Good guys rarely have ethical dilemmas, they always know right from wrong. The only time they do have a dilemma is when its between two goods or two bads. In Superman 1, Supes had to choose between saving the west coast and saving Lois, his dilemma. I think this gets boring and unrealistic after a while. And it goes back much farther than comics, the Lone Ranger was exactly this kind of hero. Its actually one of the things that John Ford and Sam Peckinpah did for westerns, they brought in the anti-hero. Clint Eastwood turned this into a career. But don’t take that as some kind of indictment; I love the issues raised in these later westerns. I could talk for hours about them.

But back to comics. I can think of only one DC comic that I actually collected, with the exception of Batman and of those it was mostly The Dark Knight Returns series. Why? I think its because he constantly struggled between the good and the bad; somtimes doing good by being bad and sometimes doing bad by being good. Marvel Characters were always much better at that. The one DC that I collected was Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). To be honest, I still like the concept of this character, his power comes externally from the ring, but its usefulness is limited to his imagination and his strength of will. That is a really neat part of the character, a strong will. Ignore for a moment that, philosophically, I am relatively uncertain what the hell a “will” is, Hal Jordan was a super heroe because of the strength of this will, the ring just made it possible for him to fly. I bet you could write a series of stories with Hal as a heroe but without the super part. Like a true “what if Guy had gotten the ring” story (maybe they already have, I stopped reading before Hal went insane and became a force of nature).

But, for all that I liked Hal, he never had the interesting dichotomy of Silver Surfer or Namor. Namor especially went back and forth from being a good guy and being a bad guy. I want them to make the movie with him so badly and I am so afraid that they are going to completely and utterly screw him up.

It is the struggle that I think is interesting; the drive for good but the lure towards bad. Marvel has just been better at that, I think. Granted there are folks more well versed on comics than I who might be able to point out all the ways that I have overlooked stuff.

Some addendum stuff: 1. This issue is why I like the new Spiderman movies so much, I think Raimi really understands the heroe problem; it may be corny but the “with great power comes great responsibility” line was taken seriously in the creation of those movies. 2. Its why I have never gotten into comics like The Punisher and Ghostrider. Those characters are about vengence, the issue of right and wrong and the roles we need to play in order to achieve justice are never really an issue. Someone has done wrong, now wrong will be visited upon them. I think its more boring than guys who always know what is right.

So, in closing, I think I completely agree with you except that I think characters like superman are too one dimensional. So, in a sense, I don’t agree with you at all.

OK, I’ll shut up now.

And no, I cannot spell “perifireal”.

And speaking of needing to read some comics:

This Spider-Man comic strip has a problem. Can you spot it? It’s not the fact that he is so much shorter than everyone else…not that his costume’s webbing is a little off…not that the perspective in each of the panels is nigh-on redonkulous. No. It’s the fact that a 7 foot, 350lb giant chauffeur just snuck up on Spider-Man and knocked him out cold with a lead pipe! Hello?! What the fuck happened to Spider-sense?! Or his ears and perifireal vision? God almighty! You could’ve had Stevie Wonder in that Spider-Man costume and he would’ve known Col. Mustard was “sneaking” up behind him!! I mean, the whole point of “Spider-sense” is that you can’t sneak up on him. He knows when branches are about to fall from trees or when someone is going to wreck their bike…and he can’t hear the linebacker comin with the pipe? That’s sad. It’s even more sad that I’m so pissed about it. Bleh.

Damn, now my geek-sense is tingling.

I totally agree with your analysis of Lois Lane…which is why I always preferred Lana Lang, she was in love with Clark and then later found out about the Superman connection. Lois was just an unattractive, aloof bitch who completely dismisses Clark and only gets off on the guy who can fly.

I didn’t like the Superkid angle because that meant that Superman and Lois were having sex right up until he left for Krypton. And he just bailed? Superman? No “See ya later”? Nothing? Please. And I’m not sure I buy that he would sleep with her and not reveal that he was Clark.

The effects look nice in the trailers, but I’m glad I didn’t see it in the theaters. I think I’d rather watch the Justice League Unlimited TV show.

I always liked that Superman was the “boy scout.” He was the unwavering good guy. He would play by the rules always and never tell a lie. Contrary to Batman who had no problem breaking certain rules, told lies now and then, but still had a strict moral code that he didn’t violate.

It’s like the writers decided to make him more real. “Nobody would act like that.” Well, that’s the point. He’s better than normal people. He doesn’t allow himself to do things like that. He holds himself to a higher standard than most. I mean, seriously, there’s a huge Jesus allegory with Superman. Sent to Earth by his wise and powerful father to save mankind from itself…raised by surrogate parents…both man (Clark) and god (Supes) in one person…of the highest moral fiber…willing to sacrifice himself to save others. I mean, is that the kind of guy who is going to be chasing a married woman? (I agree that she is as good as married to Richard White.)

The book also had a big subplot about Mrs. Kent (the widow) being in a relationship with a guy from Smallville and planning to sell the farm and move to Montana…all of which is revealed to Superman the morning he returns to Earth.

I don’t know. I guess the guys making the films didn’t really like Superman and wanted to change it all up. But, if that’s how they felt then why not make a movie about a diff characater? What about Green Arrow? I’m sure he’d have no problem hitting on a married woman who he skipped out on years earlier…in fact, that sounds JUST LIKE a green arrow story.

Bleh, I’m glad i didn’t see it. And don’t worry, you were 100% in the right on that one. I would expect nothing less from you than to argue to the end, and hopefully with large doses of condescending laughter.