a coinciding love story. You may not be able to relate to flying around the city and beating people up, but you can certainly relate to Clark and Lois falling in love. I kinda like the metaphor here. Every human's weakness is love. All humans (yknow besides sociopaths) have compassion for other humans. We may not always hold the door open for each other, but I like to think that we would all stand in solidarity together against bigger issues threatening us. If there were a shooting, no one is going to leave alone. You try to help as many people as you possibly can. Humans are so cute and nice and loving. We would all do anything for love, but we may not do anything for any other thing in life.
2. Being able to reverse time is a nice little metaphor for us humans having the ability to make things better. People often say, "I wish I could start over and make things better this time." Well, gosh darnit, you can. Just get out there and try again. We do not need to actually reverse the spinning of earth in order to get a second chance. Humans have made a lot of mistakes. Personally, and on the larger scale. We have all messed up a relationship. And we have all contributed to the harm of our mother earth. But, that does not mean that we should give up. It means that we should reverse the spinning of earth and try to fix our mistakes. Some scientist is gonna read this and try to reverse the spinning of earth in hopes of fixing climate change.
3. Lastly, the stupid glasses. The glasses are such a beautiful symbol, I do not know how I ever missed the meaning before. No one expects a hero to live among us humans in harmony. All it takes is a pair of glasses to disguise a hero because no human believes in such things. This is such an incredibly harsh critique of society. That we have no faith in our peers. That we do not see each other as capable of such amazing feats. But maybe it also is a compliment to humans, as none of us are looking for heroes. Maybe it is a sign of independence and human strength. We do not need an alien in a cape to protect us, we have ourselves.
Just some thoughts. I still hate Superman, but I respect him now.
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