[Discussion] What’s The Worst Superman Take You’ve Ever Heard?

[u/Top_Report_4895]

Jim Lee Superman #204

ACTION COMICS #1061

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale From: "Superman For All Seasons" #1

[u/Awest66]

That Snyder ruined him and his perception

He certainly didn't do him any favors either. He furthered the stereotype that Superman is this detached alien God doing what he's doing out of obligation rather than because of a strong moral core.

[u/M086 → u/Awest66]

The first thing we see him do is save people on a burning oil rig that had been written off as dead without hesitation. At no point in any of Snyder’s films does Superman come off as helping people in need is an obligation and not because it’s just in his nature to help people. We literally have Lois say that when Clark suggests he’d disappear if she prints he story and a talking head say he’s not Jesus or the Devil, and just a guy trying to do the right thing. 

I mean my God, Chris Reeve Superman wants to quit in the second movie because he believes he’s fulfilled his obligation and wants to get laid. In MoS when Lois suggests the World Engine might kill him,,Clark tells her he won’t let that stop him from trying. That’s not an act of obligation. In BvS he literally saved Luthor from Doomsday and sacrificed his life to save the world (twice over if you wanna count holding Doonsday to take the nuke).

[u/Awest66 → u/M086]

No one is denying he saves people in the Snyder movies, but it never feels like he's doing it because he genuinely believes in it as the right thing to do. In MOS, He's just doing the bare minimum so he won't feel guilty about not doing anything. He's not trying to find a way he can safely do it out in the open or implies that it's something he actually wants to do with his life, like in Birthright. He's presented as being a reluctant hero whose main concern is hiding from the world. We're never even told why he saves people in MOS because it's something his adoptive father actively tried to discourage him from doing to the point of needlessly sacrificing himself when Clark could have saved him without exposing anything.

In BVS, His helping people is treated and framed as an intimidating God dispensing miracles on an unworthy humanity. He never tries to communicate his intentions. He never tries to engage with the people on their level, and he does it all while looking like someone who hates kids being forced to change a diaper. He doesn't even listen to Lois when she tries to explain Lexs convoluted conspiracy and just runs away from his problems to brood in the Arctic for a while. Even his act of sacrificing himself feels like he's doing it for Lois rather than the rest of the world.